Leonard Nimoy Dies At 83 411
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”).
Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Sad day.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
We can't emotionally morn for people who we have no connection too. We can just not like it as an academic point.
While Actors and Actresses aren't any more deserving for life then the children of the "third world", their work as affected our lives, thus we have more of an emotional bond to them.
The character of Spock that Leonard Nimoy played affected most of us. Spock was a good role model, kept his cool, fearless, and intelligent. Also Spock was the first few Aliens portrayed on TV who were the good guys.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't forget his underrated first leading man big-screen role as Kid Monk Baroni, 1952...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
"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.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't forget his underrated first leading man big-screen role as Kid Monk Baroni, 1952...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
"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. [mashable.com]
RIP. Sad sad sad.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
RIP old friend...we'll all miss you.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, a very sad day. Nimoy created one of the great cultural icons of the 20th century.
The Civilization Series will never be the same... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Civilization Series will never be the same. (Score:5, Insightful)
Civ 4 was a great game, and part of it was his narrations. He really had a way of saying things beautifully. Maybe my tribute will be playing out a game this weekend.
Re:The Civilization Series will never be the same. (Score:5, Insightful)
"but he was also a great voice actor as well”
He was also a good stage actor. I saw him do Sherlock Holmes at Playhouse Square in Cleveland when I was a teenager. A Spock-ish role to some degree, but he was very good. One big applause line: “why sir, it is simplylogical!” with a raised eyebrow to the audience.
Damn.
Re: (Score:3)
Think of the hobbits! (Score:5, Funny)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I have the same album. Singer usually implies a vocal range more than 3 notes wide. It was, alas, one of the things he did not do well.
Re: (Score:3)
Oh, I know. He was well rewarded for playing Spock. I think we all knew this was coming for a while; he had largely retired from public appearances, and then the reports a few days ago that he had been admitted to the hospital.
I plan on celebrating his life and his unique and significant contributions by watching a collection of my favorite ST:TOS episodes;
- Amok Time (who doesn't want to watch horny Vulcans fight to the death)
- City On The Edge Of Forever (more a Kirk episode, but Spock plays a pretty damn
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Tobacco company execs should be publicly flogged. Goodbye old friend.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
But agreed. Goodbye, old friend.
Re: (Score:3)
Tobacco company execs should be publicly flogged.
The guy was 83. Most people who don't smoke die before then.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure the logical Mr. Spock could have figured out that smoking is bad for you.
I'm sure he could have, if he weren't a fictional character.
Leonard Nimoy, flawed human like the rest of us, finally did figure it out, and quit 30 years ago. That probably bought him an extra ten years right there.
I'm a realist, and recognize that there's no way to prohibit tobacco any more effectively than marijuana or alcohol. That doesn't mean that it should be acceptable for the executives of tobacco companies to enrich themselves by selling it. Tax the crap out of it, prohibit any advertising, including signage, and require it to be sold in plain packaging.
(CAPTCHA: "addicted")
Re: (Score:3)
legal != good
Re:Just damn (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Just damn (Score:4, Informative)
In fact, the public did not know back in the late 1950s and early 1960s that tobacco smoking was so dangerous, and it was touted as good for you in commercials. However, the tobacco companies had plenty of information at that point that cancer rates were much higher in smokers.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Informative)
In fact, the public did not know back in the late 1950s and early 1960s that tobacco smoking was so dangerous
Yes the public did. My father-in-law was born in the late 1920's and they called them "nails in your coffin" back when he started smoking as a teen.
The tobacco companies did a great marketing job, so it was cool, or "the bees knees" to be a smoker regardless of the health risks. But they did do a great job of suppressing anything that definitively showed the risks of smoking. While smoking is decreasing in popularity, just look at how many people still smoke. Even knowing how harmful it is currently.
Re: (Score:3)
They knew. Datapoint, 1944 movie "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo", cigarettes are referred to as coffin nails in carrier deck conversation between Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum.
Re: (Score:3)
It was known that cigarettes were bad for you long before--the fact that they ripped up your lungs was not only very evident but intuitively obvious. People were calling them "coffin nails" back in the nineteenth century. It is true that the cancer connection didn't come clear until the 1960s, though.
Medication is the new Smoking (Score:3)
Commercials are overflowing with " Ask your Doctor if X is right for you !!! "
Fast forward ten years.
Commercials are overflowing with " Did you or a love one take X that resulted in Death, a third limb, cancer, speaking in tongues or the desire to abuse Nuns ? If so, call the law offices of Y as you may be entitled to a cash compensation !!! "
Wise man say: The experts don't always know what's best for you.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Don't Be Sad (Score:2)
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah... today just went real sour.
It had to happen sometime, I guess... doesn't make it any easier to accept, though.
