Leonard Nimoy, iconic actor who played Star Trek's Mr Spock, dies at 83

When Leonard Nimoy was approached to act in a new television series called Star Trek, he was - like any good Vulcan contemplating a risky mission in a chaotic universe - dispassionate.

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Published: 11:00am, 28 Feb 2015Updated: 6:34pm, 11 Dec 2015

Leonard Nimoy
1931-2015

When Leonard Nimoy was approached to act in a new television series called Star Trek, he was - like any good Vulcan contemplating a risky mission in a chaotic universe - dispassionate.

"I really didn't give it a lot of thought," he later recalled. "The chance of this becoming anything meaningful was slim."

In 1966, Leonard Nimoy was cast in his greatest role as the ever-logical Spock, the science officer aboard the spaceship USS Enterprise in 'Star Trek'. Photo: Reuters

By the time Star Trek finished its three-year run in 1969, Nimoy was a cultural touchstone - a living representative of the scientific method, a voice of pure reason in a time of social turmoil, the unflappable and impeccably logical Mr Spock.

Nimoy, who became so identified with his television and film role that he titled his two memoirs, somewhat illogically, I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock (1995), died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83.

US President Barack Obama joined Nimoy's co-stars from Star Trek to bid adieu to the actor.