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Leonard Nimoy Dies At 83
Esther Schindler writes: According to the NY Times, Leonard Nimoy died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83 years old. He was, and always shall be, our friend.
From the article:
His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Mr. Nimoy announced last year that he had the disease, which he attributed to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week. His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).
Leonard Nimoy @TheRealNimoy Feb 23
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP
I come to Slashdot for interesting news, not sad news. That said, I watched rerun after rerun of TOS growing up, and the vision expressed in Star Trek permanently impressed on me, with Leonard Nimoy excellent portrayal of Spock and the importance of logic and careful analysis playing a strong role in my career choice. I am confident in saying that I am hardly alone in that, but I'm also confident in saying that I think Mr. Nimoy was well aware of how he had shaped generations of young minds through the medium of acting. Thank you for what you did for all of us.
No comment text.
Suborbital [spaceflight] is the special olympics of spaceflight. - Rei
Sad day.
Indeed.
It honestly hadn't occurred to me that Spock COULD die. He was there on the grainy black and white TV where I first encountered Star Trek as a boy back in the 1960's. He's been ... a constant of the universe.
Other actors, yeah, you know they'll get old and they'll die. But somehow Nimoy seemed rather more immortal. Not because of the events of any of his characters, but just from the sheer icon nature of them.
In an earlier era, Yul Brenner had a short video about not smoking and directed it be published after cigarettes killed him.
He didn't die; the great Enterprise in the sky beamed him up.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
This one hits close to home.
As a child in the late 1960s I was inspired to my present technical life and career by two major influences: Project Apollo and Star Trek. I thought Spock had the coolest job in the universe. He played with techie stuff and figured stuff out. I wanted that sort of job too. And I got it.
...laura
It'll be one of those moments I'll remember, like coming into work and being told about the Challenger disaster, or turning on the car radio and hearing the hushed voices of the announcers on 9/11. Like so many people I feel a connection to this wonderful man.
Of course he did more than play Spock; and in the early post-TOS years he was famously ambivalent about his association with the role. But he did something special with that role. It's easy in the fog of nostalgia to forget that man TOS scripts weren't all that great (although some of them were). The character of Spock might have become just an obscure bit of pop culture trivia; instead Nimoy turned Spock into a character that I feel sure actors in our grandchildren's generation will want to play and make their mark upon.
What Nimoy brought to that role is a dignity and authenticity, possibly rooted in his "alien" experience as the child of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. In less sensitive hands the part might have been a joke, but I think what many of us took away from Nimoy's performance was something that became deeply influential in our world views. Nimoy's Spock taught us that there was something admirable in being different even when that is hard for others to understand; that winning the respect of others is just as rewarding as popularity. The world needs its oddballs and misfits, not to conform, but to be the very best version of themselves they can be. Authenticity is integrity.
It's customary to say things in remembrances like "you will be missed", but that falls short. Leonard Nimoy, you will live on in the lives of all us you have touched.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
if it 's bad for the companies to profit off a legal product, it's just as bad for the government to profit off it.
the biggest profiteer from cigarettes is the government.
we have free will.
end of story, stop demonizing legal business.
Yes. The character of Spock in so many ways represented Roddenberry's hope for the future; where reason and science would be used for the betterment of humanity.
What I liked about Nimoy's portrayal was that he always allowed Spock's fundamental humanity to peak out through the sides. It was always subtle, often little more than his famed raising of the eyebrow, but it somehow gave Spock so much depth.
One only has to look at Zachary Quinto's take on Spock to see Nimoy's deliberate and effective acting choices. I'm not saying Quinto's portrayal is bad, but it lacks the subtlety that Nimoy brought to the character.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Don't forget his underrated first leading man big-screen role as Kid Monk Baroni, 1952...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
"Leonard Nimoy is "Kid" Monk Baroni, the leader of a street gang who becomes a professional boxer to escape his life in "Little Italy" New York."
Hard to believe it's the same guy.
Don't forget his underrated first leading man big-screen role as Kid Monk Baroni, 1952...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
"Leonard Nimoy is "Kid" Monk Baroni, the leader of a street gang who becomes a professional boxer to escape his life in "Little Italy" New York."
Hard to believe it's the same guy.
And his photography.
RIP. Sad sad sad.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)