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Leonard Nimoy

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Leonard Nimoy
Nimoy signing autographs at a Star Trek convention, c. 1980
Born
Leonard Simon Nimoy
Occupation(s)Actor, film director, singer, songwriter
Years active1951–present
Spouse(s)Sandra Zober (1954–1987)
Susan Bay (1988–present)

Leonard Simon Nimoy (Template:Pron-en; born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He played the character of Spock on Star Trek, an American television series that ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969, and he reprised the role in the movie sequels (most recently 2009's Star Trek) and the follow-up series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Early life

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine.[1][2][3][4] His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker.[5][6] Nimoy began acting at the age of eight. His first major role was Ralphie in Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing," at 17.[7] He studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles, but left before completing his degree. He graduated from Boston College in 1953, and has an MA in Education and an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio.

Nimoy spent much of his early career doing small parts in B-movies, TV shows such as Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures' Zombies of the Stratosphere. In 1961, he had a minor role in The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy".

Career

Stage and screen

File:Leonard.JPG
The handprints of Leonard Nimoy in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park

Nimoy's most famous role is the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series, which ran from 1966 to 1969. He earned three Emmy nominations for playing this character.

Nimoy and William Shatner (who would go on to play Spock's commanding officer, Captain James T. Kirk) were on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain in the 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair". With his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit. Nimoy went on to reprise Spock's character in a voice-over role in Star Trek: The Animated Series, in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in six Star Trek motion pictures featuring the original cast. He played an older Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie directed by J. J. Abrams.

Before his success in Star Trek, Nimoy had acted in more than fifty movies or television shows. He appeared as "Sonarman" in two episodes of the 1957-1958 syndicated military drama, The Silent Service, based on actual events of the submarine section of the United States Navy. Although most of these appearances were on television, Nimoy guest starred in The Balcony, an adaptation of a play by Jean Genet. Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series Mission: Impossible, which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, "The Amazing Paris." He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show. It was during the run of the show that Nimoy fell ill with a stomach ulcer.[citation needed]

He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie Catlow (1971). Nimoy also appeared in various made for television films in this period, such as Assault On The Wayne (1970), Baffled (1972), The Alpha Caper (1973), The Missing Are Deadly (1974), Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980), Marco Polo (1982) and he received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film A Woman Called Golda (1982). Nimoy played other guest roles in a number of TV series including Bonanza, The Eleventh Hour, Get Smart, Two Faces West, The Outer Limits, Combat!, Perry Mason, Night Gallery & Columbo. He played a murderous doctor and was one of the few criminals at whom Columbo ever really became angry.

In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series In Search of..., which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a psychiatrist in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

It was during this time that Nimoy won acclaim for a series of stage roles as well. He appeared in such plays as Vincent, Fiddler On The Roof, The Man in the Glass Booth, Oliver!, Six Rms Riv Vu, Full Circle, Camelot, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The King And I, Caligula, The Four Poster, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes, Equus and My Fair Lady.

Star Trek after the original series

When a new Star Trek series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role. After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful (critically and financially) film in the franchise to date after the 2009 Star Trek film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and move beyond the Trek universe with Three Men and a Baby, the highest grossing film of 1987. At a press conference promoting the 2009 Star Trek movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct.

No. No, I'm done with all that, thank you. I never set out to be a director. After Spock had died, sort of, in Star Trek II, they brought me in for a meeting and asked if I'd like to be involved in Star Trek III, in the making of it, and I had been told that I should be directing. I took it as an insult because I thought, "what's wrong with my acting?" But I thought maybe now I should do that and I said I'd like to direct the movie, and I suddenly found myself with a directing career which I had enjoyed and I had enough of it. I directed I think five or six films -- I had a good time.[8]

Other work in the late 1980s and the 1990s

Nimoy also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie in 1986. In 1998 he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. He performed in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in The Pagemaster in 1994.

Literary works

Nimoy has written two autobiographies. The first was called I Am Not Spock (1977) and was controversial, as many fans[who?] incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. However, Nimoy's stated intention[citation needed] was to remind the public at large that Spock and Nimoy were not the same person. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock. The contents of this first autobiography also touched on a self-proclaimed "identity crisis" that seemed to haunt Nimoy throughout his career. It also related to an apparent love/hate relationship with the character of Spock and the Trek franchise.

I went through a definite identity crisis. The question was whether to embrace Mr. Spock or to fight the onslaught of public interest. I realize now that I really had no choice in the matter. Spock and Star Trek were very much alive and there wasn’t anything that I could do to change that.[9]

His second autobiography was I Am Spock (1995), and the title was meant[citation needed] to communicate that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and the real person. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed this character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense, he really is now Spock, and Spock is he, while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts.[10] In the mid 1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one man play called Vincent based on the play Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of Primortals, a comic book series published by Tekno Comix that involved a first contact situation with aliens that had arisen from discussion between him and Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.

