Leonard Nimoy Has Lived Long and Prospered

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Link.

Spoiler :

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

Wow. I never really gave much thought to Star Trek, but it's hard to imagine a cultural giant like Nimoy dying, isn't it?

 

[Hakim]

That sucks. Rest in peace, Leonard.

 

[Evie]

IN the beginning, the earth was void, and without form...

R.I.P. mr. Nimoy.

 

[SG-17]

He had peace and long life.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

.....

 

[Cutlass]

RIP

 

[Biologist]

Gone but never forgotten. RIP.

 

[Serutan]

Nice tribute at Io9

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The character of Spock was so influential on me during most of my life, especially those very difficult teen years (I became a Star Trek fan when I was 12, back in 1975). Spock was the character who was different, who had a hard time fitting in, and who solved his problems not by violence but by reason and logic.

"What would Spock do?" isn't the exact phrase a lot of people use, but the sentiment is there. Asking myself what the logical course of action would be to solve a problem is what's gotten me through many a trying time in my life.

 

[Crackerbox]

The character of Spock was so influential on me during most of my life, especially those very difficult teen years (I became a Star Trek fan when I was 12, back in 1975). Spock was the character who was different, who had a hard time fitting in, and who solved his problems not by violence but by reason and logic.

"What would Spock do?" isn't the exact phrase a lot of people use, but the sentiment is there. Asking myself what the logical course of action would be to solve a problem is what's gotten me through many a trying time in my life.

I feel the same way, but for slightly different reasons. He was torn between his two halves of ancestry, and this was a radical notion for the time period. There were scarcely any positive depictions of that idea. There actually were really nasty words used to describe biracial people.

I actually gave one of my first speeches on Leonard Nimoy and his character of Spock. You can imagine the eyerolling in class. He struggled with it, being type cast for most of his life. He wrote a book about it too.

You might not have ever seen this clip of Leonard Nimoy as a cowboy.

Link to video.

And here's one of him as a Native American in Gunsmoke.

Link to video.

The very best film he made was Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978. I hope you watch it. It holds up well as excellent science fiction cinema (there's a lot of drek in this genre).

Link to video.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I remember dragging my grandmother to Invasion of the Body Snatchers when it was in the theatres! Back then its rating meant I could only see it if I was with an adult.

Leonard Nimoy was in an early episode of Bonanza, and I also saw him in the 1982 miniseries Marco Polo. He played villains in both of those.

 

[Furiey]

I watched Star Trek back in the 60s when it was first released. Spock was my favourite, a character that used science and logic. He was also a source of great disappointment when we were loaned a colour TV by a friend of my parents who owned a TV shop. I was so disappointed when I saw Star Trek in colour for the first time and realised that Spock was not bright green as I had imagined.

 

[Crackerbox]

Now such ideas as green blood are quaint, but then it was really interesting. It provoked me to go to the library and read about blood. Star Trek was thought-provoking, and Nimoy was a catalyst for that process.

I wonder how many people were encouraged to study science because of his portrayal?