"It is not the only logical explanation. For example, you could be hallucinating after being hit on the head by, say, a coconut." - as the voice of Mr Spock from The Big Bang Theory, The Transporter Malfunction (2012) The mineral "Yominium Sulfide" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), is named after him. The first five letters "Yominium" spell "Nimoy" backwards. Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, singer and photographer. Nimoy is best known for his role of Spock in the original Star Trek series (1966–69), and in multiple film, television, and video game sequels. He was born in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Soviet Union (now Ukraine). His parents left Iziaslav separately (his father first walking over the border into Poland) and reunited in the United States. His mother, Dora (née Spinner), was a homemaker, and his father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop. Nimoy began acting at the age of 8 in a children's and neighborhood theater. His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the accordion, with which, his father advised, Nimoy could always make a living, but his grandfather encouraged him to become an actor. His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!, which dealt with the struggles of a matriarchal Jewish family during the Great Depression. Nimoy said the role "lit a passion" that led him to pursue an acting career. "I never wanted to do anything else." Nimoy took drama classes at Boston College and at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he became a devotee of Stanislavski's Method acting concepts and method actor Marlon Brando was a role model. Between studies, to have some income, he took a job at an ice cream parlor on the Sunset Strip. He had an MA in Education from Antioch College, an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio, awarded for activism in Holocaust remembrance, the arts, and the environment, and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Boston University. Nimoy began his career in his early twenties, teaching acting classes in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s, as well as playing the title role in Kid Monk Baroni. Foreshadowing his fame as a semi-alien, he played Narab, one of three Martian invaders in the 1952 movie serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (left). In 1953, Nimoy enlisted in the United States Army Reserve at Fort McPherson Georgia, serving for 18 months until 1955, leaving as a sergeant. Part of Nimoy's time in the military was spent with the Army Special Services, putting on shows which he wrote, narrated, and emceed. During that period, he also directed and starred in A Streetcar Named Desire, with the Atlanta Theater Guild. Nimoy believed that playing the title role in the 1952 film Kid Monk Baroni would make him a star, but later said that "it played about three days as a second bill somewhere in Hollywood and then died." While serving in the military the film gained a larger audience on television, and Nimoy said that after his discharge "I began to work steadily as a 'heavy.' I learned to use a switchblade and a gun, how to kick people, hit people, choke 'em, threaten 'em, torture 'em, all the nice things heavies do." He played more than 50 small parts in B movies, television series such as Perry Mason and Dragnet, but to support his family, he often did other work, such as delivering newspapers and even owned a pet store in Canoga Park, California during the 1960s. Nimoy played an Army sergeant in the 1954 science fiction thriller Them! (above) and a professor in the 1958 science fiction movie The Brain Eaters. On television, Nimoy appeared as "Sonarman" in two episodes of the 1957–1958 syndicated military drama The Silent Service, based on actual events of the submarine section of the United States Navy. He had guest roles in the Sea Hunt series (below left) from 1958 to 1960 and a minor role in the 1961 The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy" (below right). He also appeared in the syndicated Highway Patrol starring Broderick Crawford. In 1959, Nimoy was cast as Luke Reid in the "Night of Decision" episode of the ABC/Warner Bros. western series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston and directed by Leslie H. Martinson. He would go on to guest star numerours shows in the 60's including Bonanza (1960), The Rebel (1960), Two Faces West (1961), Rawhide (1961), The Untouchables (1962), The Eleventh Hour (1962), Perry Mason (1963; playing murderer Pete Chennery in "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe", episode 13 of season 6), Combat! (1963, 1965), Daniel Boone and Get Smart (1966). He appeared four times in ethnic roles on NBC's Wagon Train, the No. 1 program in 1962. He portrayed Bernabe Zamora in "The Estaban Zamora Story" (1959), "Cherokee Ned" in "The Maggie Hamilton Story" (1960), Joaquin Delgado in "The Tiburcio Mendez Story" (1961), and Emeterio Vasquez in "The Baylor Crowfoot Story" (1962). He appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits in 1964 and again in the 1995. He also made two appearaces on Gunsmoke, once in 1962 as Arnie and again in 1966 as John Walking Fox. Nimoy guest starred in The Virginian (1963-1965; first working with Star Trek co-star DeForest Kelley in "Man of Violence", episode 14 of season 