Music career

During and following Star Trek, Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records[11], including Trek-related songs such as "Highly Illogical", and cover versions of popular tunes, such as "Proud Mary". In regards to how his recording career got started, he stated:

Charles Grean of Dot Records had arranged with the studio to do an album of space music based on music from Star Trek, and he has a teenage daughter who's a fan of the show and a fan of Mr. Spock. She said, 'Well, if you're going to do an album of music from Star Trek, then Mr. Spock should be on the album.' So Dot contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in either speaking or singing on the record. I said I was very interested in doing both. ...That was the first album we did, which was called 'Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space'. It was very well-received and successful enough that Dot then approached me and asked me to sign a long-term contract.[12]

The albums were popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from the mid-sixties goth soap opera Dark Shadows. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films were released.

In addition to his own music career he directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college.

He released a version of Johnny Cash's song "I Walk the Line".

Nimoy's voice appeared in a song from 1988's pop band "Information Society". The song was What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy) which reached #3 on the US Pop charts, and #1 on Dance charts. Throughout the song, Nimoy can be heard stating "Pure Energy"[citation needed]. This was again thanks to the efforts of Adam Nimoy, who was a fan of the band[citation needed].

Nimoy appeared in Hearts of Space program number 142 - "Whales alive."

Current work

Starting in 1994, Nimoy began to narrate the Ancient Mysteries series on A&E including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "The Last Days of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. He had a central role in Brave New World, a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel where he played a character reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. Nimoy has also appeared in several popular television series—including Futurama and The Simpsons--as both himself and Spock.

In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but he has subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.

Nimoy provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game Civilization IV. He did the TV series Next Wave where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film The Once and Future Griffith Observatory currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater located at the recently reopened Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

In January 2007, he granted an interview to Fat Free Film, where he discussed his early career and the benefits of being typecast.[13]

Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the newest film.[14]

On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's Shatner's Raw Nerve.

In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of Fringe, which explore the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy will return as Dr. Bell this fall for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of Fringe, Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions."[15][16] This choice led one reviewer to question if Fringe's plot might be an homage to the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.[17]

On the May 9, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009 Star Trek movie, he plays Spock of the future (Zachary Quinto meanwhile, portrays the younger Spock).

Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts," an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Personal life

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community. He speaks and reads Yiddish. One of his better-known roles was that of Tevye the milkman, in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on the series of short stories by Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober, whom he divorced in 1987. He had two children with her, director Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy, who both appear in an Oldsmobile commercial, with the famous tagline, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile". In 1988, he married actress Susan Bay, who is a cousin of director Michael Bay.[18]

Nimoy still keeps the last pair of Spock's ears he wore on the series, as a memento. Nimoy has said that the character of Spock, which he played twelve to fourteen hours a day, five days a week, influenced his personality in private life. Each weekend during the original run of the series, he would be in character throughout Saturday and into Sunday, behaving more like Spock than himself - more logical, more rational, more thoughtful, less emotional, and finding a calm in every situation. It was only on Sunday in the early afternoon that Spock's influence on his behavior would fade off, and he would feel more himself again - only to start the cycle over Monday morning.[19]

Nimoy devised the Vulcan Salute[20] - a raised hand with palm forward, the fingers parted between the middle and ring finger - based on the traditional kohanic blessing, which is performed with both hands, thumb to thumb in this position: a position thought to represent the Hebrew letter shin (ש). (This letter is often used as a symbol of God in Judaism, as it is an abbreviation for one of God's names, El Shaddai. This usage is seen, for example, on every mezuzah.) Nimoy says he derived the accompanying spoken blessing, "Live long and prosper" from this source; the last phrase of the blessing is "May the Lord be forebearing unto you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).[21] Nimoy was asked to read the verses as part of his narration for Civilization IV.

