Leonard Nimoy Biography

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"1969), and in multiple film, television, and video game sequels.

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. In 1953, he served in the United States Army. In 1965, he made his first appearance in the rejected Star Trek pilot, "The Cage", and would go on to play the character of Mr. Spock until 1969, followed by seven feature films and guest slots in various sequels. His character of Spock had a significant cultural impact and garnered Nimoy three Emmy Award nominations; TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. After the original Star Trek series, Nimoy starred in Mission: Impossible for two seasons, hosted the documentary series In Search of..., and narrated Civilization IV, as well as making several well-received stage appearances. More recently, he also had a recurring role in the science fiction series Fringe.

Nimoy's fame as Spock is 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.

Early life

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the West End, to Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Soviet Union (now Ukraine). Nimoy is four days younger than his Star Trek co-star, William Shatner. His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker. Nimoy began acting at the age of eight in 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!. Nimoy took drama classes at Boston College in 1953 but failed to complete his studies, and in the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has an MA in Education from Antioch College, an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio, and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Boston University.

Nimoy served as a sergeant in the United States Army from 1953 through 1955, alongside fellow actor Ken Berry and architect Frank Gehry.

Career

Stage and screen

Nimoy's film and television acting career began in 1951, but after receiving the title role in the 1952 film Kid Monk Baroni, a story about a street punk turned professional boxer, he played more than 50 small parts in B movies, television series such as Perry Mason and Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures' Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). To support his family, he often did other work, such as delivering newspapers.

He played an Army sergeant in the 1954 science fiction thriller Them! and a professor in the 1958 science fiction movie The Brain Eaters, and had a role in The Balcony (1963), a film adaptation of the Jean Genet play. With Vic Morrow, he produced a 1966 version of Deathwatch, an English-language film version of Genet's play Haute Surveillance, adapted and directed by Morrow and starring Nimoy.

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 from 1958 to 1960 and a minor role in the 1961 The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy". 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.

Nimoy appeared three times in ethnic roles on NBC's Wagon Train, the No. 1 program of 1962. He portrayed Bernabe Zamora in "The Estaban Zamora Story" (1959), "Cherokee Ned" in "The Maggie Hamilton Story" (1960) and Joaquin Delgado in "The Tiburcio Mendez Story" (1961).

In the 1960s, Nimoy appeared in Bonanza (1960), The Rebel (1960), Two Faces West (1961), Rawhide (episode, Incident Before Black Pass. 1961), The Untouchables (1962), The Eleventh Hour (1962), Combat! (1963, 1965), Daniel Boone, The Outer Limits (1964), The Virginian (1965), Get Smart (1966) and Mission: Impossible (1969-1971). In 1963 he played the role of murderer Pete Chennery in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe." He appeared again in the 1995 Outer Limits series.

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 Star Trek series) at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois (now closed).

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). Their characters were from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Nimoy first worked with Star Trek co-star DeForest Kelley in "Man of Violence", a season two episode of The Virginian.

Star Trek

}} Nimoy's greatest prominence came from his role in the original Star Trek series. As the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock"?a role he chose instead of one on the soap opera Peyton Place"?Nimoy became a star, and the press predicted that he would "have his choice of movies or television series." He formed a long-standing friendship with Shatner, who portrayed his commanding officer, saying of their relationship, "We were like brothers." Star Trek was broadcast from 1966 to 1969. Nimoy earned three Emmy Award nominations for his work on the iconic program that has defined American television science fiction, both for fans of science fiction, and beyond.

He went on to reprise the Spock character in Star Trek: The Animated Series and two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first six Star Trek movies feature the original Star Trek cast including Nimoy, who also directed two of the films. 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.

Spock's Vulcan salute became a recognized symbol of the show and was identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (Jewish priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace. The accompanying spoken blessing, "Live long and prosper".

Nimoy was asked to read these verses as part of his narration for Civilization IV.

After Star Trek

Following Star Trek in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series Mission: Impossible, 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 the fourth and fifth seasons of the show from 1969 to 1971.

He 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), 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).

In 1975, Leonard Nimoy filmed an opening introduction to Ripley's World of the Unexplained museum located at Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Fisherman's Wharf at San Francisco, California. In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series In Search of..., which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a psychiatrist in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

During this time, Nimoy also won acclaim for a series of stage roles. He appeared in such plays as Vincent, 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.

Star Trek films

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. 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, made him a star director. At a press conference promoting the 2009 Star Trek movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct:

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Other work after Star Trek

In 1978, Nimoy played Dr. David Kibner in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie in 1986.

