the heros of my youth are gone...RIP leonard nimoy

Wait... just two days ago he was interned in the hospital. It didn't seem terribly bad...

But it was. Live long and prosper, Mr. Spock.
 
Joe,

In high school some of my friends called me Spock because of being rational and brainy, even though I was a hippy, but on a deeper level I truely related to Leonard Nimoy's character on Star Trek.

Growing up in the Long Island suburbs, which were segragated back then, and being an Asian in lilly white communities where I was basically the only minority made me identify with Spock and later Warf as an outsider.

Leonard Nimoy is bi-racial and that is not an easy place to be. In many ways I think of myself as a white boy trapped in an Asian body because of my upbringing, and even though my blood is all Asian I have a bi-racial identity.

Warf was also my hero because he was a fighter like me, and he too was an outsider.

At a NYC Meet-Up, Jim told me that half the people I went to high school with will be dead by the time I reach 65. This came up in conversation because I relayed a loss of a friend who was suddenly gone. It seems 55-65 is a very vulnerable time that is preceeded by 40-55, a period of life where you statistically have a very low probability of dying.

At 56 years of age I'm thinking a lot about how to retire, how I want to live, and for how long. I'm thinking to live large as I can till 80, an average life expectancy, would not be so bad, rather to hanging on and living modestly. Only thing is that longevity in my family is long, not quite 120 years like a Vulcan, but my dad lived to 94 even though he was poor, illiterate and had a brutal life.

Anyways your thread forces me to think deeply about uncomfortable loss, but I appreciate the opportunity to share some inner thoughts. I think I want to be like Warf and go out like a warrior.

Cal
 
I remember watching the very first Star Trek TV episode when it debuted on NBC back in the fall of 1966. I was in high school at the time and picked up the TV guide some Thursday evening wondering what to watch on TV that night. I spotted a small picture of Mr. Spock with the caption, “Leonard Nimoy, staring as Mr. Spock in the new NBC science-fiction series “Star Trek.” I watched it, and, needless to say, was hooked.

So sorry that he’s gone.

Jim B.
 
I remember watching Star Trek in first-run too, Spock was indeed an iconic character, and Nimoy portrayed him so well. That said, unlike Shatner he never achieved much acclaim for any other acting role. I am very sorry he passed, but speaking only for myself I wouldn't go so far as to call him a hero. The only hero of my youth whose passing I still actively mourn after nearly 3 decades is my father.
 
Sad, I grew up with Star Trek and Dr Who (in black and white, with special effects so bad you could sometimes see the pieces of string, but that didn't seem to make any difference). At least Dr Who keeps on being reincarnated, although I like the earlier ones best. Spock was always my fave character in Star Trek. My teenage daughters think the same.

I guess when they've all passed away, there'll still be Barbie and Ken :eek:
 
Ben Z said:
I remember watching Star Trek in first-run too, Spock was indeed an iconic character, and Nimoy portrayed him so well. That said, unlike Shatner he never achieved much acclaim for any other acting role. I am very sorry he passed, but speaking only for myself I wouldn't go so far as to call him a hero. The only hero of my youth whose passing I still actively mourn after nearly 3 decades is my father.
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Ben,

You are very lucky to have a dad like that.

My dad was not a good role model nor a good fatherly figure, and I had to look elsewhere for "heros" as role models.

If it were not for Lenard Nimoy and the character he portrayed, sadly I would not be the man I am today. Some kids kinda grow up alone, even if they have a father.

Cal

Postscript/Afterthought: In many ways my upbringing was not very different than a episode of Star Trek where in many ways was in the same situation as Spock, an outside/alien living i someone elses world, since I lived and grew up in lilly white suburban communities where me and my family really stood out. I know a real sense of alienation and had a confused identity that was half white, half Asian, like Spock stradling being half human;half Vulcan.
 
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heros are a personal thing...i lament the passing of people that had impact on me as i was growing up...my heros are pretty diverse...a favourite uncle, frank sinatra who brought happiness to my mother, spock/nimoy who showed me another way to process information...gene smith who was obsessed with making the 'perfect' image...the list goes on!
 
Joe,

W. Eugene Smith is also someone I would like to emulate. He was a great-great shooter and also a great-great printer.

My friend Luis Mendez, now an old man, hung out with Eugene Smith in the "Jazz Loft" back in the day.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Joe,

W. Eugene Smith is also someone I would like to emulate. He was a great-great shooter and also a great-great printer.

My friend Luis Mendez, now an old man, hung out with Eugene Smith in the "Jazz Loft" back in the day.

Cal
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that would have been so cool...!
 
W. Eugene Smith is also someone I would like to emulate.
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Eugene Smith had his moments of brilliance and these were interlocked with a life of extreme substance abuse, the wreckage of relationships and the abandonment of children, and, in then end, the premature destruction of his body: all in the name of his art.

I have have a lot of his work and when I think of Eugene Smith, I also think of Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould, an artist who burst onto the international scene with his Goldberg Variations and then defied all that was expected of him and, as Smith died at a young age.

I don't think their lives can be ''emulated''. At best we can enjoy the work they shared.
 
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