2, in 1963). Nimoy and Star Trek co-star William Shatner first worked together on an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964 right). Their characters were from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, Nimoy was the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit. Along with David McCallum, Cliff Robertson, Barbara Rush and Peter Breck, he is one of only five actors to appear in both The Outer Limits (1963) and The Outer Limits (1995). In 1965, he made his first appearance as Spock in the rejected Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," (above) followed by three seasons of the Star Trek original series. He went on to reprise the Spock character in Star Trek: The Animated Series and two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. When a new Star Trek series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role. The first six Star Trek movies feature the original Star Trek cast including Nimoy. He played the elder Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie and reprised the role in a brief appearance in the 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, both directed by J. J. Abrams. Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the 2009 Star Trek film. After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film (critically and financially) in the franchise after the 2009 Star Trek film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Three Men and a Baby, the highest grossing film of 1987. His character of Spock has had a significant cultural impact and garnered Nimoy three Emmy Award nominations; TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. Along with Majel Barrett, he is one of only two actors to appear in both the first and last episodes of the original Star Trek series, to appear in every episode of the original series and to (along with Barrett) appear on Star Trek in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. On the stage, Nimoy played the lead role in a short run of Gore Vidal's Visit to a Small Planet in 1968 (shortly before the end of the original Star Trek series) at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois. In 2014, Walter Koenig revealed in a Las Vegas Sun interview that Leonard Nimoy personally and successfully advocated equal pay for both his and Nichelle Nichols' work on Star Trek to the show's producers during the Desilu years. Following Star Trek in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series Mission: Impossible (below), which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast in the role of Paris, an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, "The Great Paris". He played the role during seasons four and five (1969–1971). Nimoy had strongly been considered as part of the initial cast for the show, but remained in the Spock role on Star Trek. Nimoy co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie Catlow (1971). He also had roles in two episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1972 and 1973) and Columbo (1973) where he played a murderous doctor who was one of the few criminals with whom Columbo became angry. Nimoy appeared in various made for television films such as Assault on the Wayne (1970), Baffled! (1972), The Alpha Caper (1973), The Missing Are Deadly (1974), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, below with Donald Sutherland), Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980) and Marco Polo (1982). He received an Emmy Award nomination for best supporting actor for the television film A Woman Called Golda (1982), for playing the role of Morris Meyerson, Golda Meir's husband opposite Ingrid Bergman as Golda in her final role. During this time, Nimoy also won acclaim for a series of stage roles. He appeared in such plays as Vincent (1981), Fiddler on the Roof, The Man in the Glass Booth, Oliver!, 6 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. Nimoy hosted the documentary series In Search of...(1976), Ancient Mysteries (1994) and narrated Civilization IV, as well as making several well-received stage appearances. Nimoy also appeared in several popular television series, including Futurama and The Simpsons, as both himself and Spock. In 1994, Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in The Pagemaster. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in Brave New World, a TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel. In 1995, Leonard returned to the Ponderosa, starring in Bonanza Under Attack. In 2001, Nimoy voiced the role of the Atlantean King Kashekim Nedakh in the Disney animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire which featured Michael J. Fox voicing the lead role. Nimoy also had a recurring role in the science fiction series Fringe (2009) as "Dr. William Bell". Nimoy also came up with the concept of the "Vulcan Nerve Pinch," which he suggested as a replacement for the scripted knock out method of using the butt of his phaser. He wanted a more sophisticated way an unarmed Spock could overpower an adversary without resorting to violence. Nimoy explained the idea of putting his hand on his neck and shoulder to Shatner, and they rehearsed it. Nimoy credits Shatner's acting during the "pinch" that sold the idea: "It was his reaction that really makes you believe it really works." The sign that Spock makes with his hand is half of what