Skip to main content
Home
  • Hours
  • Contact
Menu
Search this site

Ask A Librarian

Give Now

  • Search
  • About
  • Research & Teaching Support
  • Locations
  • News & Events
  • Using the Library
  • About the UCLA Library
  • About the Collections
  • Giving to UCLA Library
  • UCLA Homepage
  • Jobs @ UCLA Library
  • Social Media Directory

Library Special Collections Blog

In Memoriam: Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015

By UCLA Library on Thu, 2015-03-12 02:34

Leonard Nimoy, Portrait Collection (PASC 204), UCLA Library Special Collections.

 

How could Leonard Nimoy have possibly known that the supporting role he accepted in 1965 on a Gene Roddenberry television pilot would shape his acting future and inspire legions of fans the world over? That a Boston born son of Ukrainian immigrants, who decided to become an actor at the age of eight, and learned his craft in the über intense Method technique, would become synonymous with a pop culture phenomenon is well, as Mr. Spock would say, "not logical."

Leonard Simon Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, the second son of an Orthodox Jewish family. According to the New York Times, young Leonard began acting in local community productions during grammar school, a passion he pursued through high school.i Nimoy moved to Hollywood in 1949, shortly after taking a college acting course. By 1951 he was cast in small roles in two forgettable films but making progress when his career was interrupted by two years of military service. After his discharge from the Army, Nimoy returned to California to resume his acting studies at the Pasadena Playhouse whose students included Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Nimoy "achieved wide visibility in the late 1950s and early 1960s on television programs like Wagon Train, Rawhide and Perry Mason."ii Indeed, Roddenberry used examples of successful episodic dramas, especially Wagon Train,iii to devise a template for his idea of a show that would go where no producer had ever gone before.

Segment of "Spock's Brain" script by Lee Cronin, Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series (PASC 62), UCLA Library Special Collections

 

The character of Spock, so sensitively portrayed by Nimoy, resonated with audiences from the beginning; Nimoy survived the major casting changes between the initial pilot and the series' debut in NBC's prime time schedule in 1966. Nimoy brought subtlety to his portrayal as the Enterprise's lone alien by using his life experiences to shade and shape the character; Spock's iconic greeting was Nimoy's contribution, inspired by memories of his religious upbringing. He brought a certain asceticism to the role, adding a philosophical mien to the rationally advanced, emotionally reticent character. Writers featured Spock prominently in the show's plot lines. If, at first glance, Spock seemed to be the brain among all the characters, Roddenberry dubbed him "the conscience of Star Trek." Spock was also, in a less obvious way perhaps, its heart. Journalist Virginia Hefferman noted that Spock was "the most complex member of the Enterprise crew, who was both one of the gang and a creature apart, engaged at times in a lonely struggle with his warring racial halves."iv This made Spock - with the attendant whiff of miscegenation - a highly provocative figure to be beamed into American living rooms giving those turbulent, racially fraught times. Unfortunately, not even Nimoy's compelling performance could keep Star Trek on the air. Plagued by low ratings, the show was cancelled after three seasons.

Cultural celebrity came later, slowly at first, then gradually cresting in a wave of tsunami sized popularity that threatened to consume Nimoy. His likeness as Spock became a distinctive brand used to sell related merchandise to children and adults. "I went through a definite identity crisis," Nimoy wrote in a 1975 memoir titled I Am Not Spock, "the question was whether to embrace Mr. Spock or to fight the onslaught of public interest. I realize now that I really had no choice in the matter. Spock and Star Trek were very much alive and there wasn't anything that I could do to change that."v

Leonard Nimoy as "Spock," Portrait Series (PASC 204), UCLA Library Special Collections

 

There was more to Nimoy, who died on February 27 at age 83, than Spock, of course. He had many acting roles after Star Trek's brief network run, including a recurring role on the long running television espionage thriller Mission: Impossible. Nimoy also enjoyed a fruitful career as a director. Among the film she made were two installments for the successful Star Trek movie franchise, and the box office hit Three Men and a Baby (1987). A renaissance man, Nimoy published books of poetry and photographs; he earned a Master's Degree in Spanish. Still, he was indefatigably gracious towards, and appreciative of, the millions of aficionados he called trekkers. He understood their enthusiasm. "Given the choice," he wrote, "if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock."vi

  - By Lauren Buisson, Technical Services


i. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of...↩ii. ibid↩iii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek↩vi. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of...↩v. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-leonard-n...↩vi. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of...↩

