Stage and screen
Nimoy's film and television acting career began in 1951. But after receiving the title role in the 1952 film
Kid Monk Baroni, a story about a street punk turned professional boxer, he spent most of the rest of his early career playing small parts in B movies, TV shows such as
Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures'
Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). This included more than fifty movies or television shows.
He played an Army sergeant in the 1954 Sci Fi thriller,
Them!, and had a role in
The Balcony (1963), a film adaptation of the Jean Genet play.
On television Nimoy 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. He had guest roles in the
Sea Hunt series from 1958 to 1960 and had a minor role in
The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy" in 1961. He also appeared in
Highway Patrol. Throughout the 1960s Nimoy appeared in a number of other TV series including
Bonanza (1960),
Two Faces West (1961),
The Untouchables (1962),
The Eleventh Hour (1962),
Combat! (1963, 1965),
Perry Mason (1963),
The Outer Limits (1964),
The Virginian (1965) and
Get Smart (1966). He appeared again in the 1995
Outer Limits, again in the episode "I, Robot".
Nimoy and William Shatner first worked together in an episode of
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964). Their characters were from either side of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.
Nimoy first worked with DeForest Kelley in an episode of
The Virginian from season two titled "Man of Violence", with Kelley as the doctor and Nimoy as the patient.
Star Trek
Nimoy's greatest prominence came from his role in the original
Star Trek series, as the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock. Nimoy formed a long-standing friendship with Shatner, who portrayed his commanding officer. The series ran from 1966 to 1969, and Nimoy earned three Emmy acting nominations for his work.
He went on to reprise Spock's character in a voice-over role in
The Animated Series, in two episodes of
The Next Generation, and in six Star Trek motion pictures featuring the original cast. He played an older Spock in the 2009
Star Trek movie directed by J. J. Abrams.
Spock gave his Vulcan salute whenever greeting crew members, and it became a recognized symbol of the show identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way rabbis held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the biblical blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:
- May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace.
Nimoy was asked to read the verses as part of his narration for
Civilization IV (as the blurb read out upon "discovering" the technology Priesthood).
After Star Trek's Cancellation
Following the cancellation of the original
Star Trek in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series
Impossible, which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, 'The Amazing Paris'. He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show.
He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie
Catlow (1971). Nimoy appeared in various made for television films such as
Assault on the Wayne (1970),
Baffled (1972),
The Alpha Caper (1973),
The Missing Are Deadly (1974),
Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980), and
Marco Polo (1982). He received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film
A Woman Called Golda (1982). He also had roles in
Night Gallery (1972) and
Columbo (1973) where he played a murderous doctor who was one of the few criminals to whom Columbo 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 psychiatrist 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 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.
Star Trek films
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 started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film (critically and financially) in the franchise to date after the 2009
Star Trek film,
The Voyage Home (1986) and move beyond the Trek universe with
Three Men and a Baby, the highest grossing film of 1987. At a press conference promoting the 2009
Star Trek movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct.
Other work after Star Trek
In 1978, Nimoy played Dr. David Kibner in
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in
The Movie in 1986.
In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a
pro bono publico lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial. Nimoy also played the Mermelstein role and believes: "If every project brought me the same sense of fulfillment that
Never Forget did, I would truly be in paradise."
Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in
The Pagemaster in 1994. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World.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, 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 seriesincluding
Futurama and
The Simpsonsas both himself and Spock.
Nimoy appeared in
Hearts of Space program number 142 - "Whales alive."
In 1999, he voiced the narration of the English version of the Sega Dreamcast game
Seaman and promoted Y2K educational films.
In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.
Nimoy 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.
Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the newest film.
On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's
Shatner's Raw Nerve.
In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of
Fringe, which explores the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy returned as Dr. Bell in the autumn for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of
Fringe, Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions." This choice led one reviewer to question if
Fringe's plot might be a homage to the
Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.
On the May 9, 2009 episode of
Saturday Night Live, Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009
Star Trek movie, he plays the older Spock from the original
Star Trek timeline; Zachary Quinto meanwhile, portrays the young Spock.
Starring with Will Ferrell in the TV-based movie
Land of the Lost in June 2009, he voiced the part of "The Zarn", an Altrusian.
Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts", an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.
Nimoy has also provided voiceovers for the
Star Trek Online massively multiplayer online game, released in February 2010, as well as for
Birth by Sleep as the villainous Master Xehanort. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of
Birth by Sleep, stated that he chose Nimoy for the role specifically because of his role as Spock.
Retirement
In April 2010, Nimoy announced plans to retire from acting after 60 years in the movie business, citing both his advanced age and giving Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep was his final performance.
Photography
Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; he still owns a camera which he rebuilt at the age of 13. His photography studies at UCLA occurred after
Star Trek and
Mission: Impossible, when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers. His work is exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Literary works
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. 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), communicating that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. 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 the character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.
Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled
A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid-1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one man play called
Vincent based on the play
Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens.
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, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.
Music career
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". In regards to how his recording career got started, he stated:
Charles Grean of Dot Records had arranged with the studio to do an album of space music based on music from Star Trek, and he has a teenage daughter who's a fan of the show and a fan of Mr. Spock. She said, 'Well, if you're going to do an album of music from Star Trek, then Mr. Spock should be on the album.' So Dot contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in either speaking or singing on the record. I said I was very interested in doing both. ...That was the first album we did, which was called Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space. It was very well-received and successful enough that Dot then approached me and asked me to sign a long-term contract.—Leonard NimoyMadenwine webite
The albums were 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 for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from 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 Johnny Cash's song "I Walk the Line".
Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band Information Society in the late Eighties. The song, "What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy)" (released in 1988), reached #3 on the US Pop charts, and #1 on Dance charts. The group's self-titled LP contains several other samples from the original Star Trek television series.
