BITTER WAR OVER UHURA’S LEGACY
Star Trek legend Nichelle’s son & ex-manager going to court
STAR Trek icon Nichelle Nichols died heartbroken in remote New Mexico — far from her beloved California home — as her son Kyle Johnson and ex-manager Gilbert Bell continued their ferocious four-year battle over her $10 million fortune.
The groundbreaking actress, killed by heart failure at 89, was TV’s first Black female sex symbol, playing Lt. Uhura on the iconic 1960s sci-fi series. She shared a historic interracial kiss with her skipper, Capt. Kirk, played by William Shatner, in a landmark episode.
Nichelle, who died in Silver City on July 31, spent the last years in a conservatorship controlled by her 71-year-old son, who “sold her house right out from under her” for $2.2 million, charges Bell.
One of Nichelle’s friends tells GLOBE: “She wanted to die in her home in Woodland Hills, not in New Mexico, where she didn’t know a soul except for her son.”
Bell is suing Johnson and Nichols’ estate for unpaid management fees. But Johnson insists the former manager tried to rob his mother blind, sources say.
Bell says he’s asking for $50,000, but Johnson “refuses” to settle and is “telling lies about how we stole from her.”
His suit is set for trial Oct. 11.
Bell also claims Nichols “wanted to die in her house and didn’t want her son to handle her business affairs,” but Johnson was named conservator by the court in 2019.
“We all know … how [conservatorships] can be wrong,” he says.
Johnson’s team took over Nichelle’s care and estate, reportedly racking up a whopping $115,000 bill for one 144-day period.
As GLOBE reported in 2018, Johnson filed an explosive lawsuit charging his dementia-riddled mom was being used as a cash cow by greedy hangers-on. But Bell claimed Johnson was trying to lock away his mom in a nursing home so he could get his mitts on her money and sell her property!
Now, as the war over her estate continues, “At least, she’s in a better place,” adds the friend.