News Audience:
  • General Public
  • UCLA Community
  • UCLA Library Staff

Library Special Collections

UCLA Library Special Collections Blog

Archives

  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (2)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • August 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • November 2021 (2)
  • October 2021 (2)
  • September 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (5)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (3)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (4)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (2)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (3)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (2)
  • March 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (2)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (3)
  • November 2016 (2)
  • October 2016 (2)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (3)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • July 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (4)
  • April 2015 (5)
  • March 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (7)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (3)
  • November 2014 (3)
  • October 2014 (2)
  • September 2014 (3)
  • August 2014 (6)
  • July 2014 (4)
  • June 2014 (2)
  • May 2014 (3)
  • April 2014 (7)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (5)
  • January 2014 (2)
  • November 2013 (3)
  • October 2013 (6)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (5)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (5)
  • May 2013 (5)
  • April 2013 (3)
  • March 2013 (3)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (1)
  • December 2012 (3)
  • November 2012 (2)
  • October 2012 (2)
  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (3)
  • July 2012 (2)
  • June 2012 (4)
  • May 2012 (2)
  • April 2012 (5)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (5)
  • January 2012 (6)
  • November 2011 (3)
  • October 2011 (4)
  • July 2011 (1)
  • April 2011 (1)
  • March 2011 (1)
  • December 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (1)

