Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, has died at 89

Nichelle Nichols, who broke obstacles for Black girls in Hollywood when she performed communications officer Lt. Uhura on the unique Star Trek tv sequence, has died on the age of 89.

Her son Kyle Johnson stated Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.

“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,” Johnson wrote on her official Facebook web page Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”

Her function within the 1966-69 sequence as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong place of honor with the sequence’ rabid followers, referred to as Trekkers and Trekkies. It additionally earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had restricted Black girls to performing roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was exceptional on the time.

“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.”

Takei performed Sulu within the unique Star Trek sequence alongside Nichols. But her impression was felt past her rapid co-stars, and plenty of others within the Star Trek world additionally tweeted their condolences.

I shall have extra to say in regards to the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who handed right now at age 89. For right now, my coronary heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the celebs you now relaxation amongst, my dearest pal.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 31, 2022

Celia Rose Gooding, who at present performs Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, wrote on Twitter that Nichols “made room for so many of us. 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.”

Star Trek: Voyager alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, “Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.”

Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a really difficult path with grit, grace, and a beautiful hearth we aren’t prone to see once more.

May she Rest In Peace. #NichelleNichols pic.twitter.com/DONSz6IV2b

— Kate Mulgrew (@TheKateMulgrew) July 31, 2022

Like different unique forged members, Nichols additionally appeared in six big-screen spinoffs beginning in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and frequented Star Trek fan conventions. She additionally served for a few years as a NASA recruiter, serving to deliver minorities and ladies into the astronaut corps.

More not too long ago, she had a recurring function on tv’s Heroes, enjoying the great-aunt of a younger boy with mystical powers.

The unique Star Trek premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial forged was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that within the far-off future — the twenty third century — human range could be totally accepted.

“I think many people took it into their hearts … that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,” Nichols stated in 1992 when a Star Trek exhibit was on view on the Smithsonian Institution.

She usually recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the present and praised her function. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had determined to not return for the present’s second season.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’” she advised The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview.

“‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’” she stated the civil rights chief advised her.

“That foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,” Nichols stated.

Nichelle Nichols in a nonetheless from Star Trek.

During the present’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the primary interracial kiss to be broadcast on a US tv sequence. In the episode, Plato’s Stepchildren, their characters, who all the time maintained a platonic relationship, have been pressured into the kiss by aliens who have been controlling their actions.

The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a tv critic for National Public Radio, advised The Associated Press in 2018. “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. We’re beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send.”

Worried about response from Southern tv stations, showrunners needed to movie a second take of the scene the place the kiss occurred off-screen. But Nichols stated in her guide, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, that she and Shatner intentionally flubbed strains to pressure the unique take for use.

Despite considerations, the episode aired with out blowback. In truth, it received probably the most “fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on Star Trek for one episode,” Nichols stated in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television.

Born Grace Dell Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols hated being known as “Gracie,” which everybody insisted on, she stated within the 2010 interview. When she was a teen her mom advised her she had needed to call her Michelle, however thought she should have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom Nichols cherished. Hence, “Nichelle.”

Nichols first labored professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at age 14, transferring on to New York nightclubs and dealing for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands earlier than coming to Hollywood for her movie debut in 1959’s Porgy and Bess, the primary of a number of small movie and TV roles that led as much as her Star Trek stardom.

Nichols was referred to as being unafraid to face as much as Shatner on the set when others complained that he was stealing scenes and digital camera time. They later realized she had a robust supporter within the present’s creator.

In her 1994 guide, Beyond Uhura, she stated she met Roddenberry when she visitor starred on his present The Lieutenant, and the 2 had an affair a few years earlier than Star Trek started. The two remained lifelong shut buddies.

Another fan of Nichols and the present was future astronaut Mae Jemison, who turned the primary black lady in house when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

In an AP interview earlier than her flight, Jemison stated she watched Nichols on Star Trek on a regular basis, including she cherished the present. Jemison ultimately received to satisfy Nichols.

Nichols was a daily at Star Trek conventions and occasions into her 80s, however her schedule turned restricted beginning in 2018 when her son introduced that she was affected by superior dementia.