EXCLUSIVE: Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock came from two different planets but William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy bonded over Star Trek slights, anti-Semitic slurs, bad marriages - until their final falling outThe USS Enterprise captain writes about relationship with his poker-faced first officer in a memoir honoring the first anniversary of Nimoy deathNimoy was driving a taxi in Los Angeles when then Senator John F. Kennedy tried to stiff him for the $1.25 fareWhen tapped for the role of Spock, the actor wasn't comfortable with his 'Dumbo ears' but Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry insisted Nimoy created the Vulcan salute - inspired by his synagogue congregation forming the shape of the Hebrew letter 'shin' to hide their eyesShatner admits he was jealous when Spock became the most important character and received the most fan mail Nimoy was a functioning alcoholic who would have his assistant sneak him drinks in a paper cupHe stopped speaking to Shatner a few years before he died. 'It is something I will wonder about and regret forever,' Shatner writes
They came from two different worlds – Planet Earth and Planet Vulcan – but Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock had much in common:
Leonard
Nimoy and William Shatner, stars of the low-budget 1960s sci-fi series,
Star Trek, that ran for seventy-nine episodes over three years, became
best of friends. It was a friendship that endured for fifty years - but
sadly not until death.
The
Captain of the USS Enterprise and his trusty first officer, were both
born in March 1931, raised in lower-middle class Orthodox Jewish
immigrant families and 'came from the same tribe'.
While
Shatner was from the West End of Montreal and Leonard was from Boston's
West End, both grew up in kosher homes and were victims of
anti-Semitism.
Neither were good students and both had the dream to pursue acting.
They
worked small jobs until they found their way into acting classes and
eventually defied their fathers to pursue that dream that evolved into
successful acting careers and a close friendship.
Better together: The USS Enterprise
captain writes about his personal relationship with poker-faced first
officer in Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship With A Remarkable Man. They
went through marriages and divorces together, they fought the movie
studio together and got tinnitus together standing too close to
explosions on a Star Trek set.
Cutting up: Nimoy puts a new spin on
his famous Vulcan neck pinch at a signing for 'Mind Meld: Secrets
Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime.'
The stars are born: Nimoy and Shatner
in a scene from 'The Man Trap,' the premiere episode of Star Trek,
which aired on September 8, 1966
The
actors actually met in 1964 during the American spy television show,
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. But neither recalled the meeting.
In
late 1965, when Shatner and Nimoy met on the set of the pilot for Star
Trek, Shatner recalls 'I doubt either Leonard or I even realized we'd
worked together previously in U.N.C.L.E.
'That's
just the nature of our profession. Both of us - all of the actors -
had done so much television by this time that we had been through the
meeting and greeting numerous times.'
Over
the years they went through marriages and divorces together, they
fought the movie studio together and got tinnitus together standing too
close to explosions on a Star Trek set.
On
the first anniversary of Nimoy's death, February 27, Shatner, the
legendary inter-galactic hero, Captain Kirk has written what is a love
note to his closest friend, Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock.
But
the friendship was shattered in the last few years of Nimoy's life over
a small incident and Nimoy never spoke to Shatner, now 84, again.
'It
is something I will wonder about and regret forever. He was my closest
friend in the world,' Shatner writes in Leonard, My Fifty-Year
Friendship With A Remarkable Man, published by Thomas Dunne Publisher on
February 16.
There
were no books in Leonard's apartment growing up but they owned a radio
and an old record player. Three or four Yiddish records were the major
source of entertainment.
Leonard
became fluent in Yiddish, loved the language and years later when
living in LA, paid a psychiatrist to just sit and speak Yiddish with him
weekly.
He
worked any small job – from selling newspapers and shining shoes to
selling vacuums - and would hang out at the neighborhood community
settlement house where he got his first leading role in Hansel and
Gretel after singing for a lady playing the piano.
His big break came at 17 in a Clifford Odets play and 'that's when I realized I've got to get away,' Leonard told Shatner.
Away meant West to Hollywood and turning down a scholarship to study at Boston College.
Classics:
Nimoy created the Vulcan neck pinch and the salute that he confessed he
learned in synagogue during the benediction when the feminine
counterpart to God, the Shechinah, enters to bless the congregation
His parents were grief stricken. 'You'll be hanging around with gypsies and bums,' his father told him.
'An
actor? Who becomes an actor? It's not a profession for a nice Jewish
boy.' They wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer. Acting wasn't a real
job.
'And then he offered me one piece of advice, 'Learn to play the accordion'.
'Because if I could play the accordion, I could always make a living working bar mitzvahs and weddings'.
Before
Star Trek, I spent abut fifteen years in Los Angeles looking for work
as an actor, and during that time, I never had a job that lasted any
longer than two weeks.
Shatner quoting Nimoy
He
sold his friend his most prized possession, an electric blue Ford, and
bought a $100 coach ticket on the train to Los Angeles'.
'I was an adventurer taking off for another world. To be an actor.'
Out
on the West Coast, Leonard moved into a cheap rooming house off of the
Sunset Strip and took whatever roles came along - mostly B-movie roles.
His
specialty was playing the heavy, the bad guy. He played cowboys, Native
Americans, cops and robbers but he was never a star and he never got
top billing.
He
took whatever acting job he was offered while still driving a cab,
running a vending machine route, delivering newspapers, ushering in a
movie theatre and selling exotic fish. He had to know there was always a
paycheck coming in.
'I went a long time before I could make a living as an actor,' he said.
His
most memorable passenger was Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, who
he ferried from the Bel Air Hotel to the Beverly Hilton where 'he
stepped out of the cab and started to walk away without paying'.
