European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Leonard Nimoy at the controls by augean Harmetz new York times Leonard Nimoy ivies to Suft Ocale his Joy. 1o Lulf his happiness Back into his Chest As if in were a quilt being crammed Inlo a bag too Small to hold ii. Ii is unseemly Ihal at the age of 57 he should be so Happy and this Knolic feeling coming As it does Aller years of being Dutiful and Earnest and above All. Serious is built on pain. Five months ago he woke up in the Middle of the night in a hotel room in Toronto startled awake by his own tears. A s about loss he wrote on a pad next to the bed. The three words became a blueprint id the movie to was directing the goad Mother. In the movie which just opened in new York and is based on sue Milter s Novelett the same name Diane Keabort Steps into the uncharted Waters of sexual passion. Whal she risks losing because of the Man with whom she tails in love is custody of the 6-year-old daughter who is the censer of her we it s about toss was an even better blueprint in Nimoy Stife in december 19b6. He walked out on his wife of 33 years. In 1987, his father died. His Mother drilled softly Inlo deals six months later in 1 2 months he had tool what he Calls my base his guiltily played roles of husband in a marriage Ihal had hurried stale and of son to the immigrant parents he could never satisfy. There was also a More Complex loss. Or. Spock the Vulcan with the painted ears and Loo logical mind sailing the 23rd Century on the spaceship Enterprise was. Anything but invisible. Yet Nimoy the actor who had made a career out of being or. Spock on Star trek had spent his Ilia trying in important ways to be Anonymous. I m a second child who was educated to the idea my older brother was to be Given respect and not perturbed he says. I was not to upstage him. I was to give ground so my acting career was designed to be a. Supporting player a character actor the High profile that Spock attained was unnerving. I was relieved to be nominated for an emmy As Best supporting actor even though i had Star Billing in Star trek. Being a supporting actor would be less threatening to my Peers and superiors. I used acting Tor Many years As a Way of hiding behind characters of hiding in a very. Public profession.". " his sell chosen seat in the Backol the bus has been lost since Nimoy became a director four years ago with Star tiek Iii. His second movie Star trek in the voyage Home was praised by critics for ils wit and rewarded by ticket buyers who made it the most successful of the Lour Star trek films. -.-, Only two or three dims a year sell More than $100 million Worth of a Schels slur trek in grossed $107 million. When Nimoy s third movie. Three men and a baby grossed $167 million to overtake fatal attraction and become the lop Box office Hil of 1987, Nimoy bobbed up to the status reserved for Star directors. In Hollywood s delicately balanced society the top two dozen movie stars Are courted and faltered and the dust at their fest is picked by executives awestruck at the Star s ability to bring in big Bucks at the Box office. Actors who Don t have such Power Are considered. Interchangeable. Once when Nimoy Mada a fuss about not having a Telephone in his dressing room he was told Well put the ears on someone thai was 20 years ago but the bitter memory remains. " he paces the living room of the House in los Angeles he bought a year ago a Long lean Man with a grave novelist Diane Johnson an old Friend describes him As a Nice Earnest jewish boy hard working family. Oriented under educated Lor his intelligence with the autodidact s respect Lor the intellect and for literature the House has a red tile roof and thick rough Walls of White stucco and the Canyon in which he lives is Damp even at midday and tilled with the Magenta Flowers azaleas impatiens that thrive in the Mist. There is a train set in one Corner of the living room and a wooden swing set behind the stucco Waff that separates the House from the winding Canyon Road to am cohabiting with a woman who has a 7-year-old son he says in the slightly stiff formal language a uses when words must be etched carefully. But his happiness betrays him. Over and Over again he laughs for no reason the laughter spilling out like water running Down the sides of a bucket that is too Lull to contain ii. I feel like i be been struck by lightning he says. Bui i feet like i be been standing out in a rainstorm Lor quite a while and i finally got in the Good Mother Diane Kealon plays a lady who is trying to slap out of character and who makes the mistake of reaching too tar and is he says. Repressed and careful she wills herself to be reckless. For its director