Leonard Nimoy Biography

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Leonard Nimoy in civilian attire

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". 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. 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 also guest starred in The Balcony, an adaptation of a play by Jean Genet. Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek series, 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/ make-up expert, "The Great Paris." He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show. (As noted by Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier, Landau had been an early choice to play Spock.) It was during the run of the show that Nimoy fell ill with a stomach ulcer.

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 will perform an older Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie directed by J. J. Abrams.

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), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978), 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 mad scientist-type New Age psychologist 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 has 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. 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 broke into film directing in 1984 with the successful third installment of the Star Trek film series (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Nimoy would go on to direct the most successful (critically and financially) film in the franchise to date, 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. 
 

Nimoy has written two autobiographies. The first was called I Am Not Spock (1977) and was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. However, Nimoy's stated intention 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. His second autobiography was I Am Spock (1995), and the title was meant 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. 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. Music of Leonard Nimoy During and following Star Trek, Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including Trek-related songs such as "Highly Illogical", and cover versions of popular tunes, such as Proud Mary. The albums were extremely 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 as the composer of "Quentin's Theme" for 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 country music legend Johnny Cash's song I Walk the Line. Nimoy's voice also 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". This was partially thanks to the efforts of Adam Nimoy, fan of the band and son of Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy appeared in Hearts of Space program number 142 - "Whales alive" Recent 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 (film), 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 in order to concentrate on his photography, but has subsequently appeared in several popular television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He also appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl. Nimoy also 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. On July 26, 2007, it was revealed at Comic-Con that Nimoy would return to reprise his famous role as Spock one more time in the upcoming movie Star Trek, while Zachary Quinto will play his younger self. On November 9, 2008, he narrated "Shining Through the Broken Glass: A Concert to Commemorate Kristallnacht".[citation needed] On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed on Biography Channel's Shatner's Raw Nerve. Nimoy introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early TOS episode ("The Enemy Within") where Spock was supposed to KO the evil Kirk in the Engineering room. He suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative. Nimoy also devised the Vulcan Salute - a raised hand, palm forward with 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, as the last phrase of the blessing is "May the Lord be forebearing unto you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). Filmography Director * Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978-1981) * Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) * Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) * Three Men and a Baby (1987) * The Good Mother (1988) * Funny About Love (1990) * Holy Matrimony (1994) * episodes of Night Gallery, T.J. Hooker, The Powers of Matthew Star, and Deadly Games Actor * Kid Monk Baroni (1951) * Rhubarb (1951) * Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) * Dragnet (1953 episode "The Big Boys" as Julius Carver) * Them! (1954) (uncredited) * Sea Hunt (1958-1961) * Satan's Satellites (1958) * The Brain Eaters (1958) * 26 Men (1959) three episodes, including "Long Trail Home", "Ricochet", and, with DeForest Kelley, "Trail of Revenge" * Harbor Command (1958 episode - Contraband Diamonds) * Tombstone Territory (1959 episode - The Horse Thief) * The Twilight Zone – "A Quality of Mercy" (1961) * General Hospital (1963) * Perry Mason The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe (1963) * The Outer Limits (1964) "I, Robot" - Judson Ellis * Combat! (1965) Two Episodes * Deathwatch (1966) * The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1966) * Get Smart (1966) * Star Trek (1966-1969) * Mission: Impossible (1969-1971) The Great Paris * Baffled! television movie intended as a pilot for a television series. (1973) * The Alpha Caper (1973) (TV) * Columbo (TV series) (1973) (TV) * Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974) * In Search of... (1976-1982) * Equus (1977) (Broadway Play) Dr. Martin Dysart * Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) * Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978-1981) * Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) * A Woman Called Golda (1982) (TV) * Marco Polo (1982) (mini) TV Series * Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) * Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) * The Sun Also Rises (1984) (mini) TV Series * Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (Faerie Tale Theatre episode) (1986) * Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) * Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) * Never Forget (1991) (TV) * Star Trek: The Next Generation – "Unification" (1991) (two-part episode): Ambassador Spock * Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) * Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (computer game) (1992) * Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993) * The Time Machine (1994) (audio drama) The Time Traveller * The Outer Limits (1995) I, Robot - Thurman Cutler * Brave New World (1998) Mustapha Mond * Becker (2001) * Star Trek (2009) Voice * Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974): Lieutenant Commander/Commander Spock * In Search of... (1976-1982): Narrator * The Transformers: The Movie (1986): Galvatron; Megatron's upgrade by Unicron * Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories (1991) * Lights: The Miracle of Chanukah (1993) * The Halloween Tree (1993) * The Simpsons, "Marge vs. the Monorail" (1993): Himself * The Pagemaster (1994): Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde * The Simpsons, "The Springfield Files" (1997): Himself * Invasion America (1998): Konrad * Futurama, "Space Pilot 3000" (1999): Himself * Seaman (2000): Narrator * Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001): King Kashekim Nedakh * Futurama, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (2002): Himself / Lieutenant Commander/Commander Spock * Civilization IV (2005) * What's going on up there? (2006) * Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009):voice of the Fallen Writer * I Am Not Spock (1977) * Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978) * Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (Contributions uncredited) * Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) (Contributions uncredited) * Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) * Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) * I Am Spock (1995) * A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002) * Shekhina (2002) * The Full Body Project (2008) Discography * Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space (Dot Records), (1967). * The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records), (1968). * The Way I Feel (Dot Records), (1968). * The Touch of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records), (1969). * The New World of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records), (1970).