Nimoy also introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within".[20] Initially, Spock was supposed to knock out an evil Kirk in the Engineering room by striking him on the back of the head. Nimoy felt that the action was not in keeping with the nature of Spock's character, so he suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative.[20]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1951 Rhubarb Young Ball Player
1952 Kid Monk Baroni Paul 'Monk' Baroni
Zombies of the Stratosphere Narab
1953 Old Overland Trail Chief Black Hawk
1958 The Brain Eaters Professor Cole
1963 The Balcony Roger
1964 The Outer Limits Judson Ellis (TV series) (Episode "I, Robot")
1966 Deathwatch Jules LaFranc
Star Trek Mr. Spock
(1966-1969) 		(TV series) (80 episodes)
1969 Mission: Impossible Paris
(1969-1971) 		(TV series) (49 episodes)
1971 Catlow Miller
1973 Baffled! Tom Kovack (TV)
Columbo: A Stitch in Crime Dr. Barry Mayfield (TV)
Star Trek: The Animated Series Mr. Spock
(1973-1974) 		(voice) (16 episodes)
1974 Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love Mick (TV)
1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Dr. David Kibner
1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture Mr. Spock
1981 Vincent Theo Van Gogh (TV)
1982 A Woman Called Golda Morris Meyerson (TV)
Marco Polo Achmet (TV mini-series)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Captain Spock
1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Captain Spock
The Sun Also Rises Count Mippipopolous (TV)
1986 Transformers: The Movie Galvatron (voice)
1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Captain Spock
1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Captain Spock
1991 Never Forget Mel Mermelstein (TV)
Star Trek: The Next Generation Ambassador Spock
(2 episodes) 		(TV series) (episodes "Unification: Part 1" & "Unification: Part 2")
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Captain Spock
1993 The Halloween Tree Mr. Moundshroud (voice)
1994 The Pagemaster Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde (voice)
1995 Bonaza: Under Attack Frank James (TV)
The Outer Limits Thomas Cutler (TV series) (episoded "I, Robot")
Titanica Narrator (documentary)
1997 David Samuel (TV)
1998 Brave New World Mustapha Mond (TV)
2000 Seaman (video game) Narrator (video game)
Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists Akron/Baraka/King Chandra (voice)
2001 Becker Professor Emmett Fowler (TV series) (episode "The TorMentor")
Atlantis: The Lost Empire King Kashekim Nedakh (voice)
2005 Civilization IV Narrator (video game)
2009 Star Trek Spock Prime
Fringe Dr. William Bell (TV series) (episode "There's More Than One of Everything")
Land of the Lost The Zarn

Director

Writer

Bibliography

Poetry

  • You & I (1973) (ISBN 978-0912310268)
  • Will I Think of You? (1974) (ISBN 0912310701)
  • We Are All Children Searching for Love: A Collection of Poems and Photographs (1977) (ISBN 978-0883960240)
  • Come be With Me (1978) (ISBN 978-0883960332)
  • These Words are for You (ISBN 978-0883961483)
  • Warmed by Love (1983) (ISBN 978-0883962008)
  • A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002) (ISBN 978-0883965962)

Discography

See also: Leonard Nimoy discography (includes compilations and re-issues)

References

  1. ^ http://www.theofficialleonardnimoyfanclub.com/Biography.html The Official Leonard Nimoy Fan Club
  2. ^ http://www.mlucks.com/genealogy/lucks/getperson.php?personID=I3854&tree=6 Leonard Simon Nimoy genealogy
  3. ^ Leonard Nimoy - a paladin for the plump / Ex-actor's images sing out in praise of naked plus-size body
  4. ^ Sfgate: Leonard Nimoy -- a paladin for the plump
  5. ^ Leonard Nimoy Biography (1931-)
  6. ^ Leonard Nimoy Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  7. ^ From 'Spock': The beauty of big women - International Herald Tribune
  8. ^ http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Leonard+Nimoy+and+Zachary+Quinto%3A+The+Two+Faces+of+Spock
  9. ^ http://united-scifi.com/index.php/leonard-nimoys-lovehate-relationship-with-spock/
  10. ^ http://www.thehypertexts.com The HyperTexts
  11. ^ http://www.maidenwine.com/lps_02.html The Musical Touch of Leonard Nimoy
  12. ^ http://www.maidenwine.com/home.html
  13. ^ Leonard Nimoy interviewed on the Independent Film Podcast - Fat Free Film
  14. ^ "Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto: The Two Faces of Spock". SuicideGirls.com. 03 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Nimoy Joins Fringe
  16. ^ O'Connor, Mickey (April 8, 2009). "Fringe: Meet Dr. William Bell"". TV Guide. Retrieved April 9, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ ifmagazine.com - V Review: FRINGE- SEASON ONE - 'The Road Not Taken' by Emerson Parker
  18. ^ Michael Bay's [[Transformers (film)|]] DVD audio commentary, 2007, Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks
  19. ^ Bring Back Star Trek, Channel 4, The UK, broadcasted on 9.00-10.35pm 09/05/2009
  20. ^ a b c "Leonard Nimoy ("Spock" - TOS)". Star Trek.com. 1999-05-13. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  21. ^ YouTube - Leonard Nimoy: The Origin of Spock's Greeting
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leonard Nimoy.

Media

Preceded by Star Trek film director
1984-1986 		Succeeded by

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