Actor Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s’ Mr. Spock Dead at Age 83 …”Live Long and Prosper” … REST IN PEACE

Live long and prosper … Actor Leonard Nimoy has passed away at the age of 83 … Rest in eternal peace.

Leonard Nimoy, the actor that will forever be known for his role as Mr. Spock, the half human, half Vulcan first officer of the Starship USS Enterprise has died at age 83. Nimoy died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, California. According to his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed Nimoy’s death and said it was a result of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. The actor tweeted on Jan. 14, 2014, that he had lung disease.  Nimoy had just recently been hospitalized.  Sadly, he has passed.

As Captain James T. Kirk, William Shatner, stated at the conclusion of Star Trek – The Wrath of Khan when he emotionally eulogized Mr. Spock, “Of my friend I can only say this, of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human”.

 Leonard Nimoy, 1931–2015, Rest in Peace

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.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.

Yet he also acknowledged ambivalence about being tethered to the character, expressing it most plainly in the titles of two autobiographies: “I Am Not Spock,” published in 1977, and “I Am Spock,” published in 1995.

In the first, he wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”

“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek’ ” — an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some primitive special effects by today’s standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.

On a personal note, although I am not a Trekky, but I loved the original Star Trek series.  Which is quite sad, because now with Leonard Nimoy’s passing, he has joined fellow Star Trek actors DeForest Kelley (Dr. “Bone” Mcoy) and  James Doohan, (Scotty) in heaven.

Variety – Obit:

Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston; his parents were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, and the language at home was Yiddish. He developed an interest in acting at an early age, first appearing on stage at 8 in a production of “Hansel and Gretel.” He took drama classes for a while at Boston College, and after leaving home to pursue his career in Hollywood, he landed his first lead role in the 1952 film “Kid Monk Baroni.”

After serving in the Army from 1953-55, he appeared in small roles in a few films, but mostly found roles in TV series, appearing in episodes of “Dragnet,” “Sea Hunt,” “Bonanza,” “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Untouchables,” “The Outer Limits,” “The Virginian,” “Get Smart” and “Gunsmoke” before rising to fame in “Star Trek.”

Most recently, he recurred on Fox sci-fi series “Fringe” as maniacal, genius professor William Bell, and he voiced Spock for a 2012 episode of “The Big Bang Theory.”

In addition to his work on “In Search Of…,” Nimoy lent his resonant, intelligent voice to a variety of films, TV projects and documentaries, including A&E docu series “Ancient Mysteries.”

The two videos from the Star Trek movie,  The Wrath of Khan now take even more importance that Leonard Nimoy has now passed. Who could forget in 1982 when Mr. Spock died saving the USS Enterprise and its crew, “The needs of the many, out way the needs of the few. Or the One”.

Mr. Spock Funeral scene from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan movie

Captain Kirk, William Shatner, delivers an emotional eulogy for his friend Spock … “Of my friend I can only say this, of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human”.