I set great store by the character of the people who would be with me all the way through our travels. For the smaller parts, I was open to suggestions...and because most of the financial support came from the U.S...from Procter & Gamble, NBC, big business companies. Thus, when one asks, "What do you think of Anne Bancroft?" what should I say? That I can't wait to meet her. And, indeed, it was a lovely meeting, even though it lasted only a few days. "What do you think of Leonard Nimoy?" I knew him from Star Trek and knew he was an excellent actor. Upon his arrival he was glad to loose his Star Trek ears for a while...and do what he's really good at, namely, play his part. So much about Leonard Nimoy.

EXCL: Sylar Speaks! Zachary Quinto Talks 'Heroes' and Spock

As I was watching "Heroes" and prepping for this interview I thought it was amazing just how much the show is similar to "Star Trek", especially with Masi's character Hiro and his constant references to the show. On top of that you have George Takei on the show and now Nichelle Nichols is joining the cast.

ZQ: Yeah, and I like that, it further strengthens the auspiciousness of all of these experiences and these people coming together. I think the message of "Star Trek" and the message of "Heroes" is the overwhelmingly optimistic message about humanity and its capacity to evolve and survive and to hold itself accountable considering the state of things. We live in a world where that is imminently necessary. It is nice to be a part of those things.

I don't think it is by mistake; you are drawn to the kinds of experiences you are meant to have, and I am really glad I am meant to have these ones. You know?

Yeah, it just seemed totally coincidental, as I am watching I am seeing all these Spock references and comments and I am thinking to myself "I am about to interview the guy that is going to be Spock."

ZQ: Yeah, in my own journeys to the role of Spock there have been my own little idiosyncrasies as well.

"Heroes" was honored at the TV Land Awards as a future TV classic and we went to the awards show last April 14th. I went to the event and we are sitting down and saying hi to everybody and as they were talking about preparation for the show to start they came out and said, "This award will be presented to you guys toward the end of the show by Leonard Nimoy and Luke Wilson." My audition for Spock was the next morning on April 15th.

So we got this award, went up on stage, I walked down the stairs behind Leonard, I said hi to him. Obviously I didn't engage him in a conversation about my audition because I didn't think it was the appropriate setting or time to do that. Little things like that along the way and just the connections between Tim Kring and Damon [Lindelof], and their history of working together there were just a lot of little things along the way that sort of supported the notion of it. It's pretty remarkable to look at it from my perspective.

Source: Rope of Silicon

Before the Internet and Ipods, radio programs were a popular source of entertainment and a potent promotional strategy. In 1982, for the premiere of Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Source, a then popular radio network for young adults, featured an hour long program called “The Voyage of Star Trek” about both the history of Star Trek and the making of TWOK. New interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Ricardo Montalban, writer/director Meyer, fan Bjo Trimble, and science fiction author Isaac Asimov are featured. Also included are re-recordings of Gene Roddenberry’s lectures to college students during the 1970s (and originally available on the LP Inside Star Trek). The actors and crew discuss their thoughts on every from the popularity of Star Trek to their feelings about their characters. Especially interesting are the trivia included, such as Ricardo Montalban realizing during his interview that he starred in Gene Roddenberry’s first ever science fiction script for a television program back in the 1950s. (...)

The Torah Center and Gesher presents “Lights” a fantastic Hanukkah show to be aired on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 27 on Comcast Cable Channel 96.

Some of television’s biggest stars--Judd Hirsch, Leonard Nimoy, and Paul Michael Glaser -- join in on this festive holiday film for the whole family. For more information call the Torah Center at 908-789-5252 or e-mail info@torahcenter.org

http://www.nj.com/suburbannews/index.ssf/2011/12/union_county_torah_center_meno.html

Confessions of a Former Vulcan

The fact that Mr. Spock may have exuded a certain degree of on-screen sex appeal would probably not have come as a surprise to LeonardNimoy, who has played thecharacter off and on for almost three decades. In fact, Nimoy once admitted that after the Star Trek episode Amok Time - in which Spock is possessed by pon far, a Vulcan mating drive — his fan mail jumped from a few hundred letters to 10,000 a week.

Read it all here.

Leonard Nimoy for President

During that period of intense struggle, Leonard found that few people knew he even existed. Agents paid no heed; acting jobs were few and far between. "But I always had work of some sort," Leonard said. "I worked as a cab driver, dishwasher and at whatever else happened to be available at the time. But for the true artist, this is a kind of slow death. Anything is when he yearns to create and doesn't have the opportunity to do so."

