Nichelle Nichols

Actor achieved worldwide fame and broke ground for Black women while playing Nyota Uhura in the original TV hit.

With her very presence and her grace she shone a light on who we as people of color are and inspired us to reach for our potential. Nichols also volunteered to recruit women and people of color for NASA.” Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future, the 23rd century, human diversity would be fully accepted. May she forever dwell among the stars,” she wrote. Nichols “modeled it for us. “One of my most treasured photos – Godspeed to Nichelle Nichols, champion, warrior and tremendous actor.

Nichelle Nichols helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first ...

In the late 1950s, she moved to Los Angeles and entered a cultural milieu that included Pearl Bailey, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis Jr., with whom she had what she described as a “short, stormy, exciting” affair. In later decades, Ms. Nichols and Shatner touted the smooch as a landmark event that was highly controversial within the network. Ms. Nichols reprised Uhura, promoted from lieutenant to commander, in six feature films between 1979 and 1991 that helped make “Star Trek” a juggernaut. After studying classical ballet and Afro-Cuban dance, she made her professional debut at 14 at the College Inn, a high-society Chicago supper club. Actress Whoopi Goldberg often said that when she saw “Star Trek” as an adolescent, she screamed to her family, “Come quick, come quick. Years later, Ms. Nichols claimed in interviews that she had threatened to quit during the first season but reconsidered after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at an NAACP fundraiser. NASA historians said its recruiting drive — the first since 1969 — had many prongs, and Ms. Nichols’s specific impact as a roving ambassador was modest. She blamed Shatner, whom she called an “insensitive, hurtful egotist” who used his star billing to hog the spotlight. The show received middling reviews and ratings and was canceled after three seasons, but it became a TV mainstay in syndication. While other network programs of the era offered domestic witches and talking horses, “Star Trek” delivered allegorical tales about violence, prejudice and war — the roiling social issues of the era — in the guise of a 23rd-century intergalactic adventure. “Star Trek” was barrier-breaking in many ways. Uhura was presented matter-of-factly as fourth in command, exemplifying a hopeful future when Blacks would enjoy full equality.

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for black women in Hollywood when she played lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek TV show, has died at 89.

"I think many people took it into their hearts… She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it".

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television ...

She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps. She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. “I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,” George Takei wrote on Twitter. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend." Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honour with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time.

Nichols broke ground and paved the way for Black actors in Hollywood as Uhura. Her castmate George Takei wrote, "We lived long and prospered together."

"Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. George Takei, who costarred on Star Trek as helmsman Hikaru Sulu tweeted: "I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise," her wrote. "I decided I was going to leave, go to New York and make my way on the Broadway stage." He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch.' I was speechless." "Many actors become stars, but few stars can move a nation," tweeted actress Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s. "And he said, 'what are you talking about?' And I said, 'well, I told Gene just yesterday that I'm going to leave the show after the first year because I've been offered... She grew up singing and dancing, aspiring to star in musical theater. Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols in a Chicago suburb where her father was the mayor. "He was very upset about it. You're an integral part and very important to it." "We're on a starship. Fourth in command on a starship.

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series' rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies.

Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator. The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. “The characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man … In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a U.S. television series. Hence, “Nichelle.” Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away.

Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known for her groundbreaking portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura in "Star Trek: The Original Series," has died at age 89, ...

In Nichelle Nichols, our nation has lost a trailblazer of stage and screen who redefined what is possible for Black Americans and women. A daughter of a.

And she continued this legacy by going on to work with NASA to empower generations of Americans from every background to reach for the stars and beyond. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, she shattered stereotypes to become the first Black woman to act in a major role on a primetime television show with her groundbreaking portrayal of Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek. With a defining dignity and authority, she helped tell a central story that reimagined scientific pursuits and discoveries. A daughter of a working-class family from Illinois, she first honed her craft as an actor and singer in Chicago before touring the country and the world performing with the likes of Duke Ellington and giving life to the words of James Baldwin.

Actor who blazed a trail for black women on American TV in the 1960s in the role of Lt Uhura in Star Trek.

She later played Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family devastated by Hurricane Katrina, in the second series (2007) of the TV sci-fi drama Heroes. When it was confirmed that he had, they began discussing Uhura, whose name came from the title of a novel about the fight for freedom in Africa that Nichols had with her at the audition. In the 1974 blaxploitation film Truck Turner, she was Dorinda, a foul-mouthed madam hiring a gangster to carry out revenge on the bounty hunters (played by Isaac Hayes and Alan Weeks) who killed her pimp boyfriend. After Nichols and her family moved to Chicago, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy from the age of 12. Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, championed sexual and racial equality, and presented a hopeful vision of the future in the series. She saw Uhura – her name was based on uhuru, the Swahili for “freedom” – not only as a role model for black people, but also for women with ambitions to become astronauts or scientists.

