Mr Spock of ‘Star Trek’
LEONARD Nimoy, who has died aged 83, was an obscure character actor in films and on television before achieving celebrity as the logical, emotionless alien Mr Spock in the 1960s television series Star Trek.
Nimoy redefined the character from the minor one envisaged at the show’s conception into the most memorable. When Paramount studios made the mistake of allowing Spock to be killed off at the end of its second feature film spin-off, Star Trek II, public demonstrations demanded his return. Paramount’s stock fell on Wall Street until the third film in the canon, The Search for Spock, was completed and the character was “regenerated”. Another six films followed.
When Nimoy visited the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, he was astounded when Nasa astronauts asked for his autograph before he could ask for theirs.
Nimoy himself was the opposite of the unfeeling, imperturbable Spock. Humorous and emotional, he wrote romantic poetry, and published several volumes of verse, includingWill I Think of You? (1974), We are all Children Searching for Love (1977) and Warmed by Love (1983). He was also an enthusiastic participant in ’60s “love-ins”, gatherings where hippies came to relax and, more often than not, make love. “It wasn’t quite group sex,” he recalled, “but there was a lot of embracing.”
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 26 1931, the son of a Jewish barber from the Ukraine, where the Russian word “nimoy” or “nemoi” means “mute”. His father was opposed to an acting career; he wanted his son to be a lawyer. But Leonard was determined
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: Leonard Nimoy to act. His boyhood film heroes included the British stars Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein’s monster) and Charles Laughton (as Quasimodo), and in 1950 he made his acting debut with a Yiddish theatre company.
Stardom came in 1966 when he appeared in Star Trek. Originally the role of Science Officer Spock was a background one, an exotic half-Earthling, half-Vulcan crew member aboard the US Starship Enterprise during its 23rd-century galactic odyssey of exploration “to boldly go where no man has gone before”.
When Star Trek ended in 1969, Nimoy was glad to be free of the Vulcan. “I owe a lot to Spock,” he said later, “but I don’t want to be playing an emotionless character forever.”
Desperate to avoid typecasting, Nimoy published an autobiography, I Am Not Spock, in 1975, and appeared in leading roles in a series of hit musicals, such as My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Fiddler on the Roof.
When offered the Spock part in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Nimoy was unenthusiastic. “Those ears were so painful to wear,” recalled William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk. “They were glued to the back of his head and he’s got the scars to prove it.”
Following the death of Spock in Star Trek II, Nimoy was disinclined to return for further appearances as Spock. Eventually he did agree, but on condition he be allowed to direct the third film. Critics said Star Trek III was “subdued”, but “in keeping with the tone of the original series”.
His second attempt at directing was more assured. In Star Trek IV, Nimoy led the crew of the Enterprise on what one reviewer called “a sharp turn towards comedy”. Contrary to the received Hollywood wisdom that sequels do less well than the original, Star Trek IV was a bigger hit than the first in the series.
“Six years after having completed the role, I am still affected by the character of Spock,” Nimoy noted in his 1975 autobiography. “Of course, the role changed my career. Or rather, gave me one . . . It also affected me very deeply and personally, socially, psychologically, emotionally. To this day I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes, and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behaviour.”
Nimoy published a second volume of memoirs, I Am Spock, in 1995, but it was 2001 before he revealed that while making the original Star Trek television series, he had become an alcoholic and received treatment for it.
In 1989 he was acrimoniously divorced from Sandi Zober, his wife of 32 years. She demanded a multimillion-dollar settlement but Nimoy claimed that he had made his millions on Star Trek IV, released after their separation. Zober died in 2011.
Nimoy married again, in 1990. Susan Bay, a film executive 20 years his junior, survives him with the son and daughter of his first marriage. — © The Daily Telegraph, London
To this day I sense Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behaviour