Leonard Nimoy (placeholder)

I almost got to meet Mr. Nimoy… but then there was some family problem and they sent William Shatner in his place. Still not a bad thing, but Nimoy rocks so much harder than Shatner.

First you got to know where I live, it is 90 miles south of Oregon on the coast of California—it is very hard to get any further away from Hoolywad than here—so to encounter a “star” up here is like, . . . never happen.

At the time (several years ago) I was working part time in a large grocery store, and I was just doing my thing, when I looked up the aisle and saw this guy that looked just like Leonard Nimoy—being pretty outgoing, I walked up to him and said, “Excuse me, I am sure you get this all the time, but you look a whole lot like Leonard Nimoy”.

He turned toward me and focused his gaze on me and replied, “That’s becasue I am Leonard Nimoy . .”.

We shook hands, he gladly autographed the back of a card for me and explained that he was in Humboldt County with Jim Carey filming “The Majestic” in one of our local communities . . . and we chatted a bit about this and that—he had come in for some shopping. A very unpretentious and wonderful guy, I could hang out with him and it would be ok.

I was most impressed by the richness and depth of his voice—he has an incredible speaking voice, absolutely delightful, the only person who I can think of with a similar voice would be Vincent Price, but Nimoy’s is more melodious. If the card he signed ever turns up, I will post it.

My friend Andy and I sat next to him and his wife at a restaurant in NYC. Andy recognized him immediately and asked for his autograph, but I didn’t catch who it was. He looked thinner, smaller, older than on the screen. I asked who he was. When he said, “Leonard Nimoy,” I damn near collapsed from embarassment. At least I had the presence of mind not to say, “I didn’t recognize you without the ears.” Instead, I told him it must be nice to not be recognized sometimes. He agreed. We all had a pleasant conversation about the Jewish holidays and their visit to New York. They were there shopping, buying some art. Of course, I got an autograph too and later had it framed with a photo of “Mr. Spock.” Andy tells the story better. But then again, he wasn’t the one with the egg on his face.

I met Leonard Nimoy at a book signing in Manchester, UK, I have a signed copy of ‘I am Spock’ somewhere.

He was, it has to be said, a little flustered – I would be too with that many people waiting in line (the queue was incredible).

He was sporting a goatee, and probably had suffered lots of ‘original’ questions about being the Leonard from the evil mirror universe.

I met him briefly years ago at a “Star Trek” talk in Maryland. He was surrounded by mobs of fans and we backed into each other. He signed my autograph so that it looked like “Llllll Niiiiiy” I still have it somewhere tucked away. :-)