Nichelle Nichols dead at age 89

[MillCreek]

You know her best as Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek and affiliated movies.

[gunsmith]

 her and Spock were my favorites.
 for some reason, I'm really sad, even tho I do no know her personally

[K Frame]

Well *expletive deleted*it. She brought so much class to the role.

[Hawkmoon]

RIP, Nichelle.

After the first couple of seasons, she was going to quit Star Trek. Martin Luther King talked her into staying in the role because it provided such a positive role model for young children of color. She stayed.

Classy lady.

[RocketMan]

So sad. She was a classy lady and brought a lot to the role of Lt. Uhura.  If I am not mistaken, she had been suffering from a form of dementia for a while.

[Brad Johnson]

Well *expletive deleted*it. She brought so much class to the role.

Yep. Blazed a lot of trails. RIP, Kind Lady.

I guess William Shatner and George Takei are the only original primary cast members left. Both seem pretty spry for their ages, but at 91 and 85 respectively they aren't exactly spring chickens.

Brad

[RoadKingLarry]

Sad news indeed. She was a classy lady.

While he wasn't 1st season Walter Koenig is still kicking. I would consider him primary cast from the original series.

[Brad Johnson]

Sad news indeed. She was a classy lady.

While he wasn't 1st season Walter Koenig is still kicking. I would consider him primary cast from the original series.

Doh! Completly slipped my mind. He still acting, or just kicking back and enjoying being out of the spotlight?

Brad

[K Frame]

"I guess William Shatner and George Takei are the only original primary cast members left."

Going to be really interesting to see what happens is Shatner goes first and Takei is still semi-lucid.

Takei absolutely *expletive deleted*ing hates Shatner. And vice versa.

[Fly320s]

Well *expletive deleted*it. She brought so much class to the role.

Why do you say, "Well, *expletive deleted*it?"   She was 89.  Lived a full life.

[K Frame]

You want that I should say HURRAY! instead?

[WLJ]

I remember reading somewhere that the studio had cold feet on the interracial kiss scene so they wanted to film along side of it takes without the kiss. She said both her and Shatner kept intentionally messing up the non kiss takes to force them to use the one with the kiss.

RIP Nichelle

[RocketMan]

I don't believe Shatner hates Takei, he just doesn't give a rat's patootie about him anymore.  Shatner tried to make amends with Takei a few times over the years and was rejected each time.  Takei just hates everyone that doesn't embrace, celebrate and promote the alphabet soup lifestyle.

[WLJ]

I don't believe Shatner hates Takei, he just doesn't give a rat's patootie about him.  Shatner tried to make amends with Takei a few times over the years and was rejected each time.  Takei just hates everyone that doesn't embrace. celebrate and promote the alphabet lifestyle.

Yeah, everything I've read is that Takei is the one making this an issue and that Shatner really couldn't care less about Takei's lifestyle.
I've gotten the impression Takei has always been jealous of Shatner's much larger share of the limelight and add to that the need many on the left seem to have to portray themselves as a victim is at play here too.

[K Frame]

The Shat has taken MORE than his fair share of sniper shots at Mr. OH MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! during their feud, including some fairly recently. He's not blameless in the least.

Shatner has, in my view, a lot of similarities with Donald Trump regarding ego-driven actualization and interpersonal relations. The fact that Takei isn't much different makes it inevitable that they clash.

[WLJ]

The Shat has taken MORE than his fair share of sniper shots at Mr. OH MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! during their feud, including some fairly recently. He's not blameless in the least.

Shatner has, in my view, a lot of similarities with Donald Trump regarding ego-driven actualization and interpersonal relations. The fact that Takei isn't much different makes it inevitable that they clash.

Most of what I've seen has been counter fire much of it meant to be humorous responses to T constantly trying to smear S. T then gets all bent out of shape butthurt over the counter fire crying he's a victim. T just can't keep his mouth shut.
But I will say I haven't followed it that closely just going by what I have seen.

[HankB]

Even though I was pretty young when ST:TOS premiered, I always thought Nichelle Nichols was an outstanding choice to play Uhura - she was a fine actress.

As for the rest of this thread  . . .

Shatner . . . Takei . . . two actors squabbling in public . . . and both getting publicity. AND love & support from their respective fan bases.

It's not like this sort of thing never happened before. 

[WLJ]

Even though I was pretty young when ST:TOS premiered, I always thought Nichelle Nichols was an outstanding choice to play Uhura - she was a fine actress.

Beautiful, talented, and sharp as a tack to boot.

[JTHunter]

One of my favorite scenes of Ms. Nichols was the "fan dance" on the sand dune.  When the watchers had been surrounded by Kirk et. al., Ms. Nichols quipped on how she "always wanted a captive audience."   
According to IMDB,

Frustrated with the racist harassment, culminating with her learning that the studio was withholding her fan mail, she submitted her resignation from Star Trek (1966) after consulting with series creator Gene Roddenberry. She stated in several interviews that the harassment made her go back to work in theater until attending an NAACP fundraiser. The fundraiser was where a Star Trek fan was about to meet her for the first time and, to her astonishment, the fan turned out to be Dr. Martin Luther King. King stated that his wife and children had seen Star Trek on TV and it was the only television series that he had approved of. He said that her role as the fourth in command of the USS Enterprise became a positive role model for African-Americans. She withdrew her resignation from the series when King personally convinced her that her role was too important as a breakthrough to leave.

She was also a recruiter for NASA -

From the late 1970s until 1987, she was employed by NASA and in charge of astronaut recruits and hopefuls. Most of the recruits she launched were minority candidates of different races and/or ethnicities, as well as gender, like Guion Bluford (the first African-American male astronaut), Sally Ride (the first American female astronaut), Judith A. Resnik (one of the original female astronauts recruited by NASA, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ron McNair (another victim of the Challenger disaster). She resided in Houston, Texas during her years as a Johnson Space Center employee.
Former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison was inspired by Nichelle when she decided to become the first African-American female astronaut. Jemison was a huge fan of Star Trek (1966).

[Angel Eyes]

She even got George Takei's attention:



 

[Ben]

Yeah, on the Shatner Takai thing, I think they both hated each other early on, but at this point It's only Takai with the hate. I'm sure Shatner still thinks Takai is a jackass, but at this point he's pretty much just trolling him for a laugh, which is what he does to a lot of jackasses these days for kicks. He's become quite the comedian in his golden years.

RIP to Nichelle Nichols. I also understand she had dementia issues in her last years, and that is no fun for the person or their family.