the movie turns on society s discomfort with the idea of sexuality and motherhood in the same individual. For a Mother we want the act to be very Antiseptic and secretive and Low level. Behind the door please and Don l enjoy it. Don t come out for 9 Man. Climbing High and reaching far is less did t consciously say i m going to change everything says Nimoy. But quite unexpectedly i have turned 180 degrees in my life in All ways i found a Way to say til Lake charge Aller i died in Star trek it i reached Tor the brass ring for the first Lima and i did t realize what i was doing/1. Because he had insisted that Spock die he had no contract Lor Star treck Iii. Money was not an Issue. I knew they wanted me but what should i ask for he had refused to make the first Star trek movie until. Paramount paid him half a million dollars in disputed royalties Lor toys and posters and lunch boxes featuring or. Spock. Thai put us Over the Hump a says. And it cleaned up a lot of garbage that had been lying around and making me bitter although maybe it the inimitable or speck was t a conscious Leonard Nimoy left with James Naughton on location last june or filming of Trie Good Mother Pago 14 the stars and stripes Effort by them to put this Guy in his during the decade Between 1969 when Star trek went Oft the air and the first movie in 1979, Nimoy played minor roles in films joined the Mission impossible television series for two years and was the i hard or fourth actor to step into the shoes of the original Star of a few Broadway plays. To entice him into making Star trek ii Paramount gave me a Fob opposite to Gold Bergman in a woman named Golda and i got an Emma nomination he says. Waiting to discuss Star trek Iii with re Paramount executive Nimoy read a review praising the director of Star trek ii Nicholas Meyer. And a speech from Julius Caesar rushed into his head Why. Man he doth bestrides the narrow world like a colossus and we Petty men walk under his hugs legs and Peep Aboul to find ourselves dishonourable he old the executive i think 1 can do a meaningful Jab of directing this says the mischievous Meyer Leonard s chief characteristic is his doggedness his perseverance. I coached him behind the scenes about How to gel the Job because Paramount did t want to let him direct. I told him ii you re prepared to let this ship sail without you sit tight.1" j for year Nimoy had directed in lit lie Heaters. He had even directed Hirsell in s one Man show about Vicent Van Gogh because hiring a director would have Cost $5,000. Says Harve Bennett the producer of the last three Star trek films As actors go Leonard is so intensely Bright i always wondered if to wanted to be an actor at so Star trek is was no embarrassment. And in led to Star trek Vand the inbox locating taste of Freedom and another woman. To Lei Home the National enquirer headline read Leonard Nimoy leaves Wile of 32 years on her birthday to marry younger Sandi Nimoy chooses her words carefully. He left me after 33 years of marriage. I spent the Tirol 15 years being the Only one who believed in him and struggling with him. I believe i had a lot to do with where he is it had to do Wilh taking my own territory Leonard. Nimoy says. I should not be performing duties fulfilling empty contracts Tor the Sake of not making but Freedom was not we Ghoul guilt. Tha Day i went to Tell my parents i had moved out of my House Newsweek Magazine had my picture on tha cover i stopped Al two or three markets to take it As a Gill to cover the fact i was going to deliver a devastating blow. His father a Barber from tha Ukraine had never understood his son s ambitions from the time Nimoy was 10, a cookie Jar in their Boston Pearl men head the dimes he made Selling newspapers. He was Belling papers on Iho Boston common the Day the japanese attacked Pearl Tabor. The Money was to be saved Tor his College education. But when he was 17, Nimoy was ,. Cast in Clifford of Dols s awake and sing at e nearby. Settlement House. I was sent reeling he says. A was playing the. Troubled teen Ager. I was a troubled teen Ager. I thought i be got to do this Lor the rest of my life but my lather. Said to did t come to America to raise was to be. " -.actors.". -. At in. Nimoy left Home i was obsessed but i did t. Know what i was doing. I stumbled around Lor. because he spoke yiddish he got work every Lime he yiddish theater came to los Angeles Lor a week. In 1951,. He was paid �350 in Cash and three $50 suits to play the. Leading role in a movie called kid Monk Barons he ". Married at 22 and had a son and a daughter. Thirteen1. Years later Hewon the role of or. Spock. " for the first time i had a Job Ihal lasted longer than. -."". Saturday Nort