Tags

digital projects (tag)
poetry (tag)
anti-smoking (tag)
Buenaventura Durruti (tag)
homelessness (tag)
comedy (tag)
Ottoman Empire (tag)
psychiatry (tag)
maurice sendak (tag)
sheet music (tag)
Lesbian writers (tag)
Peggy Hamilton Adams (tag)
Donald B. Lindsley (tag)
Kaddish (tag)
New Jersey (tag)
Barcelona (tag)
Orsini Family Papers (tag)
Valentine's Day (tag)
Minasian (tag)
comic book (tag)
childrens books (tag)
Lesbian activists (tag)
nitrate negatives (tag)
Rose Bowl (tag)
popular music (tag)
Ginsberg (tag)
mystery (tag)
Anarchism (tag)
Italian history (tag)
recipes (tag)
Erzerum (tag)
printing history (tag)
transit of venus (tag)
House Un-American Committee (tag)
Japanese studies (tag)
Los Angeles Times (tag)
Center for Oral History Research Program (tag)
performers (tag)
Center for the Art of Performance (tag)
kidnapping (tag)
woodcuts (tag)
Ahmanson Research Fellowships (tag)
love (tag)
Armenian Genocide (tag)
black panther (tag)
janss steps (tag)
Anti-Communism (tag)
geology (tag)
Los Angeles Daily News (tag)
Special Collections (tag)
Los Angeles (tag)
beat (tag)
crime (tag)
Lynd Ward (tag)
Hippocratic Oath (tag)
Armenia (tag)
african-american (tag)
trasit of venus (tag)
Hollywood Blacklist (tag)
films (tag)
Adelbert Bartlett (tag)
Japanese American internees (tag)
william holden (tag)
Charles Lindbergh (tag)
graphic novels (tag)
Exhibits (tag)
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (tag)
Aldous Huxley (tag)
captain cook (tag)
Akira Kurosawa (tag)
film criticism (tag)
Kesh Temple Hymn (tag)
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (tag)
oscars (tag)
oral history (tag)
Art Spiegelman (tag)
rare books (tag)
performing arts (tag)
Aldines (tag)
Ralph J. Bunche (tag)
dodo (tag)
George Lucas (tag)
astronomy (tag)
cuneiform (tag)
research (tag)
academy (tag)
haiti (tag)
photographs (tag)
rare book collecting (tag)
perlich (tag)
Martin Luther King (tag)
dark shadows (tag)
Star Wars (tag)
recent acquisitions (tag)
movie costumes (tag)
LSD (tag)
fellowships (tag)
earthquake (tag)
Panama Canal (tag)
music (tag)
Miriam Matthews (tag)
March on Washington (tag)
dan curtis productions (tag)
Ruth Strout McCandless (tag)
motion pictures (tag)
drug treatments (tag)
students (tag)
Passenger Pigeons (tag)
Aldus Manutius (tag)
interviews (tag)
Los Angeles History (tag)
Dream Day (tag)
labor unions (tag)
Zen (tag)
women printers (tag)
Hollywood (tag)
flash exhibits (tag)
oral histories (tag)
processing (tag)
Birds (tag)
film (tag)
Wizard of Oz (tag)
labor history (tag)
Buddhism (tag)
costume design (tag)
lecture (tag)
Gordon Wagner (tag)
backlog (tag)
LA Aqueduct (tag)
Divine Comedy (tag)
Juan Francisco Reyes (tag)
programs (tag)
labor activism (tag)
Nyogen Senzaki (tag)
actors (tag)
history of medicine (tag)
John Groth (tag)
Friends of the Los Angeles River (tag)
Afro Mexicans (tag)
memorabilia (tag)
Justice for Janitors (tag)
May Day (tag)
printing (tag)
Jim Tully (tag)
blindness (tag)
assemblage art (tag)
heat (tag)
movies (tag)
Wes Anderson (tag)
film premiere (tag)
television (tag)
Zine (tag)
air conditioning (tag)
Owens Valley (tag)
Stefan Zweig (tag)
theater (tag)
HUAC (tag)
Barbara Morgan (tag)
bindings (tag)
Cashin Lecture (tag)
tobacco (tag)
Terry Belanger (tag)
revolution (tag)
blacklist (tag)
Social Justice (tag)
Poem in Your Pocket (tag)
digital collections (tag)
fellowship (tag)
Digital Humanities (tag)
smoking ban (tag)
Italy (tag)
nominees (tag)
psychopharmacology (tag)
Titanic (tag)
World Library and Information Congress (tag)
animals (tag)
new acquisition (tag)
miniature books (tag)
Caturday (tag)
tile (tag)
lectures (tag)
Clark Library (tag)
Middle East (tag)
Lucy Duff Gordon (tag)
Fred Korematsu (tag)
submarines (tag)
Erasmus (tag)
new acquisitions (tag)
cats (tag)
space shuttle (tag)
CalRBS (tag)
provenance (tag)
Aldo Manuzio (tag)
Best Picture (tag)
Japanese performers (tag)
fashion (tag)
LSC Punk Archive (tag)
South Pole (tag)
chocolate (tag)
trade card (tag)
NASA (tag)
California Rare Book School (tag)
Papal books (tag)
Aldine (tag)
Ed Asner (tag)
Egypt (tag)
designs (tag)
V. Vale (tag)
gravity (tag)
calendar (tag)
tour (tag)
Civil Rights Project (tag)
LAADP (tag)
activism (tag)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (tag)
Hollywood Park (tag)
geophysics (tag)
TreePeople (tag)
stuffed animal (tag)
neutra (tag)
photography (tag)
royal baby (tag)
Star Trek (tag)
Thanksgiving (tag)
Los Angeles Unified School District (tag)
architecture (tag)
panoramic photography (tag)
digitization (tag)
baby books (tag)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (tag)
education (tag)
environmentalism (tag)
giantmicrobes (tag)
stephen cooper (tag)
equine labor (tag)
performance (tag)
Cirkut cameras (tag)
archives (tag)
tools (tag)
American novels (tag)
Gay Pride (tag)
Bourbon del Monte family (tag)
Board of Education (tag)
Earth Day (tag)
bacteria (tag)
photograph albums (tag)
pilots (tag)
Vinciana (tag)
aesthetics (tag)
scientific objects (tag)
abolition (tag)
WWI (tag)
wire rope (tag)
zoology (tag)
processing project (tag)
Iraq (tag)
Harriet Quimby (tag)
Leonardo da Vinci (tag)
wigs (tag)
Age of Exploration (tag)
WWII (tag)
Trebinje (tag)
San Francisco (tag)
trailers (tag)
john fante (tag)
flying (tag)
Age of Empire (tag)
Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company (tag)
Richard Neutra (tag)
hallide (tag)
television writers (tag)
LAUSD (tag)
santa claus (tag)
Korean history (tag)
aviators (tag)
Italian Renaissance (tag)
Robert Justman (tag)
Vicksburg (tag)
Buffalo Soldiers (tag)
drawings (tag)
student workers (tag)
cable car (tag)
bloodletting (tag)
folk art (tag)
aviation (tag)
Elmer Belt (tag)
Gene Roddenberry (tag)
newspapers (tag)
Black Warrior (tag)
Bosnia-Herzegovina (tag)
the ninety-nine (tag)
MGM (tag)
Ninety-Nines (tag)
Renoir (tag)
Smokeout (tag)
Spanish Civil War (tag)
civil war (tag)
Soviet Jewry (tag)
A. Quincy Jones (tag)
the 99 (tag)
medieval manuscripts (tag)
elephants (tag)
Dudley Nichols (tag)
smoke-free (tag)
Spain (tag)
Mayor Tom Bradley (tag)
Phyllis Diller (tag)
William Sachtleben (tag)
modern dance (tag)
Ralph Cornell (tag)
Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) (tag)
Friends of the LA River (tag)
Dido Freire (tag)
cigarette (tag)
Catalonia (tag)
Turkey (tag)
physics (tag)
Maud Gonne Press (tag)
Home

The UCLA Library creates a vibrant nexus of ideas, collections, expertise, and spaces in which users illuminate solutions for local and global challenges. We constantly evolve to advance UCLA’s research, education, and public service mission by empowering and inspiring communities of scholars and learners to discover, access, create, share, and preserve knowledge.

facebook social-link-twitter class= social-link-instagram class= social-link-youtube class=

  • About the UCLA Library
  • About the Collections
  • Giving to UCLA Library
  • UCLA Homepage
  • Jobs @ UCLA Library
  • Social Media Directory
  • © 2014–2021 UC Regents,
  • Creative Commons Attribution 4.0