Spock actor Leonard Nimoy (83) has passed away

The world famous Mister Spock is no more. The actor who played him in the popular Star Trek series, Leonard Nimoy, died Friday morning local time in Los Angeles from the effects of a chronic lung disease. He was 83 years old.

Nimoy was a real all-rounder. He acted in several productions, wrote books and directed films. But he became most famous as the emotionless and rational Mister Spock, who played Nimoy in the first Star Trek series from 1966 to 1969.

As Spock, Nimoy tried to analyze everything logically. That was a result of Spock’s Vulcan ancestry. After all, his father was Vulcan, while his mother was human. Nimoy played with colleagues William Shatner and George Takei and transcended the cult world with his so-called Vulcan salute: the raised hand with the fingers spread between the middle and ring fingers.

Later, Nimoy published two autobiographies to get rid of his most popular character. In the first, I am not Spock, he wanted everyone to know that he had nothing to do with Spock on a personal level. In the second edition, I Am Spock, he partly disproved this. In it, he said there were more similarities between him and Spock than he had assumed.

In addition to Star Trek, Nimoy also starred in numerous other productions. He was milkman Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. He also played the spy Paris in the television series Mission Impossible. Later Nimoy was involved as a producer in Never Forget, a film based on the persecution of the Jews. The American was fascinated by this, because he himself had a Jewish background.

Nimoy died Friday morning local time in the United States, according to The New York Times. He died of COPD at the age of 83 after being hospitalized earlier this week due to chest pain. This would be the result of years of smoking, even though the actor had quit for thirty years.

Spock, live long and prosper.