Often described as a presence rather than a mere acting role
Star Trek fans around the world now mourns the passing of a science fiction
acting legend.
By: Ringo Bones
After being hospitalized a few days ago, science fiction
acting legend Leonard Nimoy, more famously known as the half Vulcan half human
science officer Mr. Spock in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek passed away in his
Los Angeles home on February 27, 2015 at the age of 83 after suffering from a
chronic lung ailment. Star Trek fans around the world now mourns his passing
given Nimoy’s last “profound” Tweet was about a beautiful garden preserved only
in memory plus his iconic catch-phrase: “Live long and prosper”.
U.S. President Barack Obama even sent his tribute quoting “Long
before nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy.” And the U.S. space agency NASA
also sends their tributes to Nimoy given that most of their staff that got
hired after the Apollo program were inspired by the original Gene Roddenberry
Star Trek to sign up for NASA – some even became space faring astronauts.
Growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Catholic Boston,
Leonard Nimoy knew firsthand how it feels like to be an outsider. Despite being
well-known for his role in Star Trek, Nimoy’s first breakthrough acting role
was in Republic Production’s Zombies of the Stratosphere were he plays as a
Martian spacecraft pilot and in an interview back in the 1990s, Nimoy finds the
role fascinating not only because of how cheap the production cost was in
comparison to the rather good finished product but also on the Martian ray-gun
props used which he describes as “.38 caliber revolvers with fins attached”. Which now make those ultra-rare Zombies of the Stratosphere posters often spotted in the History Channel's The Pickers an extremely coveted and extremely expensive artifact. Also, Nimoy was the only one in the original cast of the Star Trek: The Cage TV
series pilot that went on to be a part of the original 1960s era Gene
Roddenberry series.
Leonard Nimoy’s “claim to fame” went beyond Star Trek he
also appeared in the original 1960s era Mission: Impossible TV series and
Sherlock Holmes. Nimoy also recorded 7 albums, one of the most famous of which
was the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins and a now forgotten musical collaboration with
1960s era cowboy star Jack Palance. Leonard Nimoy will surely be missed by the
global Star Trek community as he departs from our plane of existence to “boldly
go where no one has gone before".