Re:Just damn (he seeemed immortal...) (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just damn (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just damn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I loved his acting as much as anyone, but I disagree that it was necessarily a sad day. He was, after all, 83 years old. He beat the average life expectancy in this country by a wide margin. He made an impact on a huge number of people, as well. He was ready to check out and move on. Really, what could you reasonably expect an 83 year old man to do beyond this point anyways? I'm happy for him and all he's done.
Dying old beats dying young I guess, but dying sucks overall. The only ones "ready to die" are those where age or illness has already sucked the life out of them. I'm not going to chase the singularity or cryogenics or any other mumbo-jumbo promising eternal life, but heck I hope I'll be like this when I'm 89 [dailymail.co.uk].
Re: (Score:3)
I loved his acting as much as anyone, but I disagree that it was necessarily a sad day. He was, after all, 83 years old. He beat the average life expectancy in this country by a wide margin. He made an impact on a huge number of people, as well. He was ready to check out and move on. Really, what could you reasonably expect an 83 year old man to do beyond this point anyways? I'm happy for him and all he's done.
Yes, he truly lived long and prospered...
Hes dead, Jim. (Score:3)
I loved his acting as much as anyone, but I disagree that it was necessarily a sad day. He was, after all, 83 years old. He beat the average life expectancy in this country by a wide margin. He made an impact on a huge number of people, as well. He was ready to check out and move on. Really, what could you reasonably expect an 83 year old man to do beyond this point anyways? I'm happy for him and all he's done.
He's dead Jim (Score:5, Funny)
I am truly sad. Is it time to launch the Genesis device?
Re: (Score:3)
I am truly sad. Is it time to launch the Genesis device?
My kingdom for mod points.
Re:He's dead Jim (Score:5, Funny)
No, that would be Deforest Kelly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... [wikipedia.org]
And he's already dead.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, shit.
I need a drink.
This would be a good time to bust out the Romulan Ale
From his twitter account (Score:5, Interesting)
Leonard Nimoy @TheRealNimoy Feb 23
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP
Re:From his twitter account (Score:5, Insightful)
RIP, Leonard Nimoy. You are sorely missed.
Re:From his twitter account (Score:5, Informative)
He died at 83; smoking probably didn't kill him so much as being old.
Considering the cause of death was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, I'd guess smoking played a major part. Says Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
Tobacco smoking is the most common cause of COPD, with a number of other factors such as air pollution and genetics playing a smaller role.
But it's a sad day regardless.
Re:From his twitter account (Score:4, Interesting)
The downside of of the high-quality video work that has been done on the Star Trek tapes is that you can see the black stains on his teeth from smoking in the closeups.
83 is a respectable age, but I recently lost someone who lived to about that age and had a similar smoking history. Whether not smoking at all would have made a significant difference in lifespan is uncertain. But it might have made those last few years a bit less difficult.
re: (Score:2)
You will be sorely missed, friend...
RIP Mr. Nimoy (Score:4, Insightful)
You will be missed.
Re: (Score:2)
Artistic pursuits? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, you didn't mention The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins [youtube.com].
Re:Artistic pursuits? THEM! (Score:2)
He lived long and prospered (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
that should be his epitaph
damn (Score:2)
Damn.
So (Score:3, Insightful)
So.
Farewell then, Leonard Nimoy.
You were Spock, and then you were not Spock. Or was it the other way round?
If I may be so bold
that
is illogical.
E.J.Thribb (17½)
Hum (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hum (Score:5, Insightful)
I come to Slashdot for interesting news, not sad news. .
This, more than most anything else, is definitely "News for Nerds."
Re:Hum (Score:5, Insightful)
"News for Nerds. Stuff that matters".
The passing of Leonard Nimoy matters to most of us.
Nobody promised you happy news. Not now, not ever.
Re:Hum (Score:4, Insightful)
I plan on turning this sad news into happy memories by introducing my kids to Star Trek. Mr. Nimoy might be gone, but a piece of him will always live on.
Leonard Nimoy is why we have nice things (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously - Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock probably inspired more people to enter science, engineering, and intellectualism in general than any other figure in pop culture. He turned anti-intellectualism on its ear by making being a "nerd" not just cool, but even sexy.
Look at any major technology or research company making the world a better place, and I guarantee it was built by people who grew up aspiring to be more like Spock.
Re: Leonard Nimoy is why we have nice things (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Leonard Nimoy is why we have nice things (Score:5, Insightful)
It was a pretty inspirational cast; Spock's dedication to science was inspirational, and there are plenty of people who talk about how Scotty inspired them to engineering. Nichelle Nichols and George Takei both were members of minorities who were given fairly prominent positions on the Enterprise at a time when many minority characters were still played by Caucasians (I'm thinking about Mickey Rooney's obnoxiously awful portrayal of an Asian in Breakfast At Tiffany's, released just five years before ST:TOS).
