Leonard Nimoy Has Lung Disease — Warns Smokers
Image by getty images
Veteran actor Leonard Nimoy, best known as Spock in the 1960s television series “Star Trek” and a string of feature films that followed, said he was “doing OK” after being diagnosed with lung disease and urged fans on Thursday to quit smoking, by tweeting this message to his 810,000 followers:
Smokers, please understand. If you quit after you’re diagnosed with lung damage it’s too late. Grandpa says learn my lesson. Quit now. LLAP.
ampmdash; Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) February 6, 2014
In Nimoy’s case, the actor said, he was diagnosed despite having quit smoking 30 years ago.
The 82-year-old actor added he was “doing OK. Just can’t walk distances,” and he signed off with “LLAP,” an abbreviation of his character’s trademark phrase, “live long and prosper.”
Nimoy first revealed in a Twitter message posted last week that he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, a severe lung ailment that the U.S. surgeon general has concluded is linked to smoking.
Representatives for the actor did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for further comment.
Nimoy, a native of Boston, has become synonymous with his role as Spock, the fictional half-human, half-Vulcan first officer and later commander of the starship Enterprise, in the television and film versions of “Star Trek.”
He most recently appeared in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek Into Darkness” last year, and is a celebrated figure among the franchise’s loyal and avid fan base.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
