Christopher Whitelaw Pine

LA Times: 10 things you don't know about ‘Star Trek's Chris Pine
10.) His first acting job was on “E.R.” He played a drunk patient named Levine, whose only lines were “I got drunk at a Valentine’s Day party. It was a blow-out. It was icky.” (Don’t believe us, check it out for yourself.)

09.) Pine is third-generation show biz. His father, Robert Pine, played Sgt. Joseph Getraer on the 1970s cop show “CHiPS,” and his mother, Gwynne Gilford, starred in the sci-fi film “Masters of the Universe.” His grandparents on his mother’s side, Max M. Gilford and Anne Gwynne, were an entertainment lawyer and “leading lady” who starred in more than 60 films, respectively.

08.) Lindsay Lohan, his costar in the 2006 romantic-comedy flop “Just My Luck,” once said “Chris was a good kisser. But he tried to bite me once!” Pine returned the compliment, saying Lohan had “big, soft lips. … Big lips are the key,” but he denied the biting in Parade Magazine.

07.) In 2007, Pine starred opposite Scott Wolf in the L.A. production of “Fat Pig,” Neil LaBute’s provocative play about the romance between a good-looking guy (Wolf) and an overweight girl. Pine won raves for his portrayal of Carter, Tom’s competitive, alpha-male friend.

06.) Pine has a degree in English from UC Berkeley and later studied acting at the University of Leeds in England and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Compiled by Denise Martin.

People: Five Things You Didn’t Know About Star Trek’s Chris Pine
Chris Pine’s career is poised to take off at warp speed as he assumes the iconic role of Capt. James T. Kirk in the re-launch of Star Trek. Pine, 29, filed a captain’s log with PEOPLE, revealing five things you may not know about the Enterprise’s rising star:

His father, actor Robert Pine, played Sgt. Getraer – Erik Estrada’s boss on CHiPs: "I learned that life is not always wine and roses. As a working actor, there are the fouler times. Then there are those times that are really great. It’s just a matter of keeping a head on your shoulders, keeping a sense of humor, and looking ahead."

He discovered hooking up with green alien girls isn’t as sexy as it may seem: "That poor girl, Rachel Nichols, was in the makeup chair for two hours getting painted, so there was a lot of green paint on my nose after many a take. It wasn’t as fun as it looked. It was a long day and, yes, the makeup proved to kill any buzz that I might have gotten otherwise."

His grandmother is a big William Shatner fan: “She watched T.J. Hooker every time she babysat me. Inevitably there would be some old rerun of Star Trek, but I was not a fan by any means – just via my grandmother by proxy. I was more of a Star Wars kid." Dad recently worked with the original Captain Kirk. “He actually did a Priceline commercial with him. Shatner was a chauffer and my dad was the rich guy in the back."

He met Shatner for the first time at his charity horse show on April 25: "I did not want to make it about any kind of big meeting between the two Kirks. I wanted to support him and shake hands with him finally. I hope to get a chance to really sit down with him sometime, one-on-one. It would be a lot of fun … In my mind, Capt. Kirk will always be William Shatner, and William Shatner will always be Capt. Kirk."

He learned stuntmen have a way of dealing with actors who miss their marks: "On my first day of shooting I ended up breaking a stunt guy’s nose on the second take. A word of caution to any young actor out there: Do NOT hurt stuntmen because they will pay you back in kind. The next take after that, this big stunt guy kicked me in the stomach. He said it wasn’t on purpose, but I don’t know."