Leonard
jumped out of the cab, followed JFK into the hotel and said, 'I want my
$1.25'. Kennedy borrowed $3 from someone he knew and paid Leonard.
A
more important lesson he learned from Kennedy was Kennedy's response to
Leonard's question about Adlai Stevenson's chance of getting the
presidential nomination for a second time in 1956. Kennedy asked Leonard
what he thought.
That 'made me feel much more worthwhile – more meaningful and important to myself'.
'Before
Star Trek, I spent abut fifteen years in Los Angeles looking for work
as an actor, and during that time, I never had a job that lasted any
longer than two weeks.'
The actors actually met in 1964 during
the spy television show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring Robert Vaughn
(right). But neither recalled the meeting. In 'The Project Strigas
Affair' Shatner played a pest control business owner recruited to
convince Communist spy Nimoy that he has the secret to a nerve gas
formula
Gods: Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
and Nimoy as Mr. Spock in the Star Trek episode, 'Plato's
Stepchildren' that aired in November 1968
Those
were 'character-building years' which at times angered and frustrated
him. He fought with his wife, Sandi, who encouraged him to stay with
acting.
Finally
the call for a reading came from producer Gene Roddenberry who was
intent on creating an interracial, interspecies crew for a sci-fi series
in development at NBC.
It
was the first time he was being considered for a leading role. It was
only in development with no guarantee the show would be picked up.
But
Roddenberry was sold on Nimoy and wanted him to create the role of Mr.
Spock, half human, half alien and not totally comfortable in two worlds
with his 'Dumbo ears', as Leonard called them.
Leonard
wasn't convinced about the ears but Roddenberry insisted and the ears
went through several designs before both men were satisfied.
Leonard's goal was to see his name painted on the dressing room door instead of being written in chalk.
Shatner
viewed the dark and brooding Leonard as perfect for the role of Spock
while he describes himself as 'blond, bright-eyed and a walking mood
ring'.
Shatner's
moods turned sour when Spock became the most important character and
received the most fan mail and he believed his future was in jeopardy
when the network suggested that Spock appear in every episode.
He
was jealous and confronted Roddenberry who advised him not to be afraid
of having popular and talented people working with him.
Leonard
created Spock. He created the Vulcan neck pinch and the salute that he
confessed he learned in synagogue during the benediction when the
feminine counterpart to God, the Shechinah, enters to bless the
congregation.
This
is a moment so powerful and sacred, one must not look. So the
congregation forms the shape of the Hebrew letter 'shin' to hide their
eyes.
Giddyup: The buddies attended the 'Hollywood Charity Horse Show' at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in 2009
Shatner was making a film about the
captains of the Enterprise and Leonard didn't want any part of it. A
cameraman shot him at a convention and it was included in the film.
Leonard never spoke to Shatner again
This
was magical to the eight-year old boy in Boston when he peeked and it
became the Vulcan greeting years later and was copied by fans not
realizing that it was a blessing in the Orthodox tradition.
Nimoy became Spock because he spent more time as Spock than Nimoy, Shatner writes
He was always in character even between takes on the set and later feared he'd always be identified as Spock.
While
the Captain and Mr. Spock made the show a hit, Nimoy was hot with
resentment. The network and Paramount retained all merchandising rights
and were even using Spock's image to sell beer in London. The two leads
only received a salary.
When
Nimoy asked to leave the set early one Friday for a paid appearance in
Boston the following day, Roddenberry told him he'd have to pay him
twenty percent. Leonard refused and walked out. He received a follow up
memo from the producers saying he was no longer allowed to use the
studio's pens and pencils.
I'd
be drinking midday on a Saturday or Sunday and then passing out. I'd go
to bed at four o'clock in the afternoon and sleep through the next day,
missing a party in my own home. Eventually I realized I had become an
alcoholic.
Shatner quoting Nimoy
When
the three years of the show were over, the friendship between Nimoy and
Shatner blossomed and it was only then that Shatner learned that
Leonard was a functioning alcoholic.
His
drinking started during the second or third season with one glass of
wine or a cocktail after work. It was a ritual that soon segued into
needing more than one drink.
'I was drinking more and more because my addictive personality was taking over, Nimoy told his friend.
He
was also smoking heavily. Shatner had smoked heavily when they first
started shooting the series but quit cold turkey. Leonard couldn't.
'If
I smoked a little, I ended up smoking a lot. If I drank a little, I
ended up drinking a lot. And within a matter of a year or two, I
developed a major problem with alcohol. It reached the point where I
could no longer control how much I was drinking.'
'I'd
be drinking midday on a Saturday or Sunday and then passing out. I'd go
to bed at four o'clock in the afternoon and sleep through the next day,
missing a party in my own home.'
'Eventually I realized I had become an alcoholic.'
Shatner suspects that 'the reality of success disappointed him greatly'.
Leonard
thought he had found a family with the studio only to learn that 'the
studio was not necessarily my friend, or my parent, that they were
contract people.'
Leonard's own
family said he was disconnected from family issues. He and his wife,
Sandi (above) had participated in 'love-ins' pursuing sexual freedom.
'It wasn't quite group sex—but there was a lot of embracing'
Their
attitude was -- 'How much are we paying him? If he asks for more, tell
him we'll get somebody else to wear the ears. He wants a phone in his
dressing room? Is it in his contract? No phone, no'.
It
infuriated Leonard and he went into therapy to deal with it. Leonard's
own family said he was disconnected from family issues.
He
and his wife, Sandi had participated in 'love-ins' pursuing sexual
freedom. 'It wasn't quite group sex—but there was a lot of embracing.'
His
alcoholism was now soaring out of control. When lecturing in college
towns, his first question while checking back into the hotel was how
late is the bar open. If it was closed when he got back, he would
scream,
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