Nimoy was featured as the voice-over narrator for the CBS paranormal series Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories in 1991.

In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a pro bono publico lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial. Nimoy also played the Mermelstein role and believes: "If every project brought me the same sense of fulfillment that Never Forget did, I would truly be in paradise."

Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in The Pagemaster in 1994. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Together with John de Lancie, another ex-actor from the Star Trek series, Nimoy created Alien Voices, an audio-production venture that specializes in audio dramatizations. Among the works jointly narrated by the pair are The Time Machine, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, The Invisible Man and The First Men in the Moon, as well as several television specials for the Sci-Fi Channel. In an interview published on the official Star Trek website, Nimoy said that Alien Voices was discontinued because the series didn't sell well enough to recoup costs.

From 1994 until 1998, Nimoy narrated the Ancient Mysteries series on A&E including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "Secrets of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. In 1997, Nimoy played the prophet Samuel, alongside Nathaniel Parker, in The Bible Collection movie "David". He had a central role in Brave New World, a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel where he played a character reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. Nimoy has also appeared in several popular television seriesincluding Futurama and The Simpsonsas both himself and Spock.

Nimoy appeared in Hearts of Space program number 142 " "Whales Alive."

In 1999, he voiced the narration of the English version of the Sega Dreamcast game Seaman and promoted Y2K educational films.

In 2000, he provided on-camera hosting and introductions for 45 half-hour episodes of an anthology series entitled Our 20th Century on the AEN TV Network. The series covers world news, sports, entertainment, technology, and fashion using original archive news clips from 1930 to 1975 from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and other private archival sources.

In 2001, Nimoy voiced the role of the King of Alantis in the Disney animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which featured Michael J. Fox voicing the lead role.

In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.

Nimoy provided a comprehensive series of voice-overs for the 2005 computer game Civilization IV. He did the television series Next Wave where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film The Once and Future Griffith Observatory, currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. Nimoy and his wife, Susan Bay-Nimoy, were major supporters of the Observatory's historic 2002"2004 expansion.

In 2007, he produced the play, Shakespeare's Will by Canadian Playwright Vern Thiessen. The one-woman show starred Jeanmarie Simpson as Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. The production was directed by Nimoy's wife, Susan Bay.

Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the 2009 Star Trek film.

On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's Shatner's Raw Nerve.

In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of Fringe, which explores the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy returned as Dr. Bell in the autumn for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of Fringe, Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions." This choice led one reviewer to question if Fringe's plot might be a homage to the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.

On the May 9, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009 Star Trek movie, he plays the older Spock from the original Star Trek timeline; Zachary Quinto portrays the young Spock.

Starring with Will Ferrell in the television-based movie Land of the Lost in June 2009, he voiced the part of "The Zarn", an Altrusian.

Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts", an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Nimoy has also provided voiceovers for the Star Trek Online massively multiplayer online game, released in February 2010, as well as Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep as Master Xehanort, the series' leading villain. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Birth by Sleep, stated that he chose Nimoy for the role specifically because of his role as Spock.

Retirement

In April 2010, Leonard Nimoy announced that he was retiring from playing the signature character of Star Trek's 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 has not included 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 starred 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. The episode is titled "The Transporter Malfunction" and aired on March 29, 2012, and is frequently mentioned by several of the main characters (especially Sheldon Cooper, who idolizes Nimoy). He also lent his voice as narrator to the free documentary "Destiny in Space" showcasing video and images of space from nine shuttle missions over four years time. In Spring 2012, Nimoy reprised his role of William Bell in Fringe, in the fourth season episodes "Letters of Transit" and "Brave New World" parts 1 & 2. Nimoy reprised his role as Master Xehanort in the recent title Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. On August 30, 2012, Mr. 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.

Photography

Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; he still owns a camera that he rebuilt at the age of 13. 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.

Writing

Nimoy has written 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.

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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 has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid-1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one-man play called Vincent based on the play Van Gogh 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.

Music

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 are written or co-written by Nimoy. He has 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. "

The albums were popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from the mid-sixties goth soap opera Dark Shadows. Some listeners regard these recordings as unintentionally camp, but some have praised them as quality 1960s folk music. His tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films were released.

In addition to his own music career he directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college.

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 Dance charts. The group's self-titled LP contains several other samples from the original Star Trek television series.

Nimoy also appears in the alternate music video for the song "Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars.