is commonly done by the Cohanim, the Jewish Priests, when they bless the congregation. Nimoy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 16th, 1985. In 1987 Nimoy played Spock in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode "Unification". Because of his schedule, part two was filmed before part one. Nimoy's fame as Spock was such that both of his autobiographies, I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock (1995), were written from the viewpoint of sharing his existence with the character. Selected Leonard Nimoy TVography Dragnet - The Big Name (1959) - The Big Boys (1954) The Tall Man - A Gun Is for Killing (1961) - Bounty for Billy (1960) The West Point Story - Cold Peril (1957) - His Brother's Fist (1956) 26 Men - Ricochet (1959) . - Long Trail Home (1959) - Trail of Revenge Highway Patrol - Blood Money (1958) - Hot Dust (1957) Broken Arrow - The Iron Maiden (1958) - The Trial (1957) - Conquistador (1957) Mackenzie's Raiders - Joe Ironhat (1959) - The Imposter (1959) Sea Hunt - The Invader (1960) - Time Fuse (1960) - Sea Serpent (1959) - Chain of Evidence (1959) - Nerve Gas (1959) - The Alcatraz Story (1959) - Dead Man's Cove (1958) - The Shipwreck (1958) Wagon Train - The Baylor Crowfoot Story (1962) - The Tiburcio Mendez Story (1961) - The Maggie Hamilton Story (1960) - The Estaban Zamora Story (1959) Bonanza - The Ape (1960) Gunsmoke - Treasure of John Walking Fox (1966) - I Call Him Wonder (1963) - The Search (1962) - A Man a Day (1961) The Twilight Zone - A Quality of Mercy (1961) Rawhide - Incident Before Black Pass (1961) Perry Mason - The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe (1963) Dr. Kildare - An Island Like a Peacock (1963) Combat! - The Raider (1965) - The Wounded Don't Cry (1963) The Virginian - Show Me a Hero (1965) - The Showdown (1965) - Man of Violence (1963) The Outer Limits - I, Robot (1964) - Production and Decay of Strange Particles (1964) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Project Strigas Affair (1964) Get Smart - The Dead Spy Scrawls (1966) Daniel Boone - Seminole Territory (1966) Star Trek - series co-star 1966-1979 Mission: Impossible - series co-star 1969-1971 Columbo - A Stitch in Crime (1973) Star Trek: The Animated Series - series co-star 1973-1974 In Search of... - Host and Narrator Night Gallery - She'll Be Company for You (1972) T. J. Hooker - Vengeance Is Mine (1983) Star Trek: The Next Generation - Unification (Parts 1 and 2, 1991) The Simpsons - The Springfield Files (1997) - Marge vs. the Monorail (1993) Ancient Mysteries - Host and Narrator The Outer Limits - I, Robot (1964) - Production and Decay of Strange Particles (1964) Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man - Where No Duckman Has Gone Before (1997) Futurama - Space Pilot 3000 - Where No Fan Has Gone Before Becker - The TorMentor (2001) Fringe - Brave New World: Part 2 (2012) - Brave New World: Part 1 (2012) - Letters of Transit (2012) - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (2011) - Over There: Part 2 (2010) - Over There: Part 1 (2010) - Brown Betty (2010) - Grey Matters (2009) - Momentum Deferred (2009) - There's More Than One of Everything (2009) - Bad Dreams (2009) The Big Bang Theory - The Transporter Malfunction (2012) Nimoy voiced the reemerged Megatron, known as Galvatron, in the animated Transformers: The Movie (1986). Nimoy's wife, Susan Bay, is a cousin of Michael Bay who would bring a live action Transformers (2007) to the big screen and Nimoy would provide the voice of Sentinel Prime in the sequel, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2001). Selected Leonard Nimoy Filmography 1951 Rhubarb 1952 Kid Monk Baroni 1952 Zombies of the Stratosphere 1952 Francis Goes to West Point 1953 Old Overland Trail 1954 Them! 1958 The Brain Eaters 1961 87th Precinct 1963 The Balcony 1966 Deathwatch 1971 Assault on the Wayne 1971 Catlow 1973 Baffled! 1974 Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1981 Vincent 1982 A Woman Called Golda 1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1984 The Sun Also Rises 1986 The Transformers: The Movie 1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 1991 Never Forget 1991 Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories 1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1994 The Pagemaster 1995 Titanica 1997 A Life Apart: Hasidism in America 1997 David 1998 The Harryhausen Chronicles 1998 Brave New World 2000 Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists 2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire 2009 Star Trek 2009 Land of the Lost 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2012 Zambezia 2013 Star Trek Into Darkness Writting credits include Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Nimoy made his directorial debut in 1973, directing the "Death On A Barge" segment for an episode of Night Gallery during its final season. It wouldn't be until the early 1980s that Nimoy resumed directing at a consistent basis, ranging from television shows to motion pictures. He directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and also directed the 1984 The Bangles video: "Going Down to Liverpool". He also directed the 1987 film Three Men and a Baby. His final directorial credit was in 1995 for the episode "Killshot", the pilot for the television series Deadly Games. Nimoy’s stage credits include: "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver", "Camelot" and "Equus". He Is an avid writer of poetry and has written a number of books including, "I Am Not Spock" (1977) and "I Am Spock" (1995). Also in 1995 he released a book of photographs, "The Full Body Project". Nimoy has remained good friends with Star Trek co-star William Shatner and was best man at Shatner's third marriage in 1997. He also remained good friends with DeForest Kelley until Kelley's death in 1999. Like his friend William Shatner, Nimoy suffers from tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which is a symptom of hearing loss. Nimoy and Shatner likely got it filming a Star Trek episode called "Arena" (1967), where he and Shatner stood close to a special effects explosion resulting in Nimoy having tinnitus in his right ear and Shatner having it in his left ear. Nimoy has appeared in episodes of six different series with William Shatner: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Mission: Impossible (1966), Star Trek (1966), Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973), T.J. Hooker (1982) and Futurama (1999). In the May 9th, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest in the "Weekend Update" segment with Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine, who play the young Spock and Kirk in the Star Trek reboot that had just premiered a few days earlier. In the sketch, Quinto and Pine attempt to appease long-time Trekkers by assuring them that the new film would be true to the original Star Trek. When the two indicated that they had been the target of harassment and threats by Trekkers, Nimoy appeared, assuring them that fans would enjoy the new film. When host Seth Meyers surmised that Nimoy was about to say that to not do so would be illogical, Nimoy stated, "No, I was going to say was to not like it would make them dickheads." In April 2010, Leonard Nimoy announced that he was retiring from playing Spock, citing both his advanced age and the desire to give Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep was to be his final performance. However, in February 2011, he announced his definite plan to return to Fringe and reprise his role as William Bell. His retirement from acting did not include voice acting, as his appearance in the third season of Fringe includes his voice (his character appears only in animated scenes), and he provided the voice of Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In May 2011, Nimoy made a cameo appearance in the alternate version music video of Bruno Mars' "The Lazy Song". Aaron Bay-Schuck, the Atlantic Records executive who signed Bruno Mars to the label, is Nimoy's stepson. Nimoy provided the voice of Spock as a guest star in a Season 5 episode of the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory (seen below on set with the cast). The episode is titled "The Transporter Malfunction" and aired on March 29th, 2012. On August 30th, 2012, Nimoy narrated a satirical segment about Mitt Romney's life on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2013, Nimoy reprised his role as Spock Prime in a cameo appearance in the film Star Trek Into Darkness. Nimoy had long been active in the Jewish community. He could speak and read Yiddish, his first language. Nimoy was married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober (1927–2011), whom he divorced in 1987. On New Year's Day of 1989, he married actress Susan Bay, cousin of director Michael Bay. In a 2001 DVD, Nimoy revealed that he became an alcoholic while working on Star Trek and ended up in drug rehabilitation. William Shatner, in his 2008 book Up Till Now: The Autobiography, spoke about how later in their lives, Nimoy tried to help Shatner's alcoholic wife, Nerine Kidd. Nimoy has said that the character of Spock, which he played twelve to fourteen hours a day, five days a week, influenced his personality in private life. Each weekend during the original run of the series, he would be in character throughout Saturday and into Sunday, behaving more like Spock than himself, more logical, more rational, more thoughtful, less emotional and finding a calm in every situation. It was only on Sunday in the early afternoon that Spock's influence on his behavior would fade off and he would feel more himself again, only to start the cycle over again on Monday morning. Years after the show he wrote that "To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior." Nimoy was a private pilot and had owned an airplane. The Space Foundation named Nimoy as the recipient of the 2010 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for creating a positive role model that inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe. In 2009, Nimoy was honored by his childhood hometown when the Office of Mayor Thomas Menino proclaimed the date of November 14th, 2009, as Leonard Nimoy Day in the City of Boston. Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; for the rest of his life, he owned a camera that he rebuilt at the age of 13. In the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His photography studies at UCLA occurred after Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers. His work has been exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Nimoy authored two volumes of autobiography. The first was called I Am Not Spock (1975) and was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock. The contents of this first autobiography also touched on a self-proclaimed "identity crisis" that seemed to haunt Nimoy throughout his career. It also related to an apparent love/hate relationship with the character of Spock and the Trek franchise. I went through a definite identity crisis. The question was whether to embrace Mr. Spock or to fight the onslaught of public interest. I realize now that I really had no choice in the matter. Spock and Star Trek were very much alive and there wasn't anything that I could do to change that. The second volume, I Am Spock (1995), saw Nimoy communicating that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed the character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction. Nimoy also composed several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. A later poetic volume entitled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life was published in 2002. His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. Nimoy adapted and starred in the one-man play Vincent (1981), based on the play Van Gogh (1979) by Phillip Stephens. In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of Primortals, a comic book series published by Tekno Comix about first contact with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry. During and following Star Trek, Nimoy also released five albums of musical vocal recordings on Dot Records. On his first album, Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space, and half of his second album Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, science fiction-themed songs are featured where Nimoy sings as Spock. On his final three albums, he sings popular folk songs of the era and cover versions of popular songs, such as "Proud Mary" and Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line". There are also several songs on the later albums that were written or co-written by Nimoy. He described how his recording career got started: Charles Grean of Dot Records had arranged with the studio to do an album of space music based on music from Star Trek, and he has a teenage daughter who's a fan of the show and a fan of Mr. Spock. She said, 'Well, if you're going to do an album of music from Star Trek, then Mr. Spock should be on the album.' So Dot contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in either speaking or singing on the record. I said I was very interested in doing both. ... That was the first album we did, which was called Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space. It was very well received and successful enough that Dot then approached me and asked me to sign a long-term contract. Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band Information Society in the late Eighties. The song, "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (released in 1988), reached No. 3 on the US Pop charts, and No. 1 on the Dance charts. Nimoy played the part of the chauffeur in the 1985 music video of The Bangles' cover version of "Going Down to Liverpool". He also appeared in the alternate music video for the song "The Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars. In 2014, shortly after he was photographed in a wheelchair and using an oxygen mask, Nimoy revealed that he has been diagnosed with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. On Twitter, he said: 'I quit smoking 30 yrs ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP (Live Long and Prosper)'. On February 19th, 2015, Nimoy was taken to UCLA Medical Center for chest pain and had been in and out of hospitals for the "past several months." He died on February 27th, 2015 at the age of 83 in his Bel Air home from complications of COPD. He is survived by his wife, two children, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. A few days before his death, Nimoy shared some of his poetry on social media website Twitter: "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP". On Twitter, William Shatner wrote of Nimoy, "I loved him like a brother. ... We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love." George Takei stated, "The word extraordinary is often overused, but I think it's really appropriate for Leonard. He was an extraordinarily talented man, but he was also a very decent human being." Walter Koenig said he knew the Spock character better than he did Nimoy at first. "When I finally did get to know the man better I discovered his compassion, his intelligence and his humanity. All of which laid the foundation for his keen sense of philanthropy." Nichelle Nichols wrote, "Leonard’s integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport Star Trek into television history." Zachary Quinto, who portrayed the younger Spock character in Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, wrote, "My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you every day." In a statement, U.S. President Barack Obama said he “loved” the Spock character, and paid tribute to Nimoy, whom he called “a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time." Canadian Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also joined the outpouring of remembrance for Nimoy. "For us Trekkies he was – and always shall be – our friend. #LLAP," Trudeau wrote, using the abbreviation for Spock's trademark expression "Live long, and prosper." slideshow