The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K) was a problem for both digital (computer-related) and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.

In computer programs, the practice of representing the year with two digits becomes problematic with logical error(s) arising upon "rollover" from x99 to x00. This has caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000 and on other critical dates which were billed "event horizons". Without corrective action, long-working systems would break down when the "...97, 98, 99, 00..." ascending numbering assumption suddenly became invalid. Companies and organizations worldwide checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems.

The number of computer failures that occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000 in spite of remedial work is not known; amongst other reasons is the reticence of organisations to report problems. There is evidence of at least one date-related banking failure due to Y2K. There were plenty of other Y2K problems, and that none of the glitches caused major incidents is seen by some, such as the Director of the UN-backed International Y2K Co-operation Centre and the head of the UK's Taskforce 2000, as vindication of the Y2K preparation. However, some questioned whether the relative absence of computer failures was the result of the preparation undertaken or whether the significance of the problem had been overstated.

Background

Y2K is a numeronym and was the common abbreviation for the year 2000 software problem. The abbreviation combines the letter ''Y'' for "year", and ''k'' for the SI unit prefix kilo meaning 1000; hence, ''2K'' signifies 2000. It was also named the ''Millennium Bug'' because it was associated with the popular (rather than literal) roll-over of the millennium, despite the fact that the problem could have occurred at the end of any ordinary century.

The Year 2000 problem was the subject of the early book, ''Computers in Crisis'' by Jerome and Marilyn Murray (Petrocelli, 1984; reissued by McGraw-Hill under the title ''The Year 2000 Computing Crisis'' in 1996). The first recorded mention of the Year 2000 Problem on a Usenet newsgroup occurred Friday, January 18, 1985 by Usenet poster Spencer Bolles.

The acronym Y2K has been attributed to David Eddy, a Massachusetts programmer, in an e-mail sent on June 12, 1995. He later said, "People were calling it CDC (Century Date Change), FADL (Faulty Date Logic) and other names."

Many computer programs stored years with only two decimal digits; for example, 1980 would be stored as 80. Some such programs could not distinguish between the year 2000 and the year 1900. Other programs would try to represent the year 2000 as 19100. This could cause a complete failure and cause date comparisons to produce incorrect results. Some embedded systems, making use of similar date logic, were expected to fail and cause utilities and other crucial infrastructure to fail.

Some warnings of what would happen if nothing was done were particularly dire:

The Y2K problem is the electronic equivalent of the El Niño and there will be nasty surprises around the globe. ''— John Hamre, United States Deputy Secretary of Defense''

Special committees were set up by governments to monitor remedial work and contingency planning, particularly by crucial infrastructures such as telecommunications, utilities and the like, to ensure that the most critical services had fixed their own problems and were prepared for problems with others. While some commentators and experts argued that the coverage of the problem largely amounted to scaremongering, it was only the safe passing of the main "event horizon" itself, January 1, 2000, that fully quelled public fears. Some experts who argued that scaremongering was occurring, such as Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, have since claimed that despite sending out hundreds of press releases about research results suggesting that the problem was not likely to be as big a problem as some had suggested, they were largely ignored by the media.

Programming problem

The practice of using two-digit dates for convenience predates computers, but was never a problem until stored dates were used in calculations.

The need for bit conservation

In the first half of the 20th century, well before the computer era, business data processing was done using unit record equipment and punched cards, most commonly the 80-column variety employed by IBM, which dominated the industry. Many tricks were used to squeeze needed data into fixed-field 80 character records. Saving two digits for every date field was significant in this effort.

In the 1960s, computer memory and mass storage were scarce and expensive. Early core memory cost one dollar per bit. Popular commercial computers, such as the IBM 1401, shipped with as little as 2K bytes of memory. Programs often mimicked card processing techniques. Commercial programming languages of the time, such as COBOL and RPG, processed numbers in their character representations. Over time the punched cards were converted to magnetic tape and then disk files, but the structure of the data usually changed very little. Data was still input using punched cards until the mid-1970s. Machine architectures, programming languages and application designs were evolving rapidly. Neither managers nor programmers of that time expected their programs to remain in use for many decades. The realization that databases were a new type of program with different characteristics had not yet come.

