Friday, February 27, 2015

'Leonard Nimoy, Spock of 'Star Trek,' Dies at 83'

For whatever reason, I projected some kind of quality that people said, ‘OK, he’s a good alien,’ ” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1999 interview."
He served in the U.S. Army from 1953-55

For Spock, Nimoy invented the V-shaped Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand gesture and the neck pinch that rendered his enemies unconscious. (He said he devised the latter move because he had grown tired of getting into staged fistfights. “Here’s a chance to cleverly avoid that,” he said in a 2000 interview with The Archive of American Television.)

Nimoy was not happy about wearing pointy ears, but Roddenberry convinced him to do it.

After being impressed with the humor in Star Trek IV, new Disney studio chiefs Jeffery Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, fresh from Paramount, asked Nimoy to step in to direct Three Men and a Baby, a remake of the 1985 Oscar-nominated French film Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Cradle). Coline Serreau, who directed Trois Hommes, had exited the American version because of “creative differences.”

Starring Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg as bachelors scrambling to take care of a child, Three Men and a Baby raked in $167 million in the U.S., and no film grossed more that year.

A deep-thinker, Nimoy authored nine poetry books; a comic book titled PriMortals (developed with writer Isaac Asimov); a 1977 autobiography, I Am Not Spock; and another autobiography in 1995, I Am Spock. He once said that the contradicting titles “baffled the reading audience” but that he “had some fun with that.”

13 comments:

Methadras said...

You lived long and you prospered well. Now you know the secrets of the universe and I'm totally jelly. I never knew you, but I grew up watching star trek became a big fan at a young age and it's good to know that the character of Spock that you played is ingrained in the fabric of our culture. Godspeed.

XRay said...

Didn't realize he was that old, or that ill. May he rest in peace.

Trooper York said...

Rest in peace Paris.

(One of his better roles beside that of Spock, youse guys are too young to remember)

Methadras said...

Troop, Bilbo Baggins The Hobbit Song is something I will never forget. :D

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Sorry guys for the low postings.

Apparently I called victory last night too soon. My brother in law decided to switch carriers says he was not happy with the service we were getting. So it's going to take a few days to get internet again. I'm coming to you via my phone. We will get there I promise you.

Understandably I was upset but there is really not much I can do. He and my sister are letting me stay with them.

I'll keep you All posted as to when I'll have full access again.

Thanks again.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

An interim solution is to go to my brother's place and post from there. Spoke with him a little while ago. He is going to pick me up tomorrow.

Like I said I'll keep you all posted.

rcocean said...

83 is nice old age. Nimoy did some good acting in his Columbo episode too but otherwise was a pretty limited actor. He- along with Shatner - were two of the luckiest actors in TV.

Chip Ahoy said...

When I worked nights at the FRB we would regularly have lunch at Reece's Coffee House, first level of Brooks Towers, the whole between the Denver Arts Center and the FRB. It is a homely place. Their stuffed burritos were a reliable meal. Along the line of Denny's except more run down.

One of the waitresses was a transvestite but none of my coworkers knew that. They all thought she was hot, that her low voice is sexy and turns them on. They imagined dating her but she was out of their league. Dumbasses.

Anyway, The little cluster of theaters that is now the Arts Center is 1/2 block the other way. Leonard Nemoy was playing Sherlock Holmes, I think, at one of the theaters there and he popped in late night for meal, as they do, Denver not being much of a night town at the time and of course everybody knew him from Star Trek and wanted his autograph but for what is not exactly clear. They didn't save autographs, it was merely an opportunity.

Aha! You have stumble into my realm.

I'm sitting there thinking, what a bummer for that guy, everybody wants his autograph because they saw him at large in somewhat captive audience situation, and not because they collect autographs and simply must have his. And worse they want to talk all about his project that they know about, not the project that has his full interest and attention right now that is happening 1/2 block away that the autograph seekers are not supporting. "Come see my show." If you love me so much.

He has a very ordinary back of the head.

Chip Ahoy said...

He also has an music album. I think. I recall laughing about something like that.

I know Shatner has an album out. He must.

XRay said...

Lem, no worries. I'm sorry you're subject to the whims of others.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hang in there Lem.

William said...

Who will be the last surviving member of the Starship Enterprise and will I be around to witness his longevity? Kirk and Sulu look in fine health, and Sulu, in particular, is having a late efflorescence. You don't hear much from Uhuru, and, ironically, she was the communications officer. Well, that's the way it goes. I think Bones,the medical officer, was the first to croak......One good thing about the crew is that they never betrayed the trust and affection their audience gave them. They were, to be sure, a fine collection of hams, but there were no rapists, overdosers, or Commie defectors among them.

edutcher said...

If he was in the Army until '55, he must have just walked into an acting career. As I've noted elsewhere, he was doing stuff like "Sea Hunt" from '57 on.

Clearly, he had something the casting directors liked.

And, as far as the neck pinch, he said at the time of the series, he came up with the idea because the super-logical Vulcans would have come up with something a little classier than a punch in the nose.

rcocean said...

83 is nice old age. Nimoy did some good acting in his Columbo episode too but otherwise was a pretty limited actor. He- along with Shatner - were two of the luckiest actors in TV.

Not long before the "Star Trek" pilot was shot, he and Shatner (and Werner Klemperer) did a "Man From UNCLE" together.

I think Shatner was the more limited actor. A lot of Nimoy's roles were of a more cerebral nature due to his somewhat exotic looks, but, in his early days, he did a lot of rock 'n' rolling juvenile delinquents.