Leonard Nimoy, Lived Long and Prospered
Leonard Nimoy best known for his classic role as Mr. Spock in Star Trek boldly goes to the final frontier, he passed away February 27, 2015. Nimoy was best known as the emotionless, logical Vulcan, but he was also a film and TV director, photographer, musician and poet. He really was a fascinating man.
Captain Kirks’s words come to mind, “Of my friend I can only say this, of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.” George Takei who played Sulu on Star Trek wrote “ We return you to the stars now Leonard, You taught us how to ‘Live Long and Prosper’ and you indeed did, friend.”
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, in the West End section of Boston. He attended Boston College, then at the age of 18 , left for Hollywood. He was 20 when he made his first film appearance, in Queen for a Day (1951).
With a slight cock of the head and arch of the eyebrow, Nimoy was the face or at least the ears of Star Trek. He appeared in the very first Star Trek episode filmed, which was the pilot called The Cage, shot in 1964, He went on to play or voice the half-Vulcan, half-human in the TV series, as well as in the Star Trek animated series, video games, and films all the way through Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Nimoy tweeted on Jan. 14, 2014, that he had lung disease. “I quit smoking 30 years ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!!” Nimoy signed off with LLAP, short for “Live Long and Prosper,” his Star Trek character’s most famous phrase.
For Spock, Nimoy invented the V-shaped Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand gesture from a Jewish blessing he witnessed rabbis perform as a child. "It was chilling, like whoa! Something major is happening here. So I peeked, and I saw them with their hands stuck out." He also created the Vulcan neck pinch that rendered his enemies unconscious.
Feeling typecast after the show ended Nimoy wrote an autobiography I Am Not Spock in 1975. He was tired of the role and wanted out as he requested the death scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Nimoy had a change of heart during filming and the door was left open at the films end so the Vulcan could return in the next film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Years later he embraced his Vulcan past with a follow-up book, I Am Spock.
After Star Trek Nimoy appeared opposite Yul Brynner in Catlow. His other post-Star Trek roles where he appeared on camera or provided his voice included the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, A Woman Called Golda, Columbo, Mission: Impossible, Night Gallery, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, Futurama, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Outer Limits.
Mr Spock’s Music from Outer Space, Outer Space/Inner Mind and Highly Illogical were a few of Nimoy’s Star Trek musical efforts. He released a music video that has a real ring to it —The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.
Photography also was a passion and he published several books of his black-and-white photographs, including the Shekhina series. Nimoy was "intrigued with scriptural mythology that tells us that God created a divine feminine presence to dwell amongst humanity..."
With a brilliant, fascinating, artistic career, Nimoy lived up to his catch phrases "Live Long and Prosper" and "Change is the essential process of all existence." Spock said “Loss of life is to be mourned, but only if the life was wasted.” His life was definitely not wasted but he will still be mourned.
Nimoy’s final tweet was “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP.” Nimoy will be missed and there will many Spock tributes released soon as “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” Scotty, Beam him up.
Jim McLernon