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood as communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, ...

Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship. The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator. Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. “The characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man ... In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a U.S. television series. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend,” he tweeted. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away.

George Takei and J.J. Abrams paid tribute to the late "Star Trek" actress Nichelle Nichols, who died Saturday at the age of 89.

The official NASA Twitter account posted a tribute saying: "We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. "A remarkable woman in a remarkable role. "I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise," Takei wrote on social media.

As Lt. Uhura, everything on the series ran through Nichols, who died Saturday at 89. With the role, she created a 50-year legacy and legions of fans.

In the 2007 feature-length fan film “Star Trek: Of Men and Gods,” directed by “Star Trek: Voyager” actor Tim Russ and also starring Nichols’ old castmate Walter “Chekhov” Koenig, Nichols played Uhura one final time, in a part that — with no Kirk, no Spock in the way — at last brought her to center stage. And we have choices — are we going to walk down this road or are we going to walk down the other? But “Star Trek” remains her legacy, and her gift, and it shaped her life, leading Nichols to work with NASA, recruiting women and people of color to the space program (as recounted in the 2019 documentary “Woman in Motion”). Finally, it was home. Nichols was an elegant, poised performer — she was a trained dancer who held herself like one, just sitting at her console, one leg forward, one leg back, one hand to her earpiece — and in a series in which overacting can sometimes seem like the baseline, she never did too much. There was more to her than “Star Trek,” before, after and during. (In 2008, she’d play another madam, a friendly one, in “Lady Magdalene’s,” a ridiculous low-budget action comedy.) Whatever the vehicle, her work always feels committed and self-assured. For all it accomplished, the series missed a few tricks when it came to Nichols. She builds exposition, asks important questions; wordlessly reacting to some bit of business on the viewing screen, she brings an emotion and energy into the scene different from that of her sometimes blustery male colleagues. As communications officer Lt. Uhura (the first name Nyota was a later addition), Nichelle Nichols, who died Saturday at the age of 89, was with the show from first to last, including the subsequent “Star Trek: The Animated Series” and six feature films built around the original cast. Whether she’s in a crawl space rigging up a subspace bypass circuit, or speaking teasingly with Spock (“Why don’t you tell me I’m an attractive young lady or ask me if I’ve ever been in love? The original “Star Trek” may have been canceled in 1969, but it is still with us. And I would hear your voice from all parts of the ship.

The death of the Star Trek actor leaves behind a hugely important legacy both on the small screen and in space.

It’s one of the reasons fans struggled with the idea that she would not always be available to meet at conventions or that she might need more support and protection as she aged. She was a cultural force that no one could ignore even when she wasn’t technically the focus in a conversation about the importance of inclusion and diversity. Her impact on others ran so deep that she was cited as an example by academics, activists and anyone who knew anything about the world as it had been and wanted to make the world the best it could be. “I interviewed quite a few young women that were interested in that and simply didn’t think they had a chance. And in later years she advocated heavily for more diversity in the space program, telling ABC audio in a 2016 interview: And that’s true for so many Black women in America and around the world.

The legendary Nichelle Nichols boldly went where no woman had gone before on Star Trek. Here are the moments where Lt. Uhura got to shine.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, she and Chekov must go on a mission to covertly board an aircraft carrier parked in San Francisco (and also called Enterprise) and borrow some energy from its nuclear reactor to recharge their stolen Klingon ship. Nichols told author David Gerrold in his book The World of Star Trek that this was one of her favorite episodes: “I enjoyed anything that I was able to get out of uniform.” Uhura gets kidnapped by the computer at one point, and it’s up to her to try and talk some sense into it, albeit unsuccessfully. This time, however, the planet’s alien caretaker has died, and the planet’s massive computer is running things – and not doing a good job of it. Another (somewhat inexplicably) popular episode, this one finds Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov captured by a group of disembodied aliens called the Providers, who stage gladiatorial contests among various humanoid “Thralls” on their planet as a way to amuse themselves. Since her mind has been erased, Uhura’s only memory is of speaking Swahili – and a linguist was reportedly brought to the set to write a few lines in the language for Nichols to say. At one point, Uhura and Nurse Chapel are transported down for further entertainment, resulting in a scene in which Kirk and Uhura kiss. At one point, Trelane (William Campbell) transports the entire bridge crew down to his castle on the planet Gothos, where he gives Uhura the ability to play the harpsichord so that Trelane can dance with a female yeoman. Not only did the scene let Nichols show off her singing voice, but it established the respectful, playful – and slightly flirty – relationship between Uhura and Spock that was later developed as a full-blown romance in the Star Trek reboot movies. Uhura’s little pet subsequently begins to breed, and what happens from there is the basis of one of Trek’s most popular and iconic segments. Here are 10 examples of Uhura getting that chance to shine, and we’ll treasure them forever as her wonderful spirit heads into the undiscovered country. She also worked with NASA on a successful program to recruit minorities and women into the space program.

