News has just reached me that Leonard Nimoy, who played the poker-faced and uber-logical Mr. Spock in Star Trek, the wildly popular sci-fi TV series in the sixties, has died at 83 at his Bel-Air home. Nimoy died of pulmonary disease, which he attributed to many years of smoking cigarettes. (Not a very logical habit, Mr. Spock.)
Nimoy had a long and varied acting career, but he is best known for Spock, the half-man, half-alien Vulcan who played next to William Shatner’s Captain Kirk in Star Trek. As famous as the show is now, it may surprise some to know that it only ran for three seasons, 1966 to 1969 (during which time Spock successfully competed with LBJ for the most outrageous ears on the planet). But the crew of the Starship Enterprise stayed together for a nearly endless string of popular Star Trek movies (the last one being Star Trek, 73, Kirk’s Gums Go Bad).
Leonard Nimoy lived long. He prospered. RIP.