There were exceptions, of course. The first person known to publicly address this issue was Bob Bemer, who had noticed it in 1958 as a result of work on genealogical software. He spent the next twenty years trying to make programmers, IBM, the US government and the ISO aware of the problem, with little result. This included the recommendation that the COBOL PICTURE clause should be used to specify four digit years for dates. Despite magazine articles on the subject from 1970 onwards, the majority of programmers and managers only started recognizing Y2K as a looming problem in the mid-1990s, but even then, inertia and complacency caused it to be mostly unresolved until the last few years of the decade. In 1989, Erik Naggum was instrumental in ensuring that Internet mail used four digit representations of years by including a strong recommendation to this effect in the Internet host requirements document RFC 1123.

Saving space on stored dates persisted into the Unix era, with most systems representing dates to a single 32-bit word, typically representing dates as elapsed seconds from some fixed date.

Resulting bugs from date programming

Storage of a combined date and time within a fixed binary field is often considered a solution, but the possibility for software to misinterpret dates remains because such date and time representations must be relative to some known origin. Rollover of such systems is still a problem but can happen at varying dates and can fail in various ways. For example:

The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program had a very elementary Y2K problem: Excel (in both Windows and Mac versions, when they are set to start at 1900) incorrectly set the year 1900 as a leap year for compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3. In addition, the years 2100, 2200, and so on, were regarded as leap years. This bug was fixed in later versions, but since the epoch of the Excel timestamp was set to the meaningless date of January 0, 1900 in previous versions, the year 1900 is still regarded as a leap year to maintain backward compatibility. In the C programming language, the standard library function to extract the year from a timestamp returns the year minus 1900. Many programs using functions from C, such as Perl and Java, two programming languages widely used in web development, incorrectly treated this value as the last two digits of the year. On the web this was usually a harmless presentation bug, but it did cause many dynamically generated web pages to display January 1, 2000 as "1/1/19100", "1/1/100", or other variants, depending on the display format. JavaScript was changed due to the concerns of the Y2K bug, and the return value for years changed and thus differed between versions from sometimes being a four digit representation and sometimes a two-digit representation forcing programmers to rewrite already working code to make sure web pages worked for all versions. This forced programmers to change already working code and add checks to see if the returned date was less than 1900 and react accordingly.

Older applications written for the commonly used UNIX Source Code Control System failed to handle years that began with the digit "2".

In the Windows 3.x file manager, dates displayed as 1/1/19:0 for 1/1/2000 (because the colon is the character after 9 in the ASCII character set). An update was available.

Date bugs similar to Y2K

9 September 1999

Even before 1 January 2000 arrived, there were also some worries about 9 September 1999 (albeit lesser compared to those generated by Y2K). Because this date could also be written in the numeric format 9/9/99, it could have conflicted with the date value 9999, frequently used to specify an unknown date. It was thus possible that database programs might act on the records containing unknown dates on that day. Somewhat similar to this is the end-of-file code 9999, used in older programming languages. While fears arose that some programs might unexpectedly terminate on that date, the bug was more likely to confuse computer operators than machines.

Leap years

Mostly, a year is a leap year if it is evenly divisible by four. A year divisible by 100, however, is not a leap year on the Gregorian calendar unless it is also divisible by 400. For example, 1600 was a leap year, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. Some programs may have relied on the oversimplified rule that ''a year divisible by four is a leap year''. This method works fine for the year 2000 (because it is a leap year), and will not become a problem until 2100, when older legacy programs will likely have long since been replaced. Other programs contained incorrect leap year logic, assuming for instance that no year divisible by 100 could be a leap year. An assessment of this ''leap year problem'' including a number of real life code fragments appeared in 1998. For information on why century years are treated differently, see Gregorian calendar.

Year 2010 problem

Some systems had problems once the year rolled over to 2010. This was dubbed by some in the media as the "Y2K+10" or "Y2.01k" problem.

The main source of problems was confusion between hexadecimal number encoding and Binary-coded decimal (BCD) encodings of numbers. Both hexadecimal and BCD encode the numbers 0–9 as 0x0–0x9. But BCD encodes the number 10 as 0x10, whereas hexadecimal encodes the number 10 as 0x0A; 0x10 interpreted as a hexadecimal encoding represents the number 16.