.\\// No other text required. (Score:5, Interesting)
One by one... (Score:2)
Kelley, Doohan, now Nimoy...the inevitable march of time.
Re: (Score:3)
And least we forget, Gene and Majel Roddenberry have passed as well.
Re: (Score:3)
Then by all means, sit down.
Its life Jim (Score:5, Informative)
A tear just left my eye.
Damn (Score:2)
Damn it Jim! (Score:2)
I told him NOT to wear a Red Shirt today! -- Dr. McCoy
Goodbye (Score:3)
A mind meld most certainly did occur. (Score:5, Informative)
The Real Thing (Score:5, Insightful)
So many other logical characters function as the butt of the joke. They're always the ones who "don't get it", or "lack compassion", or seem "out of touch".
Mr. Nimoy, through Spock, showed how such characters can be more than just socially awkward, how through logic one can derive strong ethics, compassion, and integrity.
A literal inspiration.
Legacy (Score:5, Insightful)
Think about his legacy.
He masterfully played a character who willfully disdained violence and used his massive intellect for the good of sentient beings everywhere.
A brilliant "avatar" for the future.
Leonard Nimoys legacy will live on and is probably the most iconic of all the Star Trek characters.
Spock is right up there with Gandalf and Yoda in the Nerd Trinity.
Re:Legacy (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
what is your favorite Nimoy scene? (Score:3)
Mine is when he silences the loud music punker on the bus in whale movie.
Re: (Score:3)
The Bangles video Going Down To Liverpool [youtube.com].
Most illogical, these female humans...
...laura
suddenly... (Score:5, Insightful)
Damn shame. (Score:5, Insightful)
He offered a lot over his life. Really goddamned solid human.
Mr. Quinto... (Score:5, Insightful)
... you have the con.
RIP, Leonard. Godspeed.
Spock made me who I am today (Score:5, Interesting)
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
I heard the news in the car today. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I'm just sad. (Score:3)
I will never forget him, in his iconic white and gold uniform.
Seriously, though, terrible day. I feel like I knew him.
Another Sad Day (Score:4, Insightful)
I woke up this morning thinking about my wonderful mother who passed away on Friday, February 27, 2009.
Now I learn that Leonard Nimoy has passed away. My family helped me grow up in so many ways. Leonard NImoy and Star Trek also had a significant positive influence.
I can't think of anything more to say other than I miss Leonard Nimoy as much as I can -- which is quite a bit.
Goodbye (Score:3, Insightful)
"Mr. Spock" is everywhere today (Score:4, Insightful)
I find it gratifying to see that Mr. Nimoy is being remembered on every website and feed that I've visited today. And not merely remembered, but remembered by more people than I've ever seen pay tribute at the same time. Even the passing of Robin Williams wasn't marked with as many posts and comments.
RIP, Leonard.
In Search Of... (Score:3)
In Search Of... consolation...
I'm ashamed of you all (Score:5, Informative)
There's 311 posts so far and no mention of Nimoy's role as himself on Futurama.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
if it wasn't this that got him it would have been something else.
Yeah, 10 years from now...
Re: (Score:3)
"Don't smoke. I did. Wish I never had. LLAP" [twitter.com]
Re:Illogical (Score:4, Interesting)
In an earlier era, Yul Brenner had a short video about not smoking and directed it be published after cigarettes killed him.
Re:Illogical (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly, yes, he died of smoking.
But he was 83. What is the median age of death?
It's like the great lines from George Burns:
Re: (Score:3)
In the US the male life expectancy of a 65 year old is about 18 years. Nimoy was wealthy, so add a bit to that. Statistically, he died prematurely. Medically, since he had advanced COPD, he surely did. COPD also sucks, so chances are his last decade or two weren't as nice as they should have been.
Re: (Score:3)
Bones: I'm dead, Jim.
Re:Illogical (Score:5, Insightful)
We're here to mourn one of our fallen heroes. Fuck you for dragging this bullshit in! I will now count you in the same category as the Westboro Baptist Church.
Re:In search of... (Score:4, Informative)
Spock ended up being combined with the character of "Number One" after the first pilot. In "The Cage" Spock wasn't an emotionless alien. The female second in command was the one that was considered cold and emotionless. When the network wouldn't allow a female commander then that character was removed and her traits given to Spock.
Re: (Score:3)
I was thinking that that was my favorite scene as well. I actually also like the similar scene from The Motion Picture (not included in the original theatrical cut, sadly) where Kirk looks to Spock, who has tears streaming down his face, and explains "I weep for V'ger as I would for a brother." In a movie that sadly lacked the emotional angle that TOS and the later films usually had, it was a nice touch.
Thankfully, Nimoy's mixed feelings about Spock and about his experience on The Motion Picture didn't so t