Music
27 Feb 15

Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy Dies in LA

The renowned star of film and TV suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and blamed smoking for the illness that eventually claimed his life...

Hot Press has learned with sadness of the death of Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy was best known for his role as the pointy-eared Spock in the original series of the cult TV classic Star Trek.

He also played the role in a number of subsequent Star Trek movies, as well as on TV and in video games. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1931, he was 83 years old. He had reportedly been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. On his Twitter feed he referred to the fact that he had been a smoker: "I quit smoking 30 yrs ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP."

His career began in 1951, and in 1952 he nabbed the lead role in the film Kid Monk Baroni. But he didn't make the hoped-for big screen breakthrough and over the following 25 years he took on a huge variety of minor roles. However he played in numerous major TV series, including Dragnet, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Rawhide and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., before beginning his remarkable involvement in Star Trek. The initial series ran from 1966 to 1969 but he was involved later in the The Animated Series of which 22 episodes were broadcast and in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991).

Star Trek transferred to the big screen in 1979 and delivered eight full length feature films in all, making both Nimoy and his character Spock into household names.

A musician, poet, writer and photographer, Nimoy was the definition of a renaissance man. He released five albums and published seven books of poetry, as well as two volumes of autobiography, I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock (1995). He starred in a number of music videos, including Bruno Mars hit 'The Lazy Song' (2011).

Nimoy, who was interviewed by Paul O'Mahony for Hot Press in the late 1990s, is survived by his wife Susan Bay and by his children Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy. His final tweet would make an outstanding epitaph, with LLAP an acronym for Live Long and Prosper:

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"