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| https://www.polygon.com/23286522/nichelle-nichols-uhura-obituary-star-trek |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2728 - Nichelle Nichols RIP
One of my heroes...
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| https://uhura.com/ |
Dear Friends, Fans, Colleagues, World,
I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years.
Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light, however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration.
Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.
I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected.
Live Long and Prosper,
Kyle Johnson
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| https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nichelle-nichols-celia-rose-gooding-tribute-1235190881/ |
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| https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/31/23286342/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-dies-age-89-nyota-uhura |
https://www.polygon.com/23286522/nichelle-nichols-uhura-obituary-star-trek
Nichelle Nichols, the USS Enterprise’s Lt. Uhura, dies at 89
MLK convinced her to return to a groundbreaking role for Black actors
Nichelle Nichols, best known as the communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura of the starship Enterprise, died July 30. She was 89. Her groundbreaking performances in Star Trek, corresponding with the Civil Rights movement in the United States, helped set the first standard for diversity and inclusion in mainstream screen entertainment.
As Uhura, Nichols was a core presence during Star Trek’s original run on NBC from 1966 to 1969. To that point, Black actresses were largely given servile or ancillary roles in television and theater. But Nichols, radiating professionalism and 1960s mod-style sex appeal from her chair on the Enterprise’s bridge, opened a channel to Hollywood for stars like Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, and Pam Grier.
Born Grace Dell Nichols on Dec. 28, 1932 in the Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois, she modeled and starred in several stage plays during her 20s and 30s, including James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie, before her breakthrough on Star Trek.Despite her success in Star Trek’s first season, Nichols felt called to Broadway, and tendered her resignation to show creator Gene Roddenberry after receiving several offers for major stage roles. The following weekend, she was a celebrity guest at an NAACP banquet, where she met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“As a matter of fact, [Star Trek] is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch, because it’s on past their bedtime,” King said, according to Nichols’ recollection for the Television Academy Foundation.
“And I got the courage to say, ‘I really am going to miss my co-stars,’ and he said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘I’m leaving Star Trek,’ and he said, ‘You cannot.’ […] He said, ‘For the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen, every day.’”
Nichols withdrew her resignation and continued with the series, culminating in her role in season 3, episode 10, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” where she shared a kiss with William Shatner, the first interracial romance depicted on American television. The scene came one year after a Supreme Court decision nullifying Southern states’ laws against marriage between races.
Though the series’ first run was cancelled in 1969, Nichols remained a singularly identifiable Star Trek figure in the coming decades. She is, along with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, and Walter Koenig, one of seven officers commanding the Enterprise from its original three-year mission in the 1960s through six feature film appearances from 1979 to 1991.
On Earth, Nichols was an ambassador for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration beginning in 1977, specifically to advocate for the training and assignment of women and minority candidates for spaceflight roles. In 2012, NASA credited Nichols for inspiring the careers of Sally Ride (the first American woman in space) and fellow astronauts Ronald McNair, Frederick Gregory, and Judith Resnik.
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| https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2021/07/26/star-trek-war-novel-inspired-original-series-creation-uhura/ |
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| https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/26/star-trek-actor-nichelle-nichols-free-conservatorship |
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| signed - "Mirror Mirror" still shot |
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| https://www.startrek.com/news/hailing-frequencies-open-as-the-world-remembers-nichelle-nichols |
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| https://deadline.com/2022/08/zoe-saldana-mourns-nichelle-nichols-1235082896/ |
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| https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-08-15/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-uhura-dementia-conversatorship-battle |
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Nichols in 2017 in Malibu, where she was working on the movie “Unbelievable!!!!!” (Los Angeles Times) |
Nichelle Nichols helped create Uhura for Star Trek: The Original Series.
To many, Nichelle Nichols is a cultural icon who stretches beyond just her time on Star Trek: The Original Series. She’s a person who many hold in high regard and have the utmost respect for. Somehow, with all she’s accomplished, it’s possible to have even more respect and admiration for her. We didn’t think it was possible either, but yet, here we are. Not only is Nichols a woman who broke boundaries and pushed the limits of a time period, but she was also instrumental in helping create the character she brought to life.
