Nimoy: Not Just Mr. Spock

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 2, 1999 / 10:54 AM EDT / CBS

While Star Trek series originally debuted in 1966, Paramount Home Video is releasing a DVD version of selected episodes of the original series.

CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen spoke with Leonard Nimoy about the digitally remastered episodes as well as his life and career.

Nimoy first gained worldwide recognition in the TV series Star Trek. His character, Mr. Spock, became an icon over the years as the show lived on in repeats and then on the big screen.

"I was very, very nervous because I took myself seriously as an actor and here I was with pointed ears," recalls Nimoy.

"I didn't realize - I suspected I would be hearing a lot of ear jokes for a long time. I did," he says.

And his portrayal of the Vulcan earned him three Emmy nominations. "It was not the kind of acting I had done before," he says.

"I played heavies in television shows, very violent and emotional people," Nimoy says. "Here I was confined to this case of nonemotionalism. It was difficult for a while."

But being so strongly identified with the series has its good and bad sides.

Nimoy went through a fearful time of being uncertain he would be able to get other jobs after Star Trek, he says. But once he got over that, he was fine and has been working ever since, he observes.

"I've been fortunate," he says. "I've never been out of work since Star Trek went off the air. I've had opportunities to do a wide variety of kinds of roles."

Nimoy also became a successful movie director, responsible for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Other directorial credits include The Good Mother and Three Men and a Baby and others.

And he started a company with John Delancy to do audio reproductions of science fiction classics for Simon & Schuster.

"We have done five Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Time Machine and several television specials," he says. In October these original audio productions will be broadcast on the Internet.

And the DVD being released by Paramount includes 79 reproductions of the original Star Trek shows. "All of the early episodes look better than they did before," he says.

Nimoy has also starred in many stage productions, written three volumes of poetry and recorded 10 narrative albums. He published an autobiography, I Am Not Spock, and wrote a follow-up to that book, I Am Spock.