Nichelle Nichols, groundbreaking Star Trek actress, dies aged 89

Despite the concerns, the episode aired without blowback. In fact, it got “the most fan mail Paramount has ever gotten on Star Trek for a single episode,” Nichols said in a 2010 interview with Archive of American Television.

“I would say more about the pioneer, the unrivaled Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura from USS Enterprise, and who graduated today at the age of 89,” George Takei wrote on Twitter. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shine like the stars you are in now, my dear friend.”

Takei plays Sulu in the original Star Trek series with Nicols. But its impact is felt beyond its direct co-stars, and many others in Star Trek the world also tweeted their condolences.

Celia Rose Gooding, who is currently playing Uhura in Star Trek: A Strange New World, wrote on Twitter that Nichols “made room for so many of us. He is a reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is vital to their survival. Forget about shaking the table, he made it.”

Star Trek: Voyager alumni Kate Mulgrew tweeted, “Nichelle Nichols is First. She was a pioneer navigating extremely challenging paths with a fortitude, grace, and beautiful fire that we may never see again.”

Like the rest of the original cast members, Nichols has also appeared in six big screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with Star Trek: Moving Pictures and frequented Star Trek fan convention. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping to bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

Actor Nichelle Nichols speaks during the Star Trek Convention in 2014. Credit:AP

Original Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966. Its multicultural and multiracial cast is creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the distant future – the 23rd century – human diversity will be fully accepted.

“I think a lot of people took to heart … that what was said on TV at the time was a reason to celebrate,” Nichols said in 1992 when a Star Trek exhibit on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

He often recalls how Reverend Martin Luther King jnr was a fan of the show and praised his role and personally encouraged him to stay on the series.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-star and I left the show, he got really serious and said, ‘You can’t do that,'” she told Tulsa World (Oklahoma) in a 2008 interview.

“‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and because of that, you’ve changed people’s minds,'” he told the civil rights leader.

“The foresight that Dr King had was a bolt of lightning in my life,” Nichols said.

Recently, he had a recurring role on television Heroplays the great-aunt of a boy with mystical powers.

Grace Dell Nichols was born on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to Samuel Earl Nichols and Lishia Mae Nichols. His father was a chemist and mayor, according to Star Trek FAQs, a 2012 book by Mark Clark. He is one of nine children in a family that includes several half-siblings.

Nichols hated being called “Gracie,” which everyone insisted on, she said in a 2010 interview. When she was a teenager, her mother told her she wanted to name her Michelle, but thought she should have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom Nichols loved. Hence, “Nichelle”.

Nichols studied ballet and Afro-Cuban dance as a child first working professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at the age of 14, moving to New York nightclubs and working for some time with the bands Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before coming to Hollywood for him. film debut in the 1959’s Porgy and Bess, where he worked with Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis jnr and Pearl Bailey. The role “opened doors for me that I may have been knocking on for years,” Nichols wrote in his autobiography.

In 1951, he married Foster Johnson, a dancer, and had a son, Kyle. The marriage ended in divorce.

In 1964, he appeared in his first TV episode, Lieutenantanother show by Roddenberry.

According to the autobiography, the two developed a friendship that turned into romance until Nichols found out that the married writer was also having an affair with Majel Barrett. Barrett plays the Chapel nurse in the original film Star Trek, had recurring roles in subsequent films and married Roddenberry. Nichols’ friendship with the producers continued.

Nichols is known for not being afraid to fight Shatner on set when others complain that he steals scenes and camera time.

Nichols reenacted his role as Uhura in the 1979 film, Star Trek: Moving Pictures, where the character is promoted to lieutenant commander. In the next feature film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanUhura had reached the rank of full commander.

In 1992, Mae Jemison, who as a child followed the exploits of the starship Enterprise on television, became the first black female astronaut to enter space. Prior to boarding the US space shuttle Endeavor, he called Nichols to thank him for his inspiration, according to a 1996 profile on Stanford Today magazine.

“The pictures show us the possibilities,” Jemison said, according to the article. “A lot of times, it’s fantasy that brings us to reality.”

In 1968, in the final season of Star TrekNichols married a second time, to songwriter Duke Mondy, according to FAQ. They remained together until 1972.

His schedule became limited starting in 2018 when his son announced that he had advanced dementia.

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