Leonard Nimoy AKA Spock Dies at Age 83

The legendary actor of the Star Trek TV and movie series in the 1980's, Leonard Nimoy, died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

Spock has left planet Earth permanently but his legacy remains amongst Star Trek fans.

In a report by the New York Times, his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it 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").

Star Trek, which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him "the conscience of Star Trek" - an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some primitive special effects by today's standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.

When the director J. J. Abrams revived the Star Trek film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast - including Zachary Quinto as Spock - he included a cameo part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of the same character. Mr. Nimoy also appeared in the 2013 follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness.

His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond Star Trek and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series Mission: Impossible and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography.

"To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior," Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.

But that wasn't such a bad thing, he discovered. "Given the choice," he wrote, "if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock."