Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on Star Trek, dies at 89

Nichelle Nichols played Lieutenant Uhura in the series and shared one of the first interracial kisses on prime-time TV.

Nichelle Nichols pictured in 2015 in Los Angeles. Picture: Getty

Nichelle Nichols, the trailblazing Star Trek actress who played Lieutenant Uhura and shared one of the first interracial kisses on prime-time TV, died Saturday, according to her family. She was 89 years old.

Ms Nichols played communications chief Lt Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek franchise of the 1960s, a Black woman in a position of authority on TV when few African-American women were given such roles.

She credited civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr for encouraging her to stay with the series past the first season, when she considered quitting to pursue a Broadway career.

He told her it was important for the world to see a Black woman in position of command and treated as equal to the other male officers aboard the starship Enterprise, she said.

“It’s one of the most important things that happened in my life and it changed and defined my career. I took my role much more seriously after that,” Ms Nichols told The Wall Street Journal in a 2011 interview.

We’re deeply saddened to report the passing of Nichelle Nichols - a trailblazer, an inspiration, and so much more. She will be deeply missed. https://t.co/iBwyOPaxTP

— Star Trek (@StarTrek) July 31, 2022

Her son Kyle Johnson announced her death from natural causes in a statement on Facebook Sunday.

“Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all,” wrote Mr Johnson, signing off with “Live Long and Prosper,” the Vulcan phrase popularised by Star Trek. In addition to playing Uhura on the original Star Trek series, Ms. Nichols reprised the character in six Star Trek films and voiced the character in the 1973 animated series.

She also became a recruiter for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1977, working to bring more women and minorities into NASA’s astronaut corps.

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek episode, Plato's Stepchildren. Picture: Getty

Ms Nichols made her film debut in an uncredited role as a dancer in the 1959 film Porgy and Bess, starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge. Some of her more recent credits included roles in Snow Dogs and Are We There Yet? On television, Ms Nichols had guest stints on Heroes and soap opera The Young and the Restless. She also had guest voice roles playing herself on The Simpsons and Futurama. George Takei, who played USS Enterprise’s helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the original series and later movies, called Ms Nichols incomparable in a statement on Twitter.

“We lived long and prospered together,” he wrote, next to a picture of them at one of the many Star Trek conventions and gatherings they attended over the years.

We lived long and prospered together. pic.twitter.com/MgLjOeZ98X

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 31, 2022

Bernice King, daughter of Dr. King and chief executive of the Martin Luther King Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change, paid her respects to Ms Nichols as well.

Representation matters.

Excellence in representation matters even more.

Thank you, #NichelleNichols.
Rest well, ancestor. 🖤 pic.twitter.com/LV6e1UYyzG

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 31, 2022

“Representation matters,” she wrote on Twitter, with a picture of Ms Nichols in character as Uhura. “Excellence in representation matters even more.”

The Wall Street Journal