For example, because the SMS protocol uses BCD for dates, some mobile phone software incorrectly reported dates of SMSes as 2016 instead of 2010. Windows Mobile is the first software reported to have been affected by this glitch; in some cases WM6 changes the date of any incoming SMS message sent after 1 January 2010 from the year "2010" to "2016". It has been said that this tends to affect phones on the CDMA network (not using SIM cards).

Other systems affected include EFTPOS terminals, and older Sony PlayStation 3 models (except the Slim).

The most important such glitch occurred in Germany, where upwards of 20 million bank cards became unusable, and with Citibank Belgium, whose digipass customer identification chips stopped working.

Year 2038 problem

The original Unix timestamp (time_t) stores a date and time as a signed 32-bit integer representing the number of seconds since January 1, 1970. During and after 2038, this number will exceed $2^\{31\}-1$, the largest number representable by a signed 32-bit integer, causing the Year 2038 problem (also known as Unix Millennium bug, or Y2K38). To solve this problem, many systems and languages have switched to a 64-bit timestamp, or supplied alternatives which are 64-bit.

Mac OS rollover dates

The Macintosh operating system has used three different date systems, all of which were Y2K compliant. The original Macs used 32 unsigned bits representing seconds (giving a range of 136 years) from Jan 1. 1904 (the first leap year of the 20th century), which would roll over on Feb. 6, 2040. Later (OS System 6) this was expanded to 64 bits, meaning no rollover would happen until the year 29940 AD. With the adoption of BSD Unix for Mac OS X, the Unix rollover date (for 32 bit systems) in 2038 came into effect.

Programming solutions

Several very different approaches were used to solve the Year 2000 problem in legacy systems. Three of them follow:

Date expansion: 2-digit years were expanded to include the century (becoming 4-digit years) in programs, files, and databases. This was considered the "purest" solution, resulting in unambiguous dates that are permanent and easy to maintain. However, this method was costly, requiring massive testing and conversion efforts, and usually affecting entire systems.

Date re-partitioning: In legacy databases whose size could not be economically changed, 6-digit year/month/day codes were converted to 3-digit years (with 1999 represented as 099 and 2001 represented as 101, etc.) and 3-digit days (ordinal date in year). Only input and output instructions for the date fields had to be modified, but most other date operations, and whole record operations required no change. This delays the eventual roll-over problem to the end of the year 2899.

Windowing: 2-digit years were retained, and programs determined the century value only when needed for particular functions, such as date comparisons and calculations. (The century "window" refers to the 100-year period to which a date belongs.) This technique, which required installing small patches of code into programs, was simpler to test and implement than date expansion, thus much less costly. While not a permanent solution, windowing fixes were usually designed to work for several decades. This was thought acceptable, as older legacy systems tend to eventually get replaced by newer technology.

Documented errors

Before 2000

On 28 December 1999, 10,000 card swipe machines issued by HSBC and manufactured by Racal stopped processing credit and debit card transactions. The stores relied on paper transactions until the machines started working again on 1 January.

On 1 January 2000

When 1 January 2000 arrived, there were problems generally regarded as minor. Problems did not always have to occur precisely at midnight. Some programs were not active at that moment and would only show up when they were invoked. Not all problems recorded were directly linked to Y2K programming in a causality; minor technological glitches occur on a regular basis.

Reported problems include: In Ishikawa, Japan, radiation-monitoring equipment failed at midnight; however, officials stated there was no risk to the public. In Onagawa, Japan, an alarm sounded at a nuclear power plant at two minutes after midnight. In Japan, at two minutes past midnight, Osaka Media Port, a telecommunications carrier, found errors in the date management part of the company's network. The problem was fixed by 02:43 and no services were disrupted. In Japan, NTT Mobile Communications Network (NTT DoCoMo), Japan's largest cellular operator, reported on 1 January 2000, that some models of mobile telephones were deleting new messages received, rather than the older messages, as the memory filled up. In Australia, bus-ticket-validation machines in two states failed to operate. In the United States, 150 slot machines at race tracks in Delaware stopped working. In the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory, which runs the master clock that keeps the country's official time, gave the date on its website as Jan. 1, 19100. In France, the national weather forecasting service, Meteo France, said a Y2K bug made the date on a webpage show a map with Saturday's weather forecast as "01/01/19100". This also occurred on other websites, including att.net, at the time a general-purpose portal site primarily for AT&T; Worldnet customers in the United States.

