Leonard Nimoy                     Role: Mr. Spock
Birthday : March-26-1931
Birthplace : Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Birth Name : Leonard Simon Nimoy
AKA : Leonard Nemoy, Frank Force
Recent Role : Himself on The Colbert Report
Gender : Male
Leonard Nimoy is a well known American actor, movie director, poet, musician and photographer. His parents were Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants from Izyaslav, Ukraine. Max Nimoy, his father owned a barbershop and his mother Dora Nimoy was a homemaker. He has been interested in acting since his childhood and started acting at age of 8. He got his biggest break, when he was at 17, as Ralphie in Clifford Odets’s ‘Awake and Sing’.
Leonard joined UCLA to study photography but didn’t complete graduation there. In 1953, he received the degree of graduation from Boston College. He next received Master of Arts’ degree in Education and is an honorary doctorate from Antioch University. In the beginning of his acting career, he portrayed characters in several B grade movies and TV shows, including Dragnet etc. In 1961, he made a minor appearance on an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ entitled ‘A Quality of Mercy’.
He’s most popular for his appearance on ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ and it helped him to earn three nominations. He reprised the same role as a voice-over in ‘Star Trek: The Animated Series’. He also appeared in six Star Trek motion pictures. In the upcoming Star Trek movie, directed by JJ Abrams, Leonard will perform an older Spock.
Before joining Star Trek cast, he made appearances in more than 50 movies or television shows. He played an important role in ‘The Balcony’. After the Star Trek: The Original Series got cancelled, he joined the cast of ‘Mission: Impossible’, portraying an IMF agent. In 1971, Leonard Nimoy made appearance on ‘Catlow’, a Western Movie. In the very same period, he was seen on innumerous television films such as ‘Assault on the Wayne’, ‘Baffled’, ‘The Alpha Caper’, ‘The Missing are Deadly’, Seizure: The Story of Kathy Morris’, ‘Marco Polo’ etc. For his brilliant performance on the TV movie ‘A Woman Called Golda’, Nimoy received an Emmy Award nomination as the Best Supporting Actor. He then made guest appearances on various TV shows such as ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Eleventh Hour’, ‘Get Smart’, ‘Two Faces West’, ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘Combat!’, ‘Perry Mason’, ‘Night Gallery’, ‘Columbo’ etc. In late 1970s, Leonard hosted and narrated the TV show ‘In Search of…’. In remake of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, he was seen portraying a mad scientist type New Age psychologist. He played important characters in several plays such 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 etc.
He tried his hand in directing as well and directed a few television show episodes. It was 1984, when he turned towards film directing. He directed ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’ in 1986 and his next project was ‘Three Men and a Baby’. He also served as a voice-over in several projects. In 1986, Leonard Nimoy gave his voice to the character of Galvatron in ‘The Transformers: The Movie’ and in 1994, he landed his voice in ‘The Pagemaster’.
He has written two autobiographies. The first was written in 1977 and it was entitled ‘I Am Not Spock’. His second autobiography, I Am Spock, was published in 1995. In addition, he has also written several poems. The latest one is titled ‘A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life’. In the mid 1970s, he wrote and also made an appearance in a one man play entitled ‘Vincent’. While working on and after series’ cancellation, he released five albums of vocal recordings which have been so popular. In 1985, Nimoy directed a music video for ‘The Bangles’ named ‘Going Down to Liverpool’ and also made a little appearance on the show. He later released a version of country music legend Johnny Cash’s song ‘I Walk the Line’ and also made an appearance in Hearts of Space.
He has also narrated the Ancient Mysteries series on A& E. In the late 1990s, he appeared in ads in UK for a computer company, Time Computers. In the 1998 TV movie version of Aldous Huxley’s novel named ‘Brave New World’, he played an important role. His other popular television series are Futurama and The Simpsons.
It was 2003 when Leonard Nimoy decided to quit acting and announced his retirement. He decided so to pay attention to photography. He then made appearance in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication. In 2005, Nimoy gave his voice to computer game Civilization IV. On the TV series Next Wave, he interviewed people about technology. Nimoy also hosted a documentary film ‘The Once and Future Griffith Observatory’. On November 9, 2008, Leonard Nimoy narrated ‘Shining Through the Broken Glass: A Concert to Commemorate Kristallnacht.
During his teenage, Nimoy won the award for distinguished alumni from BBYO, the Jewish Youth Organization. He can speak and read Yiddish. He has been married twice. He first married Sandra Zober, an actress in 1954 and has two children with her, namely Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy. They got divorced in 1987. Leonard then married Susan Bay, an actress.
Among his other notable appearances are ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock’, ‘Three Man and a Baby’, The Good Mother, Funny About Love, Holy Matrimony, Kid Monk Baroni, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Them!, Sea Hunt, Satan’s Satellites, The Brain Eaters, 26 Men, General Hospital, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Get Smart, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, The Sun Also Rises, Aladin and his Wonderful Lamp, Never Forget etc.
Role on ‘Star Trek :The Original Series’
On ‘Star Trek: The Original Series‘ Leonard Nimoy portrayed the character of Spock. He’s among the important characters of series and has a significant place in Star Trek franchise.
