Florida Man Seeks $170M From His 'Dad,' William Shatner

He's suing for a DNA test
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 29, 2016 5:20 PM CDT
Florida Man Seeks $170M From His 'Dad,' William Shatner
Actor William Shatner attends the 2015 Voice Arts Awards held at the Pacific Design Center on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in West Hollywood, Calif.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

A man who has been claiming to be the illegitimate son of William Shatner for three decades now says it's time for dear-old dad to pay up. The Tampa Tribune reports 59-year-old Florida resident Peter Sloan recently filed a lawsuit to force Shatner to stop denying his paternity, take a DNA test, and pay him $170 million in damages for defamation, libel, slander, and more. “There has been a pattern of behavior that makes me look like I am lying, and I won’t stand for that anymore," Sloan says. "I am tired of being called a fraud by his people and him.” Sloan claims his mother hooked up with Shatner in Toronto while they were starring in the Canadian version of Howdy Doody. He says he was adopted and only learned of his famous parentage when he reconnected with his birth mother in the 1980s.

Sloan claims Shatner actually admitted to being his father in 1984 during a meeting on the set of TJ Hooker, TMZ reports. Shatner denies it, and Sloan has no proof the meeting ever happened. In 2011, Sloan started using the name Peter Shatner online and for a radio show he hosts, leading to allegations from Shatner's camp—which points out that "many people over the years…have claimed to be his children"—that Sloan is just after some easy fame and money, according to the New York Post. But Sloan says it's not about the money, he just wants to bond with his dad. “I am William Shatner’s son, and I just wish he would acknowledge me," he tells the Post. And lest you think Sloan's lawsuit isn't serious, he's representing himself. (More William Shatner stories.)

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