LOS ANGELES: Leonard Nimoy, the actor known and loved by generations of “Star Trek” fans as the pointy-eared, purely logical science officer Mr Spock, has died. He was 83.

Nimoy’s son, Adam Nimoy, said the actor died on Friday of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his Los Angeles home.

Although Leonard Nimoy followed his 1966-69 “Star Trek” run with a notable career as both an actor and director, in the public’s mind he would always be Spock. His half-human, half-Vulcan character was the calm counterpoint to William Shatner’s often-emotional Captain Kirk on one of television and film’s most revered cult series.

Nimoy’s ambivalence to the role was reflected in the titles of his two autobiographies, “I Am Not Spock” (1975) and “I Am Spock” (1995). After “Star Trek” ended, the actor immediately joined the hit adventure series “Mission Impossible” as Paris, the mission team’s master of disguises.

From 1976 to 1982 he hosted the syndicated TV series “In Search of ... ” which attempted to probe such mysteries as the legend of the Loch Ness Monster and the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart.

He also directed several films, including the hit comedy, “Three Men and a Baby”, and appeared in such plays as “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “The King and I”, “My Fair Lady” and “Equus”. NO ESCAPING SPOCK: But he could never really escape the role that took him overnight from bit-part actor status to TV star, and in a 1995 interview he sought to analyse the popularity of Spock, the green-blooded space traveler who aspired to live a life based on pure logic.

People identified with Spock because they “recognise in themselves this wish that they could be logical and avoid the pain of anger and confrontation”, Nimoy concluded.—AP

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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