'Star Trek' icon Leonard Nimoy dies at age 83
Leonard Nimoy played scores of roles in a showbiz career which lasted more than six decades.
But with his death on Friday at his Bel Air home at age 83, according to his wife Susan Bay Nimoy, he will be remembered and loved as a character known simply as Spock.
With his stark bowl haircut, the famous Vulcan hand gesture (which Nimoy developed) and the phrase "Live long and prosper," Nimoy's Mr. Spock earned a place in the American psyche that will live on.
The half-human, half-Vulcan Spock would define the culture-changing science fiction franchise Star Trek as powerfully as the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, James T. Kirk (leading man William Shatner). Nimoy would portray the character in the original TV series, animated series, comic books and eight Star Trek feature films.
"Spock is even more representative of the show because he was so unique. So incredibly singular," says George Takei who played helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the TV series. "And that character was really (Nimoy's) creation. None of us had pointy ears or those eyebrows that would shoot up like that. We all got used to seeing those ears."
Ironically, it took much persuasion for Nimoy to agree to put the ears on, and years to accept the success of the character once it became a worldwide phenomenon.
When first approached to appear in Gene Roddenberry's NBC science fiction program Star Trek, Nimoy was on the rise in Hollywood, garnering parts in TV staples such as Bonanza and Perry Mason. He balked.
"I hesitated. I took my work seriously. Did I really want to put on those pointed ears?" Nimoy recalled during a commencement address at Boston University in 2012.
Eventually, he took the part. And playing the sole alien aboard a starship of humans was inspired casting for a man born to Yiddish-speaking Russian Orthodox Jewish immigrants in Boston's West End in 1931. Nimoy was used to feeling like the outsider.
Nimoy would be nominated for three Emmy Awards during the show's three-year run on NBC. Even after the original series ended in 1969 with faltering ratings, Spock and the rest of the Star Fleet crew would grow even more famous in prolific syndication.
"The impact on my life was intense, I had to deal with celebrity," Nimoy said in 2012.
Nimoy was one of the few cast members who immediately found an abundance of work after the show's cancelation — including in TV's popular Mission: Impossible and in 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers film. But he could not shake Spock. Nimoy would be convinced to return in a series of Star Trek movies, which began with 1979'sStar Trek: The Motion Picture.
His famous character seemed to come to an end, gloriously, in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,in a death scene that emphasized the friendship between Spock and Kirk — a relationship mirrored off-screen between longtime friends Nimoy and Shatner.
"After Spock died, I thought, 'Well, that takes care of that.' And it certainly didn't," Nimoy told USA TODAY in 2009. "I can't ever say 'never' again. Star Trek and Spock have gone through a lot of resurrections."
Paramount Pictures found a way to bring Spock back to life as executives insisted on a new film. Nimoy agreed to come back — but only if he could direct 1984's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Nimoy would continue a successful directing career with Ted Danson and Tom Selleck in 1987'sThree Men and a Baby, the highest-grossing film of the year.
Nimoy addressed the struggle of living with the Spock persona in his autobiography I Am Not Spock in 1975 — a title he would later call "a mistake." He made up for it with his next autobiography, I Am Spock in 1995.
Spock eventually took over every part of his life. Nimoy attended hundreds of Star Trek fan events to sign autographs and meet with lifelong followers, many who wore their own versions of the memorable Spock ears.
"I admire him, I like him and I respect him. I would rather be identified with Spock than any other character on television," Nimoy said in 2012.
But he "paid his respects to smoking and booze" coming to terms with celebrity and the character. While he stopped drinking more than 25 years ago, he acknowledged that smoking had a lasting effect on his lungs.
"I smoked a lot of cigarettes. And all that ever came from it was to send some tobacco grower's kid through college and what I got was a pair of beat up lungs," he told Boston University students. "Respect your body."
In January 2014, Nimoy was seen looking frail, being pushed in a wheelchair through Los Angeles Airport with an oxygen tank attached.
He explained on Twitter that he had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. "I quit smoking 30 years ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!!" he tweeted after the incident.
Nimoy was happy to retire and work with his life-long love of photography in what he termed in 2009 was his "creative outlet for the last 17 or 18 years." He and his wife of 26 years, Susan Bay Nimoy, collected contemporary art and were on the board of overseers of the Hammer Museum in Westwood, Calif.
But intriguing projects would bring him back to work, such as a guest role on J.J. Abrams' television series Fringe — "it's intriguing, it's sporadic involvement and not the grind of a TV series, so I decided to go ahead and do it," he told USA TODAY.
He also appeared in Abrams' updated movie versions of Star Trek, the only original member of the cast to be asked to join the 2009 franchise reboot.
"They had an appreciation of the Spock character, who I felt had been somewhat neglected for some time," said Nimoy in 2009. "These guys really had a very strong feeling they'd like to work with the character again in a very creative way."
Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) were box-office hits — he appeared alongside Zachary Quinto, who played a younger version of Spock.
Nimoy was happy to pass on the character to Quinto and spoke at length to the actor about playing the part. But even to fans of the new series, Nimoy would continue to be Prime Spock, as he was referred to in the films.
"I feel a sense of ownership," Nimoy said in 2009, "in the same way a grandfather feels about his grandchildren. I have a blood connection."
Contributing: Bill Keveney