Personal life

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober (1927"2011), whom he divorced in 1987. He had two children with her, director Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy, who both appeared in an Oldsmobile commercial, with the tagline "This is not your father's Oldsmobile". In 1988, he married actress Susan Bay, who is a 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 rehab. William Shatner, in his 2008 book Up Till Now: The Autobiography, speaks about how later in their lives Nimoy tried to help Shatner's alcoholic wife.

Nimoy still has the last pair of Spock's ears he wore on the series, as a memento. He 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 Monday morning.

Nimoy also introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within". Initially, Spock was supposed to knock out an evil Kirk in the Engineering room by striking him on the back of the head. Nimoy felt that the action was not in keeping with the nature of Spock's character, so he suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative, suggesting that Vulcans have the ability to emit energy from their fingertips, which, if applied to the correct nerve cluster, could render a human unconscious. Nimoy explained this to the episode's director and, according to Nimoy, the director had no idea what he was talking about. However, Nimoy would express relief in later interviews and appearances that when he explained the concept to William Shatner, he understood it immediately, and Nimoy credits Shatner's reaction to the nerve pinch in the episode as what really sold it. In early scripts for Star Trek, the nerve pinch was referred to as the "F.S.N.P.", which stood for "Famous Spock Neck Pinch."

He has remained good friends with co-star William Shatner (also of Ukrainian Jewish descent) 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.

Nimoy is a private pilot and has owned his own 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 14, 2009 as Leonard Nimoy Day in the City of Boston.

Filmography

1950s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Rhubarb	Young Ball Player
1952	Kid Monk Baroni	Paul 'Monk' Baroni
1952	Zombies of the Stratosphere	Narab
1952	Francis Goes to West Point	Football player	Uncredited
1953	Old Overland Trail	Chief Black Hawk
1954	Them!	Army Staff Sergeant
1954	Dragnet	Julius Carver	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Big Boys")
1956	The West Point Story	Tom Kennedy	(TV series, 1 episode: "His Brother's Fist")
1957	Highway Patrol	Harry Wells	(TV series, 1 episode: "Hot Dust")
1957	Broken Arrow		(TV series, 1 episode: "Conquistador")
1958	The Brain Eaters	Professor Cole
1958	Highway Patrol	Ray	(TV series, 1 episode: "Bloody Money")
1958-1960	Sea Hunt	Indio	(TV series, 6 episodes)
1959	Dragnet	Karlo Rozwadowski	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Big Name")

1960s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Bonanza	Freddy	(NBC-TV series, 1 episode: "The Ape")
1960	M Squad	Bob Nash	(NBC-TV series, 1 episode: "Badge for a Coward")
1960	The Rebel	Jim Colburn	(ABC-TV, 1 episode: "The Hunted")
1960-1961	The Tall Man	Deputy Sheriff Johnny Swift	(NBC-TV, 2 episodes: "A Bounty for Billy" and "A Gun Is for Killing")
1961	The Twilight Zone	Hansen	(CBS-TV series, 1 episode: "A Quality of Mercy")
1961	Rawhide	Anko	(CBS-TV series, 1 episode: "Incident Before Black Pass")
1961	87th Precinct	Barrow
1963	Perry Mason	Pete Chennery	(CBS-TV series, 1 episode: "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe")
1963	The Balcony	Roger
1963	Gunsmoke	Holt	(TV series, 1 episode: "I Call Him Wonder")
1963	The Virginian	Lt. Beldon M.D.	(TV series, 1 episode: "Man of Violence")
1964	The Outer Limits	Konig	(TV series, 1 episode: "Production and Decay of Strange Particles")
1964	The Outer Limits	Judson Ellis	(TV series, 1 episode: "I, Robot")
1964	The Man From U.N.C.L.E.	Vladeck	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Project Strigas Affair")
1966	Get Smart	Stryker	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Dead Spy Scrawls")
1966	Gunsmoke	John Walking Fox	(TV series, 1 episode: "Treasure of John Walking Fox")
1966	Daniel Boone	Oontah	(TV series, 1 episode: "Seminole Territory")
1966	Deathwatch	Jules Lefranc
1966-1969	Star Trek	Mr. Spock	(TV series, 79 episodes) Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (1967, 1968, 1969)
1969-1971	Mission: Impossible	Paris	(TV series, 49 episodes)

1970s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	Assault on the Wayne	Commander Phil Kettenring
1971	Catlow	Miller
1973	Baffled!	Tom Kovack
1973	Columbo: A Stitch in Crime	Dr. Barry Mayfield
1973-1974	Star Trek: The Animated Series	Mr. Spock	(TV series, 22 episodes) (Voice)
1974	Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love	Mick
1976-1982	In Search of...	Narrator	(TV series, 145 episodes, host)
1978	Invasion of the Body Snatchers	Dr. David Kibner	Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
1979	Star Trek: The Motion Picture	Mr. Spock	Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor

