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(RNN) – Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the beloved character of Spock, the pointy-eared, half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the starship Enterprise in TV and film versions of the science fiction epic Star Trek, is dead at 83.

He was also a poet, a musician, a director, and a photographer as well as a classically trained actor.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death and said it was the result of a progressive lung disease.

He revealed that he was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in February 2014. He attributed it to smoking. In a series of tweets, he encouraged younger people to stop smoking. One read, “I quit smoking 30 years ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now! LLAP [Live Long and Prosper].”

Leonard Nimoy was born in Boston in 1931 and raised in a tenement. The son of a barber, he started acting in community theater when he was only 8 years old. By the time he was 20, he had moved to Hollywood and scored a small role in Queen For A Day and played a soldier in a 1951 film called Rhubarb.

He served a two-year stint in the U.S. Army in the 1950s after which he was discharged as a sergeant. He remained in acting, and got work primarily as a bit player until 1966, when Star Trek debuted. The show lasted just four years in its first incarnation, but over time proved to be one of TV and Hollywood’s most enduring and successful franchises.

 

READ MORE: 19ActionNews.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News

Picture Courtesy of Wikipedia and WOIO 19 Action News

Tweet Courtesy of Twitter and WOIO 19 Action News

Video Courtesy of Audi, YouTube and WOIO 19 Action News

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