Final Frontier Calls to Nimoy
By Josh Richman
The new “Star Trek” film’s trailer shows a vast shipyard where the U.S.S. Enterprise is under construction, as a voice intones that famous phrase, “Space, the final frontier….”
Ah, that deep, rich voice. It’s unmistakable. Spock is back.
In 2002, Leonard Nimoy, now 76, said he was retiring from acting to focus on photography. But this December, he’ll return to the silver screen as the pointy-eared pop culture icon who has been his alter ego since “Star Trek” debuted on television in 1966.
“My photography is still a major love and a major part of my creative life, but this is a ‘Star Trek’ project, so it’s something special,” Nimoy told The Shmooze by phone from Los Angeles, where he’ll be filming through next month.
His last “Trek” movie was 1991’s “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”; four more have been made since. Nimoy said he was drawn to this next one by the energy and reputation of director/producer J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” “Alias,” “Mission Impossible III”), “a really special guy with a wonderful script and a great production…. He’s the real deal.”
“And I feel I owe it to ‘Star Trek’; it’s been a big, positive factor in my life,” he added. “I do think this is a very serious chance for the entire franchise to become reinvigorated.”
While Spock has been on ice, Nimoy’s photography has created heat in Jewish circles. His 2002 collection “Shekhina” depicted models wearing tefillin or a tallis and little else, as the essence of God’s feminine manifestation — transcendent to some, transgressive to others.
His current “Full Body Project” depicts nude, proud, fat women, “a book of pictures of beautiful women who just don’t happen to be living in the same kinds of bodies as fashion models,” he said. That collection’s Northampton, Mass., gallery exhibit has been extended to five months from four, through March 15. Nimoy also remains a fixture as a speaker at “Star Trek” conventions and in Jewish venues, finding plenty of crossover between the two.
“There’s always been a curiosity about Judaism in ‘Star Trek,’” he said, not only about adopting the Kohanim’s split-fingered blessing gesture as the Vulcan salute but also about “the trail of Jewish experiences that I’ve had in my acting life,” dating back to his childhood as the son of Yiddish-speaking Russian Jewish immigrants in Boston and to his first big performance role, in Clifford Odets’s “Awake and Sing,” at age 17.
“I’ve had a wonderful time connecting my Judaism and my acting and directing work,” he said.
Advertisements
Advertisements
I remember reading in Nimoy's autobiography about his habit of eating a spoon full of honey to keep his energy up during those long days of shooting on the set of Star Trek (a habit I adopted during the long days of teaching school) I've always wanted to ask him about that. Not being Jewish, is honey one of the seven Jewish spices I've heard about? I believe horseraddish it. That's the question I'd ask him if I ever met him. Not really anything about Star Trek, although I have some of those too.
His father Max Nimoy had a barber shop on Blue Hill Ave. near Morton Street in the Mattapan section of Boston where I grew up.
His father Max Nimoy had a barber shop on Blue Hill Ave. near Morton Street in the Mattapan section of Boston where I grew up. My mother took me to another Yiddish-speaking barber on the same block when I was a child. Had I known in the 50's that Max's son would go on to be Spock, of course I would have *insisted* that my mother take me to his shop. Who knew?
Jews in Space. Didn't he see Spaceballs ???
Josh: Max Nimoy was my barber, too. I remember his shop, just up the street (Blue Hill Ave) from the Olde Brown Jug. (Great chinese food) I spent many days, and nights, in Cutler's Pool room around the corner on Morton Street, and sold the Bopston Record on the corner of Morton and Blue. Also, at Mickey's Pool Room and bowling alley. Email me Mike
For Jeff Stone: Would that OTHER barber have been Leon. He was a former Auschwitz prisoner.
The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.