Leonard Nimoy as Dr. Spock on the set of the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in 1979. Rex Features/Everett Collection
Leonard Nimoy, the legendary actor known to the world as Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock, died at his home in Los Angeles this morning. He was 83. Almost as soon as word of his passing hit the Internet, friends, former co-stars, and fans began expressing grief over the actor’s passing.
Nimoy was hospitalized earlier this week for chest pains, and his wife Susan Bay Nimoy has confirmed that he died from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He announced his sickness in February of last year, blaming it on his smoking habits of decades earlier.
“As you all know, my Grandpa passed away this morning at 8:40 from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” Nimoy’s granddaughter, Dani, posted via the actor’s Twitter. “He was an extraordinary man, husband, grandfather, brother, actor, author-the list goes on- and friend. Thank you for the warm condolences. May you all LLAP.”
In addition to his career-making role as Spock—which he held from the show’s first unaired pilot through the most recent movie in the franchise, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness—Nimoy appeared in a number of other series, including the original Mission: Impossible and J.J. Abrams’ Fringe. He was also the host of the documentary series In Search Of…, a stage actor, a photographer, a singer, and a movie director, helming Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Three Men and a Baby.
As news of Nimoy’s death spread, his friends, co-stars, and fans almost immediately began posting remembrances of the actor. “We will all miss his humor, his talent and his capacity to love,” his Star Trek co-star William Shatner said in a statement. George Takei, who played Sulu, posted on Facebook, “Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend. We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to ‘Live Long And Prosper,’ and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways.”
Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in Abrams’ Star Trek films, posted a picture of Nimoy on Instagram with the message, “My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you every day.”
He had written two memoirs, charting his relationship with his most well-known alter ego: 1975’s I Am Not Spock, and 1995’s I Am Spock. An avid user of Twitter, his last tweet from four days ago, seems oddly fitting as his last public statement (LLAP, his traditional Twitter sign-off, stands for “Live Long and Prosper,” a salutation from Star Trek‘s Spock): “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory,” he wrote. “LLAP.”
He will be deeply missed.
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