Today it was announced that veteran actor Leonard Nimoy had passed away due to end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a diagnosis that he announced last year. Intelligent, cerebral and loyal, Nimoy was best known for playing Mr. Spock in the cult classic television series and film franchise “Star Trek.” Not only was he an actor of note, but a poet, photographer and a musician as well. Most recently, Leonard Nimoy appeared as an older version of Spock in Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013.
Born in Boston on March 26, 1931, the second son of Max and Dora Nimoy, Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants, Leonard Nimoy began acting in local productions at the age of 8 and made his film debut in Queen for a Day in 1951
In addition to his role as Spock, Nimoy frequently accepted roles in science fiction works like Zombies of the Stratosphere and The Twilight Zone, among many others. He also directed and helped write two Star Trek Movies (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) later in his career.
During a 2014 story published in the Las Vegas Sun it was revealed that Nimoy fought for equal pay for actress Nichelle Nichols, the woman who played Lieutenant Uhuru on series and in several Star Trek films.
The four time Emmy Award winner also narrated the television show Ancient Mysteries from 1995 to 2003 on the History Channel.
To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior, Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.
Given the choice, he wrote, if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.
He was quite literally a man full of character and substance. Leonard Nimoy was 83-years-old at the time of his death.