Nichelle Nichols, the actor who portrayed Lt. Nyota Uhura on “Star Trek," died at age 89. She recruited for NASA.

So, I very much liked Uhura and she was a very important person to me.” That kiss, in a world still riddled with racist and sexist attitudes, foretold the coming acceptance of interracial relationships in a U.S., but it probably wouldn’t have happened if not for a bit of subversiveness from Nichols and Shatner. … And she was African, which was a very different feel for television back then. We also lost a strong Black woman who showed the world a future with Black men and women being treated as integral parts of humanity’s future and not just background players. There’s a Black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid!” There was a time when Black characters on television were servants or slaves, pimps or prostitutes or mere background characters to white stories.

Star Trek icon Nichelle Nichols died over the weekend at the age of 89.

It could be Ta-Nehisi Coates creating galactic adventures for the Black Panther for Marvel Comics, or N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell creating a Black female Green Lantern in the image of Janelle Monáe. The far-out dream for so many of us is to see ourselves in another world where our Blackness hasn’t been defined for us by outsiders. Zoe Saldana played Uhura in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie trilogy and Celia Rose Gooding now plays Uhura in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” streaming on Paramount Plus. When Whoopi Goldberg first saw Nichols on television when she was a child, she screamed for her family to come gather around the screen, enamored by seeing a Black woman who wasn’t a maid. Goldberg set her sights on deep space at that exact moment and has since been an integral part of Star Trek lore as Guinan both on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Picard.” And Nichols, sitting confidently in her chair on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, basking in Black beauty Hollywood wasn’t yet truly ready to embrace, with an earpiece that made Bluetooth look cool before Bluetooth was even a thing, was an agent of that change, even if she didn’t realize it yet. But that didn’t mean she was relegated to servitude — she was responsible for communications, as the expert on languages both alien and human. Why? Because he knew the world needed to see Black people in roles of equal status before it could believe in such a thing.

George Takei, William Shatner, Zoe Saldana and other members of the 'Star Trek' family mourned Nichelle Nichols, the series' original Lt. Uhura.

Because of her performance as Uhura, the civil rights leader told Nichols, “the world sees us for the first time as we should be seen.” Marina Sirtis, who portrayed Counselor Deanna Troi in “Star Trek” movies and the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” added on Twitter: “You led the way and opened the door for the rest of us who followed in your wake. In February 2015, Leonard Nimoy — who portrayed Spock in the original “Star Trek” series — died at 83. Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. She later reprised her groundbreaking role for several “Star Trek” movies. Takei and Shatner were among several members of the “Star Trek” family who mourned Nichols’ death on social media. “For myself, and millions of others on our world. “Nichelle was a singular inspiration,” Kurtzman tweeted. “She’s an icon, an activist and most importantly an amazing woman- who blazed a trail that has shown so many how to see women of color in a different light. “Forget shaking the table, she built it!” Everybody loved her and we will all miss her presence.” ... Sending my love and condolences to her family.”

Nichols portrayed Nyota Uhuru in the original Star Trek series and its film sequels, a character Saldana would also bring to life in the 2009 film Star Trek and ...

Her energy was infectious every time I was in her presence. She lived a long, impactful life and not only prospered, but helped so many others prosper too,” she added. Her strive for equality was unwavering.

Nichelle Nichols died at the age of 89 on July 30. She's remembered for her trailblazing role as Lt. Uhura on "Star Trek."

Actor Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Uhura on the new Trek series "Strange New Worlds” wrote, "She made room for so many of us... She built it!" Shatner wrote, "She was a beautiful woman and played an admirable character that did so much for redefining social issues in the U.S. and throughout the world." "It's as simple as that. "So I went back Monday morning and told Gene, and he said, 'God bless Dr. Martin Luther King. Somebody sees what I'm trying to achieve.'" You've created a role that has such dignity and is so powerful you can not leave,'" Nichols once said.