William Shatner issues emotional plea to fans as he celebrates 95th birthday

Legendary Star Trek actor William Shatner has shared an emotional plea on his birthday, asking members of the public to take action on an issue close to his heart 'before it's too late'.

His bold public service announcement on Sunday (March 22) was a call to arms for animal lovers everywhere, with the 95-year-old actor using his birthday, as he usually does, to highlight the plight of the creatures we share our world with.

Shatner has, this year, partnered with animal rights charity PETA to plead with people around the world to take action on climate change and the ecocide that has driven thousands of species to the brink of extinction over the past century.

In his birthday message, Shatner said that 'PETA is terrific' and denounced the factors killing species off, saying: "The animals that took millions of years, in some cases, billions of years, to evolve and be part of the environment, they’re dying because of man."

Shatner continued: "It’s tragic. This beautiful planet that is so gorgeous and so interconnected, we’re killing it, and we have a chance to stop that."

The video ends with a simple statement from PETA, saying: "Please go vegan. Every animal is someone."

Separately, Shatner shared two pieces of advice in an Instagram post to mark his birthday, sharing two pictures showing the nonegenarian smoking a cigar in a picturesque location. He captioned the photo with - 'At 95, I'm still smokin'!'

Shatner also offered two key pieces of advice after making it to such a grand old age.

His first piece of advice, obvious from the stogie he was smoking, was simple, 'never waste a good cigar'. Which will be of little surprise to those who watched his award-winning role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal, who ended every episode with liquor and a fat cigar.

William Shatner was 90 years old when he flew into space with Blue Origin (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Shatner's second pearl of wisdom was to not let yourself be restricted by a number as arbitrary as your age. He said: "Never trust anyone who says you should ‘act your age.’"

This advice is evident from Shatner's continued and exuberant embrace of life in his golden years, with the actor taking on new gigs like traveling the world with celebrities for NBC's Better Late Than Never (2016-2018), and starring in the romcom Senior Moment (2021).

A year later in 2022, Shatner would shatter a glass ceiling we did not even know existed, becoming the oldest person to ever go into space after joining billionaire Jeff Bezos on a groundbreaking Blue Origin spaceflight.

And if that wasn't enough for James T. Kirk, the 95-year-old actor is also expected to release his first heavy metal album later this year, replete with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden covers.