There was an exception -- Death Watch, that controversial Jean Genet film which was directed by Leonard's good friend, Vic Morrow, and in which he starred with Michael Forest Paul and Mazurki [sic.]. Speaking of that film, he exclaimed, "I had seen it with Vic years before as a play in the Los Angeles area. It got under our skin. We couldn't forget it. We knew we would never be satisfied until we did it as a motion picture."

Which involved more sacrifice, more scrimping, more bouts with hunger as he worked feverishly with Vic to raise the cost of the production which has been reported at $125,000, chicken-feed in today's inflated film market, but a fortune when you had as little money as the two of them did at that time. [Earlier in the article his yearly income was given at $2000 to $3000] But made it was, and in the end, Death Watch will earn them a rather healthy profit quite apart from the other very substantial benefits it brought Leonard.

"The producers of Star Trek saw it at a screening one evening," he said, "and a few days later I received a call, from their assistant director, asking that I report for a test at my earliest convenience."

Mr. Spock's among the stars now - but it was an 18-year trek

"It was terribly sudden," the man with the pointed ears recalls. "First the mail came pouring in, then the phone calls from New York publishing houses, flustered editors of fan magazines saying, "people want us to write about you, but we don't know a thing about you. You aren't even in our files. Who are you?"

And this was a mere 2 1/2 years ago. Until then, Leonard Nimoy was one of the 1,000 or so Hollywood actors who manage to earn up to $15,000 a year and are quite satisfied with their lot.

"It isn't bad this money," he says from the vantage point of one who by now is assured of at least 20 times that much, "Stories had me as a struggling actor when I got the part. This is not true. I've been doing quite comfortably, averaging $15,000 per year since 1960 or so."

True, when he first came over, 18 years ago he did odd jobs, including operating a taxi cab for three months. But that was early in the game.

Still, he admits that were it not for Mr. Spock he might still be in that comfortable income bracket.

(...)

When Mr. Spock goes, the Enterprise having berthed for good, one Leonard Nimoy,
actor, will go on to new jobs, and do as well if not a lot better.

"Don't forget," he reminds you, "that mine was not type casting. Quite the opposite was the case. It was my ability to play roles worlds apart that convinced Gene Roddenberry that I was his man."

The producer first saw him in the role of a brash movie prompter in an episode of his own The Lieutenant series, and then compared this portrayal to Nimoy in an episode of Dr. Kildare, playing a shy, introspective character.

Catherine Hicks on the 25th Anniversary of 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'

My dad hated science fiction movies, but not only did he agree to take me to see 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,' I remember him really enjoying it. It's so different than any other 'Star Trek' movie.
It is. I mean, we got mainline great reviews as a legitimate film. And Leonard Nimoy got legitimate directorial complements and he got subsequent mainline feature films. I think because it took place on Earth and it's accessible to people. It was in San Francisco and it was a real cause about the whales. It was less outer space and more down to Earth, literally. And it was emotional and it was human. It just was normal.

(...)

Where you familiar with the series at all before you got the role?
No. Not at all. I think it charmed [Nimoy] that I was like the character, utterly naïve of the genre and the history of it.

(...)

And you had to meet with Shatner?
Well, I auditioned a couple of times and then Leonard wanted to show me to Shatner. And he had to go to Bill's horse ranch in Burbank. And I grew up in Arizona, but I am not a horse person. And I thought, Oh my gosh, if the horse doesn't like me, Bill will influence Leonard decision. So I was pretty nervous. Then I remember Bill saying to Leonard, "Hell, Leonard, she's worked with Coppola and Sidney Lumet. She's worked with better people than we have. Hire her."

There's a rumor that Shatner demanded a love interest in this film. Have you heard that?
No, I didn't know. I know it was my idea to kiss him at the end. So I played it as a romance. But, again, I didn't know any of the history -- that Shatner was a playboy. I took it all at face value.

How do you do that? Just tell Leonard that this is what you want to do?
It wasn't really ... I just leaned forward and chose to kiss him and whispered, "See you around the galaxy." I wanted a little bit of breathiness there.

(...)

Was Shatner the big man on campus?
He's like a mischievous brother. He tried to, maybe, just a little bit, undermine -- but always in a playful way -- Leonard's confidence. Like, "Are you really going to do the shot that way, Leonard? Really?" And Leonard would be, "What do you mean?" And I had to fight for a couple of close-ups. I'd say, "No, no, no. I'm fighting for my whales. It's a single shot. Don't let him be in my shots." Bill wanted it to be a two shot. But then Leonard just said, "Don't worry Cat, I know Bill. We go back a long way." And Leonard was very supportive and very smart about acting. He's so calm; he's such a nice person.

Source: moviefone