--- title: Leonard Nimoy Dead: Spock, Star Trek, and How It Almost Didn't Happen description: Gene Roddenberry prevented what would have been a casting catastrophe canonical: https://time.com/3726316/leonard-nimoy-dead-spock-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-27T18:16:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:20.688Z article:section: History og:title: How Leonard Nimoy Almost Wasn't Spock og:description: Gene Roddenberry prevented what would have been a casting catastrophe og:url: https://time.com/3726316/leonard-nimoy-dead-spock-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ad009f7e1245d8/6987816be53aba07f34d7d01/spock.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Leonard Nimoy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Leonard Nimoy Almost Wasn't Spock twitter:description: Gene Roddenberry prevented what would have been a casting catastrophe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ad009f7e1245d8/6987816be53aba07f34d7d01/spock.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Leonard Nimoy Almost Wasn't Spock > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 27, 2015 6:16 PM UTC  Leonard Nimoy on Star Trek's Season 1 Episode 1 Leonard Nimoy on Star Trek's Season 1 Episode 1 CBS / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 27, 2015 6:16 PM UTC News of [the death of actor Leonard Nimoy](http://time.com/3726304/leonard-nimoy-spock-dead/) will invariably mention the role for which he was most famous, that of Spock on _Star Trek._ Nimoy and Spock have been mentioned in the same breath for almost exactly 50 years now, and that’s also as long as he has been loved for the role, even when he wasn’t actively involved in a _Star Trek_ project (and even despite calling his first autobiography _I Am Not_ _Spock_). In fact, the actor’s very first mention in the pages of TIME was in [a 1975 article](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-09-08/page/96) about how the show’s fan culture had picked up after the cancellation of the original series. But that pairing of actor and role almost didn’t happen. As TIME recounted in a 1994 cover story about _Star Trek_ (around the time of _Star Trek: Generations_, the franchise’s seventh feature film, in which Nimoy did not appear), a lot of the original series’ DNA was added after the 1964 pilot displeased executives at NBC, who requested that the casting be changed up before the show went to production—including Spock, who had been played by Nimoy since the beginning. Thankfully, Gene Roddenberry stepped in to plead Nimoy’s case, and the network was convinced to keep him around. In a tragic twist, the network also requested that Spock smoke a “space cigarette” in order to please a tobacco company that was one of the show’s sponsors. Roddenberry was able to intervene on that point as well, and surely Spock would approve: Nimoy, who died as a result of lung disease, last year [urged](http://time.com/5588/leonard-nimoy-spock-smoking-lung-disease/) his fans to quit smoking. **_Read the full 1994 story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Trekking Onward](http://time.com/vault/issue/1994-11-28/spread/74/) ### See Leonard Nimoy's Long and Prosperous Life in Photos  Leonard Nimoy in The Outer Limits in 1964. ABC/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy with wife Sandra Zober attend an event in Los Angeles,Calif. in 1966. Michael Ochs Archives—Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy, circa 1968. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in season 3 of Star Trek in 1968. CBS/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy as Paris and Lee Meriwether as Tracey in Mission Impossible in 1969. CBS/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy in Catlow, 1971. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy in The Alpha Caper in 1973 Everett  NASA's space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from Star Trek in 1976\. From left: NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; an unnamed NASA official; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov). NASA  Leonard Nimoy hosts The Unexplained in 1976. Everett  Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in 1984. Paramount/Everett  Leonard Nimoy guest stars in The Big Bang Theory. CBS/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy guest stars on Fringe Fox  Leonard Nimoy and Luke Wilson, presenters during 5th Annual TV Land Awards - Show at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. in 2007. Chris Polk—FilmMagic/Getty Images  Leonard Nimoy guest stars as Mr. Spock in Star Trek in 2009. 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