1980s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Vincent	Theo van Gogh
1982	A Woman Called Golda	Morris Meyerson	Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1982	Marco Polo	Achmet	(TV mini-series)
1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Captain Spock
1983	T.J. Hooker	Paul McGuire	(TV series, 1 episode: "Vengeance is Mine")
1984	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	Captain Spock	Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Director
1984	The Sun Also Rises	Count Mippipopolous
1986	The Transformers: The Movie	Galvatron	(Voice)
1986	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	Captain Spock	Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Actor Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Director
1986	Faerie Tale Theatre	The Evil Moroccan Magician	(TV series, 1 episode: "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp")
1989	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	Captain Spock

1990s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Never Forget	Mel Mermelstein
1991	Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories	Narrator
1991	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Ambassador Spock	(TV series, 2 episodes)
1991	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Captain Spock
1993	The Simpsons	Himself (Voice)	(TV Series, 2 episodes: "Marge vs. the Monorail", "The Springfield Files")
1993	The Halloween Tree	Mr. Moundshroud	(Voice)
1994	The Pagemaster	Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde	(Voice)
1995	Bonanza: Under Attack	Frank James
1995	The Outer Limits	Thomas Cutler	(TV series, 1 episode: "I, Robot")
1995	Titanica	Narrator	(Documentary)
1995	Ancient Mysteries	Narrator	(TV Series/Documentary, 1 episode: "The Hidden City of Petra")
1997	"A Life Apart: Hasidism in America"	Narrator	(Documentary)
1997	David	Samuel
1998	The Harryhausen Chronicles	Narrator	(Documentary)
1998	Brave New World	Mustapha Mond
1999	Seaman (video game)	Narrator	(Video game), (Voice)
1999, 2002	Futurama	Himself (Voice)	(TV series, 2 episodes: "Space Pilot 3000", "Where No Fan Has Gone Before")

2000s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists	Akron/Baraka/King Chandra	(Voice)
2001	Becker	Professor Emmett Fowler	(TV series, 1 episode: "The TorMentor")
2001	Atlantis: The Lost Empire	King Kashekim Nedakh	(Voice)
2005	Civilization IV	Narrator	(Video game), (Voice)
2009	Star Trek	Spock Prime	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast Nominated"?Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated"?Critics' Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble Nominated"?Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2009	Land of the Lost	The Zarn	(Voice)
2009-2012	Fringe	Dr. William Bell	(TV series, 11 episodes) Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television

2010s

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Star Trek Online	Mr. Spock (Narrator)	(Video game), (Voice)
2010	Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep	Master Xehanort	(video game), (voice)
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Sentinel Prime	(Voice) Nominated-Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Ensemble (shared with the entire cast)
2012	The Big Bang Theory	Action Figure Spock	(Voice)
2012	Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance	Master Xehanort	(Video game), (Voice)
2012	Zambezia	Sekhuru	(Voice)
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	Spock Prime	(Cameo)

Director

• Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978"1981)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Three Men and a Baby (1987)
• The Good Mother (1988)
• Funny About Love (1990)
• Holy Matrimony (1994)
• episodes of Night Gallery, T.J. Hooker, The Powers of Matthew Star and Deadly Games

Videography

Music videos

• "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy
• "Going Down to Liverpool" by The Bangles (1985)
• "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars (2011)

Writer

Bibliography

• I Am Not Spock (1975)
• Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (Contributions uncredited)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) (Contributions uncredited)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• I Am Spock (1995)
• Shekhina photography (2005) (ISBN 978-1-884167-16-4)
• The Full Body Project (2008)

Poetry

• You & I (1973) (ISBN 978-0-912310-26-8)
• Will I Think of You? (1974) (ISBN 0912310701)
• We Are All Children Searching for Love: A Collection of Poems and Photographs (1977) (ISBN 978-0-88396-024-0)
• Come be With Me (1978) (ISBN 978-0-88396-033-2)
• These Words are for You (1981) (ISBN 978-0-88396-148-3)
• Warmed by Love (1983) (ISBN 978-0-88396-200-8)
• A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002) (ISBN 978-0-88396-596-2)

Discography

See also: Leonard Nimoy discography (includes compilations and re-issues)

• Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space (Dot Records), (1967).
• Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records), (1968).
• The Way I Feel (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25883), (1968).
• The Touch of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25910), (1969).
• The New World of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25966), (1970).