Government responses

United States

The United States Government responded to the Y2K threat by passing the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act, by working with private sector counterparts in order to ensure readiness, and by creating internal continuity of operations plans in the event of problems. The effort was coordinated out of the White House by the President's Council On Year 2000 Conversion, headed by John Koskinen. The White House effort was conducted in coordination with the then-independent Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and an interim Critical Infrastructure Protection Group, then in the Department of Justice, now in Homeland Security. The Dutch Government promoted Y2K Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) to share readiness between industries, without threat of antitrust violations or liability based on information shared.

The US Government followed a three part approach to the problem: (1) Outreach and Advocacy (2) Monitoring and Assessment and (3) Contingency Planning and Regulation.

A feature of US Government outreach was Y2K websites including Y2K.GOV. Presently, many US Government agencies have taken down their Y2K websites. Some of these documents may be available through National Archives and Records Administration or the Wayback Machine.

Each federal agency had its own Y2K task force which worked with its private sector counter parts. The FCC had the FCC Year 2000 Task Force.

Most industries had contingency plans that relied upon the Internet for backup communications. However, as no federal agency had clear authority with regard to the Internet at this time (it had passed from the US Department of Defense to the US National Science Foundation and then to the US Department of Commerce), no agency was assessing the readiness of the Internet itself. Therefore on July 30, 1999 the White House held the White House Internet Y2K Roundtable.

Norway and Finland

Norway and Finland changed their National identification number, to indicate the century in which a person was born. In both countries the birth year was indicated with two digits only. However, a similar problem already existed, the "Year 1900 problem", about distinguishing between people born in the 20th or 19th century, so the timing was more because of the Y2K attention than a solution to a new problem. In Finland the problem was solved by replacing the hyphen '-' in the number with the letter 'A' for people born in the 21st century. In Norway, the range or the individual numbers following the birth date was altered from 0-499 to 500-999.

Bulgaria

Although only two digits are allocated for the birth year in the Bulgarian national identification number, the year 1900 problem and subsequently the Y2K problem were addressed by the use of unused values above 12 in the month range. For all persons born before 1900, the month is stored as ''calendar month + 20'', and for all persons born after 1999, the month is stored as ''calendar month + 40''.

International cooperation

The International Y2K Cooperation Center (IY2KCC) was established at the behest of national Y2K coordinators from over 120 countries when they met at the First Global Meeting of National Y2K Coordinators at the United Nations in December 1988. IY2KCC established an office in Washington, D.C. in March 1999. Funding was provided by the World Bank, and Bruce W. McConnell was appointed as director.

IY2KCC's mission was to "promote increased strategic cooperation and action among governments, peoples, and the private sector to minimize adverse Y2K effects on the global society and economy." Activities of IY2KCC were conducted in six areas:

National Readiness: Promoting Y2K programs worldwide

Regional Cooperation: Promoting and supporting coordination within defined geographic areas

Sector Cooperation: Promoting and supporting coordination within and across defined economic sectors

Continuity and Response Cooperation: Promoting and supporting coordination to ensure essential services and provisions for emergency response

Information Cooperation: Promoting and supporting international information sharing and publicity

Facilitation and Assistance: Organizing global meetings of Y2K coordinators and to identify resources

IY2KCC closed down in March 2000.

Private sector response

The United States established the ''Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act'', which limited the liability of businesses who had properly disclosed their Y2K readiness.

Insurance companies sold insurance policies covering failure of businesses due to Y2K problems.

Attorneys organized and mobilized for Y2K class action lawsuits (which were not pursued).

Survivalist-related businesses (gun dealers, surplus and sporting goods, Latter Day Saints (Mormon) bookstores selling freeze-dried food) anticipated increased business in the final months of 1999 in an event known as the Y2K scare. Some of these businesses experienced increased sales; some did not.

The Long Now Foundation, which (in their words) "seeks to promote 'slower/better' thinking and to foster creativity in the framework of the next 10,000 years", has a policy of anticipating the Year 10,000 problem by writing all years with five digits. For example, they list "01996" as their year of founding.

