Leonard Nimoy, Spock of 'Star Trek,' Dies at 83

Leonard Nimoy has died at the age of 83 at his Los Angeles home. In a statement, his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, said that he had he sadly succumbed end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an illness he had been battling for the past year.

Famed for his portrayal of the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock in the "Star Trek" original series and Star Trek movies, Nimoy is an inspiration to millions, building a huge fan base over the years. He was also a world-renowned director, photographer, poet and singer.

But of all his artistic roles, I will forever remember his role as the logical and often confounding Spock. His starship adventures with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the Starship Enterprise crew underscored my childhood and, by appearing in eight of the Star Trek movies — from 1979's “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” to 2013's “Star Trek: Into Darkness” — I’ve realized that Nimoy’s science fiction work has been with me all my life.

For me, I will always remember his stellar acting role in “The Search for Spock,” the second of a three-movie arc of Star Trek movies that Nimoy also directed. In the movie, the crew of the Starship Enterprise, having mourned the loss of Spock and other crewmembers at the hands of Kirk’s nemesis, Kahn, embark on a voyage to the experiment-gone-wrong planet Genesis to retrieve Spock’s body. The Genesis device had resurrected Spock.

According to the New York Times, Nimoy admitted to developing a “mystical identification” with his character Spock, being the lone alien on the starship’s bridge. But he also expressed ambivalence to always being attached to his most famous creation, writing, in his 1977 autobiography, “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.”

Due to Star Trek’s immense popularity in the late 1970s, science fiction received a huge dose of science fact when NASA named one of its brand new Space Shuttle fleet “Enterprise.” During a famous photo shoot in front of the atmospheric test vehicle, the cast of Star Trek, including Nimoy, DeForest Kelley (Dr. “Bones” McCoy), George Takei (Mr. Sulu), James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott) and Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) joined Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry and NASA administrator James D. Fletcher at the Shuttle’s Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facilities.

Thirty-five years later, in April 2012, Nimoy was in New York to welcome Space Shuttle Enterprise to the city after the shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.

“This is a reunion for me,” Nimoy said during a ceremony after Enterprise’s touchdown at John F. Kennedy International Airport. “Thirty-five years ago, I met the Enterprise for the first time.

“When this ship was first built, it was named Constitution,” Nimoy said. “‘Star Trek’ fans can be very persuasive. They sent a lot of letters to president Gerald Ford and the president logically decided that the ship should be named after our spaceship Enterprise.”

Read more at Discovery News