Shatner Remembers Nimoy
2 min read
Today would have been Leonard Nimoy‘s eighty-fourth birthday, and William Shatner shared a few memories about his long-time friend.
Shatner also defended his decision to remain at a Red Cross fundraising event instead of hurrying back to Los Angeles to attend Nimoy’s funeral.
The pair originally met in 1964 during filming of a The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode (The Project Strigas Affair).
“And I have no memory of it,” said Shatner, referring to that first meeting. “I guess, at the time, his was just another face. Long and lean, but just another face.”
Shatner explained what drew him to Nimoy. “His sense of humor,” said Shatner. “Leonard was very funny. We’d get on stage together and we’d start laughing. It was silly; we were laughing so hard at each other.”
There was criticism of Shatner when he honored his fundraising commitment for the Red Cross instead of returning for Nimoy’s funeral. “The Red Cross had asked me some months ago to appear, and they built the evening around the celebrity appearance,” he said. “Leonard died and, faced with that choice, I didn’t think anybody would notice one way or the other, quite frankly. But on Friday, when I was in Florida, I thought I’d better say something on Twitter. So I said, ‘I’m honoring the dead, but I’m celebrating the living by doing a good deed.’ I didn’t think that anybody would notice. Well, everyone got into a debate.
“But to my mind there’s no debate. You and I right now are celebrating Leonard’s memory, but we’re not raising any money for people who are suffering. But in that case I could celebrate his memory and raise money. At that event, which was a one thousand-person dinner, I said, ‘I’d like to take a moment and remember Leonard and Maurice Hurley.’ I didn’t know yet about Harve Bennett. So I had about a thousand people think about Leonard and Maurice. To me there was no question about what I had to do.”
With Nimoy gone, Shatner feels his own mortality, but his response is to keep on working instead of retiring and sitting in a rocking chair. “The footsteps are getting louder,” he said. “What was it the baseball player (Satchel Paige) said? ‘Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.’ So I say keep your eyes focused on the future and not on the past.”
But when it comes to Nimoy, “All of our memories of him will only die when we die,” said Shatner.
About The Author
I loved Nimoy and I still love Shatner!
Shatner did the right thing by going to the Red Cross fundraiser.
Shatner and Nimoy were clearly best friends. For others to criticize Shatner for not going is unwarranted. The criticizers and whiners have no place to say what Shatner should of or shouldn’t have done because none of them knew Nimoy personally or Shatner for that matter and the extent of their friendship. Bunch of morons if you ask me.
Wouldn’t Nimoy have preferred that Shatner stay at the Red Cross Fundraiser as well? That’s the way I see it anyway.
Absolutely. Nimoy was not the guy to say “Don’t do work for a charity, come glorify my ego instead.” And Shatner knows that. He knew Leonard better than any of us.
Shatned did the rigth thing to do………i see no point of discussion.
Exactly. He chose to honour his good friend in the way he thought was best. Can’t judge someone for that.
Maurice Hurley was a TNG writer, was he not?
And Hurley was never involved with anything Shatner did, correct?
I’m surprised Shatner even knows who Hurley was.
Yes he would. There is a Jewish belief that if you help even one person, you are helping the whole world. You’re supposed to take any and every opportunity to help others. This comes first.
Mainly because he knew Shatner was a fake friend, didn’t need him at a major event in his life, the end.
Shater was a fake friend, he even said he barely knew any of those people from Star Trek, that he only seen once every 5 or 10 years. I am pretty sure Nimoy had people around him at the end, that cared about him, not some idiot, that other idiots glorify for a fake person he played on tv.
Kindly go fuck yourself.
Your an idiot ahki. Shatner and Nimoy were friends for decades. Look at interviews and time they shared on stage since the 80s. Many times Shatner would even give Nimoy more time talk when they interviewed or were on stage. Get off the TrekToday site if you hate a fake person that played on a tv show with a fake premise. Dumbass.