While there was no one comprehensive Internet Y2K effort, multiple Internet trade associations and organizations banded together to form the Internet Year 2000 Campaign. This effort partnered with the White House's Internet Y2K Roundtable.

The Y2K issue was a major topic of discussion in the late 1990s and, predictably, showed up in most popular media. A number of "Y2K disaster" books were published such as Deadline Y2K by Mark Joseph. Movies such as Y2K: Year to Kill capitalized on the currency of Y2K, as did numerous TV shows, comic strips, and computer games.

Cost

The total cost of the work done in preparation for Y2K is estimated at over 300 billion US dollars. IDC calculated that the U.S. spent an estimated $134 billion preparing for Y2K, and another $13 billion fixing problems in 2000 and 2001. Worldwide $308 billion was estimated to have been spent on Y2K remediation. There are two ways to view the events of 2000 from the perspective of its aftermath:

Supporting view

This view holds that the vast majority of problems had been fixed correctly, and the money was well spent. The situation was essentially one of preemptive alarm. Those who hold this view claim that the lack of problems at the date change reflect the completeness of the project, and that many computer applications would not have continued to function into the 21st century without correction or remediation.

It has also been suggested that on September 11, 2001, the New York infrastructure (including subways, phone service, and financial transactions) were able to continue operation because of the redundant networks established in the event of Y2K bug impact and the contingency plans devised by companies. The terrorist attacks and the following prolonged blackout to lower Manhattan had minimal effect on global banking systems. Backup systems were activated at various locations around the region, many of which had been established to deal with a possible complete failure of networks in the financial district on December 31, 1999.

Expected problems that were not seen by small businesses and small organizations were in fact prevented by Y2K fixes embedded in routine updates to operating system and utility software that were applied several years before 31 December 1999.

It was suggested that Y2K plans were used to ground aircraft on 9/11, but the grounding was a variant of the SCATANA procedures developed in 1958.

Supporters also point out that the maintenance effort for Y2K has been in use for years after. Programmers often cleaned up other issues while doing Y2K fixes to these programs and this is an additional benefit from the Y2K effort.

Opposing view

Others have claimed that there were no, or very few, critical problems to begin with, and that correcting the few minor mistakes as they occurred (the 'fix on failure' approach) would have been the most efficient and cost effective way to solve the problem. Editorial writing in the Wall Street Journal called Y2K an "end-of-the-world cult" and the "hoax of the century". The opposing view was bolstered by a number of observations.

The lack of Y2K-related problems in schools, many of which undertook little or no remediation effort. By September 1, 1999 only 28 percent of US schools had achieved compliance for mission critical systems, and a government report predicted that "Y2K failures could very well plague the computers used by schools to manage payrolls, student records, online curricula, and building safety systems". The lack of Y2K-related problems in an estimated 1.5 million small businesses that undertook no remediation effort. On 3 January 2000 (the first weekday of the year) the Small Business Administration received an estimated 40 calls from businesses with computer problems, similar to the average. None of the problems were critical. The lack of Y2K-related problems in countries such as Italy, which undertook a far more limited remediation effort than the United States. In an October 22, 1999, report, a US Senate Committee expressed concern about safe travel outside of the United States. The report stated that overseas public transit systems were considered vulnerable because many did not have an aggressive response plan in place for any problems. Internationally, the report singled out Italy, China and Russia as poorly prepared. The Australian government evacuated all but three embassy staff from Russia. None of these countries experienced any Y2K problems regarded as worth reporting. The absence of Y2K-related problems occurring before January 1, 2000, even though the 2000 financial year commenced in 1999 in many jurisdictions, and a wide range of forward-looking calculations involved dates in 2000 and later years. Estimates undertaken in the leadup to 2000 suggested that around 25% of all problems should have occurred before 2000. Critics of large-scale remediation argued, during 1999, that the absence of significant problems, even in systems that had not been rendered compliant, suggested that the scale of the problem had been severely overestimated.

See also

Problems with epoch-based computer time representation

IPv4 address exhaustion, problems caused by the limited allocation size for numeric Internet addresses

ISO 8601, an international standard for representing dates and times, which mandates the use of (at least) 4 digits for the year

Perpetual calendar, a calendar valid for many years, including before and after 2000

Y2K – World in Crisis

References

External links

Center for Y2K and Society Records, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Documents activities of Center for Y2K and Society (based in Washington DC) working with non-profit institutions and foundations to respond to possible societal impacts of the Y2K computer problem: helping the poor and vulnerable as well as protecting human health and the environment. Records donated by executive director, Norman L. Dean.

