This week we learned of the passing of an acting legend, Leonard Nimoy. A man who had become synonymous with the Sci-Fi franchise that is Star Trek. Although Nimoy had filled many acting roles since his scene debut back in 1951 he will be best remembered as the iconic Mr Spock, the half human/half Vulcan chief science officer first introduced to us in the 1966 TV series. Starring alongside William Shatner as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, they took us on a journey to explore strange new worlds, and while this initially may have been a 5 year mission, the longevity Star Trek produced with its massive fan base is evident with the fact that we enjoyed the journey of the original cast up to 1991, and even now we are still being treated to these movies with the modern reboots starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Leonard Nimoy even made appearances in the new films, which was a great moment for Trekkies who may have been worried about the reboots not giving us a link between the old and new.
Nimoy passed At the age of 83, one month short of his 84th birthday. He had a long career in the acting business which included roles in early TV series that may be remembered by older audiences such as The Man from Uncle, Mission Impossible, and for the more youthful audiences he made guest appearances in popular TV series The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory as well as being a regular on JJ Abrams’ Fringe, not to mention supplying his unique vocal talents to many video games plus the feature film Transformers – Dark of the Moon.
His Co-star in Star Trek William Shatner has taken to twitter to voice his sadness about losing someone he obviously thought as a close friend, even saying that love and friendship were the greatest things that Nimoy gave to him. While George Takei (who played Sulu) simply put “rest in peace with the stars, my dear friend.” I took a few moments before writing this to browse twitter to see what had been said about his passing, and the results of #Leonardnimoy made it plain to see that many people will remember him fondly, with many images showing a side that people rarely saw on screen.
Something that he obviously did when you look into what he achieved throughout his life can be summed up in one sentence, which I think is a fitting way to remember the man.
“Live long and prosper.” And that he certainly did.