Shatner's Fallout With Kelley

William Shatner and DeFOREST KELLEY didn't speak to each other for two years on the set of their cult series STAR TREK - because Shatner laughed at Kelley's dog's death.

The pair had a civil working relationship right up until the day the late Kelley walked into the studio with his bad news.

Shatner recalls, "I wanted to be his friend. He got angry easily.

"He walked his dog every morning and he came in one morning to the make-up room and he was crying. I said, 'What happened?' He said, 'My dog is dead... I was walking my little Chihuahua and she got off the leash and she started running around in the grass and hit a sprinkler head and dropped dead.'

"(I laughed) and he didn't talk to me for two years."

But decades later, Shatner still finds the tragic incident amusing, adding, "I think Dobermans are a dog. A Chihuahua is a rat!"