International Y2K Cooperation Center Records, 1998-2000, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Collection contains the materials of the International Y2K Cooperation Center. Includes country reports, news clippings, country questionnaires, country telephone directories, background materials, audio visual materials and papers of Bruce W. McConnell, director of IY2KCC.

Preparing for an Apocalypse: Y2K, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. A web exhibit curated by Stephanie H. Crowe

BBC: Y2K coverage

''In The Beginning There Was The Nerd'' - BBC Radio documentary about the history of computers and the millennium bug ten years after using archival recordings.

''The Surprising Legacy Of Y2K'' – Radio documentary by American Public Media, on the history and legacy of the millennium bug five years on.

The Yawn of a New Millennium

CBC Digital Archives - The Eve of the Millennium

Time running out for PCs at big companies ''CNN''

2000 problem Category:Calendars Category:COBOL Category:Internet culture Category:Programming bugs Category:2000 in computer science Category:Hazards

ar:مشكلة عام 2000 cs:Problém roku 2000 da:År 2000-problemet de:Jahr-2000-Problem es:Problema del año 2000 eo:Problemo de jaro 2000 fr:Passage informatique à l'an 2000 fy:Milenniumbrek gl:Efecto 2000 ko:2000년 문제 id:Masalah Tahun 2000 it:Millennium bug he:באג 2000 lt:2000 metų problema ml:വൈ. 2 കെ. ms:Pepijat tahun 2000 nl:Millenniumbug ja:2000年問題 no:År 2000-problemet pl:Problem roku 2000 pt:Problema do ano 2000 ru:Проблема 2000 года simple:Year 2000 problem sk:Problém roku 2000 sl:Hrošč tisočletja fi:Y2K sv:Millenniebuggen th:ปัญหาปี ค.ศ. 2000 tr:Y2K problemi vi:Sự cố máy tính năm 2000 zh:2000年问题

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Leonard Nimoy
birth date	March 26, 1931
birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
birth name	Leonard Simon Nimoy
occupation	Actor, film director, poet, photographer, singer, songwriter
years active	1951–present
spouse	Sandra Zober (1954–1987)Susan Bay (1988–present) }}

Leonard Simon Nimoy ( ; born March 26, 1931) is a Jewish American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series (1966–1969), multiple films, television and video game sequels.

Nimoy began his career in his early twenties, teaching acting classes in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s, as well as playing the title role in ''Kid Monk Baroni''. In 1953, he served in the United States Army. In 1965, he made his first appearance in the rejected ''Star Trek'' pilot, "The Cage", and would go on to play the character of Mr. Spock until 1969, followed by seven further feature films and a number of guest slots in various sequels. His character of Spock generated a significant cultural impact and three Emmy Award nominations; ''TV Guide'' named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. Nimoy also had a recurring role in ''Mission: Impossible'' and a narrating role in ''Civilization IV'', as well as several well-received stage appearances.

Nimoy's fame as Spock is such that both his autobiographies, ''I Am Not Spock'' (1977) and ''I Am Spock'' (1995) detail his existence as being shared between the character and himself.

Early life

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the West End, to Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker. Nimoy began acting at the age of eight in children's and neighborhood theater. His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the accordion—which, his father advised, Nimoy could always make a living with—but his grandfather encouraged him to become an actor. His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' ''Awake and Sing!''. Nimoy took Drama classes at Boston College in 1953 but failed to complete his studies, and in the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has an MA in Education and an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio.

Nimoy served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1953 through 1955, alongside fellow actor Ken Berry and architect Frank Gehry.

Career

Stage and screen

Nimoy's film and television acting career began in 1951, but after receiving the title role in the 1952 film ''Kid Monk Baroni'', a story about a street punk turned professional boxer, he played more than 50 small parts in B movies, TV shows such as ''Dragnet'', and serials such as Republic Pictures' ''Zombies of the Stratosphere'' (1952). To support his family Nimoy often worked other jobs, such as delivering newspapers in the morning.

