‘Star Trek’ Actress Nichelle Nichols Dead at 89
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Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original Star Trek series, died Saturday night in Silver City, New Mexico. She was 89.
The trailblazing actresses' death was confirmed by Gilbert Bell, her talent manager and business partner of 15 years, though no official cause of death has been revealed.
Nichols—who played Lt. Uhura on the original series, voiced her on Star Trek: The Animated Series as well as in the first six Star Trek films—is highly-regarded as a role model in the entertainment industry, being one of the first Black women to be featured in such a high-caliber role on television.
The legendary actress opened up about why she decided to stay on the series for so long after considering taking a different path at one point in her career. In an interview for the Archive of American Television, she told astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson that she actually pondered leaving Star Trek after the first season for Broadway instead, however Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a fan of the series and understood the importance of her character in opening doors for other African Americans on television, personally persuaded her to stay on the show.
Nichols gained attention by sharing one of the first interracial kisses in television history with costar William Shatner on Star Trek's 1968 "Plato's Stepchildren" episode. Considering the climate at the time, it was a courageous move from show creator Gene Roddenberry and NBC, becoming the first televised white/African American direct lip-to-lip kiss.
Though a landmark moment, NBC insisted the actors' lips never actually touched, however Nichols and Shatner remembered the filming process very differently, with Nichols sharing in her 1994 autobiography Beyond Uhura, that it was, in fact, a "real kiss." Anxious about audience backlash, the network was adamant about alternate takes being shot with and without a kiss, but Nichols and Shatner intentionally botched every one of the latter so NBC would be forced to air what appeared to be a kiss (whether their lips actually touched in the specific aired scene or not).
Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has admitted to looking up to the fellow actress, recalling that she was astounded and excited to see a Black woman character on TV who was not a maid.
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to fly aboard the Space Shuttle, also cited Star Trek as an influence in her decision to join the space agency.
Born Grace Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols created a distinguished career, entering show business at age 16 singing with Duke Ellington in a ballet she created for one of his compositions.
She studied in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, gaining her big break with a casting in Oscar Brown’s high-profile but ill-fated 1961 musical “Kicks and Co.” Though the play only had a brief run, Nichols attracted the attention of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who booked her at his Chicago Playboy Club.
In later years, Nichols began voice acting, lending her talent to animated series Gargoyles, Spider-Man, and Futurama.
The world-class actress played the mother of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s lead character in 2002’s Snow Dogs, and appeared in the 2005 Ice Cube comedy Are We There Yet? In 2007, she recurred on the second season of NBC drama Heroes, and booked roles in films Tru Loved and The Torturer the following year.
Nichols suffered a stroke in 2015 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2018. Married and divorced twice, she is survived by her son, Kyle Johnson.
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