When Nichols went to her audition for Star Trek, she had a book in her hand called Uhuru by Robert Ruark. The book is described as “A vivid and exciting fictional story of the Mau Mau era in Kenya” according to GoodReads and was a book that Nichols had with her on the day of her audition for Star Trek.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the show, saw the book during the audition and was struck by it. Having gone home and read it, he had the idea of naming the character Nichols had auditioned for after the title of the book. When Nichols came back after getting the part, the two talked about the book. Roddenberry wanted to use the title as part of the character’s name, but “Uhuru” was a bit rough on the ear. That’s when Nichols suggested changing the last “u” in the name to an “a” to soften the tone.
Thus “Uhura” was born.
Nichelle Nichols has forever left an indelible mark on Star Trek and Uhura
Nichols being a great actress on her own would make her a legend in the annals of Star Trek, but that wasn’t all she brought to the table. As a civil rights activist and a face of change on American broad television, Nichols left a huge mark on not just the Star Trek franchise as a whole, or science fiction but in American history.
So while her helping craft the name Uhura wasn’t the greatest achievement in her career, it does help add to the legacy and legend of a great woman, who brought endless joy to millions of people.
Every day is a good day to celebrate Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, the legend who first embodied the role of Nyota Uhura. But it feels doubly appropriate to do so now. Not only does March have the distinction of being Women's History Month, but on this day in 1965, the game-changing Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march began, sadly with "Bloody Sunday." Dr. Martin Luther King joined the march two days later and, nearly two years after that, Dr. King famously convinced Nichols — who sought the greener pastures and greater challenges of Broadway — to rescind the resignation letter she'd given to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Back in 2011, during an interview with Ian Spelling of StarTrek.com, Nichols recounted how Dr. King inspired her and she'd inspired him and his family, and why she chose to heed his personal request to remain with Star Trek: The Original Series.
Roddenberry, she noted, pleaded with her to stay. He said, "You can’t, Nichelle. Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here?” Nichols remained "resolute," and handed him a letter of resignation. What happened next astounded her.
"He took it and looked at it with sad eyes," Nichols said. "He was behind his desk and I was standing in front of him and – I’ll never forget it – he said, 'I’m not going to accept this yet.' He put it in his desk drawer and said, 'Take the weekend and think about this, Nichelle. If you still want to do this on Monday morning, I will let you go with my blessings. I said, 'Thank you, Gene.' And I thought, 'Whew, that was rough, but I got through it.'”
That weekend, Nichols attended what she remembers as a NAACP fundraiser, "though it could have been something else." Whatever it was, she found herself in Beverly Hills, and seated at the dais as other notables entered the room to join in on the festivities.
"One of the organizers of the event came over to me and said, 'Ms. Nichols, I hate to bother you just as you’re sitting down to dinner, but there’s someone here who wants very much to meet you. And he said to tell you that he is your biggest fan,'" Nichols said. "I said, 'Oh, certainly,' I stood up and turned around and who comes walking over towards me from about 10 or 15 feet, smiling that rare smile of his, is Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember saying to myself, 'Whoever that fan is, whoever that Trekkie is, it’ll have to wait because I have to meet Dr. Martin Luther King.' And he walks up to me and says, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' You know I can talk, but all my mouth could do was open and close, open and close; I was so stunned."
Dr. King revealed to Nichols that TOS was the only show that he and his wife, Coretta, allowed their little children to stay up and watch. Further, he told Nichols what the show meant to him personally and detailed the importance of her having created a character with "dignity and knowledge." Nichols took it all in and finally said, “Thank you so much, Dr. King. I’m really going to miss my co-stars.” Dr. King's smile, Nichols recalled, vanished from his face.
"He said, 'What are you talking about?'" the actress explained. "I told him. He said, 'You cannot,' and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, 'Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. Three hundred years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.' He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling. I said, 'I…, I…' And he said, 'You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd century.'
"That’s all it took," Nichols continued. "I went back on Monday morning and told Gene what had happened. He sat there behind that desk and a tear came down his face, and he looked up at me. I said, 'Gene, if you want me to stay, I will stay. There’s nothing I can do but stay.' He looked at me and said, 'God bless Dr. Martin Luther King. Somebody truly knows what I am trying to do.' [Roddenberry] opened his drawer, took out my resignation and handed it to me. He had torn it to pieces. He handed me the 100 pieces and said, 'Welcome back.'”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2208.07 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2592 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
For years, I have had a file open on my computer called "Pendants for My Mom's Ashes" that I last updated on December 30th 2015.