He played an Army sergeant in the 1954 science fiction thriller, ''Them!'', a professor in the 1958 science fiction movie ''The Brain Eaters'', and had a role in ''The Balcony'' (1963), a film adaptation of the Jean Genet play. Together with Vic Morrow, he produced a 1966 version of ''Deathwatch'', a English language film version of Genet's play ''Haute Surveillance'', adapted and directed by Morrow and starring Nimoy.

On television Nimoy appeared as "Sonarman" in two episodes of the 1957–1958 syndicated military drama, ''The Silent Service'', based on actual events of the submarine section of the United States Navy. He had guest roles in the ''Sea Hunt'' series from 1958 to 1960 and had a minor role in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "A Quality of Mercy" in 1961. He also appeared in ''Highway Patrol''. Throughout the 1960s Nimoy appeared in a number of other TV series including ''Bonanza'' (1960), ''Two Faces West'' (1961), ''The Untouchables (1962)'', ''The Eleventh Hour'' (1962), ''Combat!'' (1963, 1965), ''Perry Mason'' (1963), ''The Outer Limits'' (1964), ''The Virginian'' (1965) and ''Get Smart'' (1966). He appeared again in the 1995 ''Outer Limits'', again in the episode "I, Robot".

On the stage, Nimoy played the lead-role alien of a short run of Gore Vidal's "A Visit to a Small Planet" in 1968, shortly before the end of the Star Trek series. This play was staged at the now-folded Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois.

Nimoy and William Shatner first worked together in an episode of ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964). Their characters were from either side of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Nimoy first worked with DeForest Kelley in an episode of ''The Virginian'' from season two titled "Man of Violence", with Kelley as the doctor and Nimoy as the patient.

''Star Trek''

}} Nimoy's greatest prominence came from his role in the original ''Star Trek'' series. As the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock—a role he chose instead of one on the soap opera ''Peyton Place''—Nimoy became a star, and the press predicted that he would "have his choice of movies or television series." He formed a long-standing friendship with Shatner, who portrayed his commanding officer, saying of their relationship, "We were like brothers." ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' was originally telecast from 1966 to 1969, and Nimoy earned three Emmy acting nominations for his work on the iconic program that has defined American television science fiction, both for fans of science fiction, and beyond.

He went on to reprise the Spock character in a voice-over role in ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' (so much so that the episode "Yesteryear" is the only ''ST:TAS'' episode to have been accepted as ''Star Trek'' canon); in two episodes of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''; and, in six Star Trek movies featuring the original ''Star Trek'' cast. He played the elder Spock in the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, directed by J. J. Abrams, the film being widely credited with revitalizing the franchise.

Spock's Vulcan salute became a recognized symbol of the show identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way ''kohanim'' (Jewish priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

:''May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace.''

Nimoy was asked to read these verses as part of his narration for ''Civilization IV''.

After ''Star Trek''

Following ''Star Trek'' in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series ''Mission: Impossible'', which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, 'The Great Paris'. He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show.

He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie ''Catlow'' (1971). Nimoy appeared in various made for television films such as ''Assault on the Wayne'' (1970), ''Baffled'' (1972), ''The Alpha Caper'' (1973), ''The Missing Are Deadly'' (1974), ''Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris'' (1980), and ''Marco Polo'' (1982). He received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film ''A Woman Called Golda'' (1982). He also had roles in ''Night Gallery'' (1972) and ''Columbo'' (1973) where he played a murderous doctor who was one of the few criminals with whom Columbo became angry.

In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series ''In Search of...'', which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a psychiatrist in Philip Kaufman's remake of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''.

During this time, Nimoy also won acclaim for a series of stage roles. He appeared in such plays as ''Vincent'', ''Fiddler on the Roof'', ''The Man in the Glass Booth'', ''Oliver!'', ''Six Rms Riv Vu'', ''Full Circle'', ''Camelot'', ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', ''The King and I'', ''Caligula'', ''The Four Poster'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''Sherlock Holmes'', ''Equus'' and ''My Fair Lady''.

''Star Trek'' films

When a new ''Star Trek'' series series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role. After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film (critically and financially) in the franchise after the 2009 ''Star Trek'' film, ''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986), and ''Three Men and a Baby'', the highest grossing film of 1987, made him a star director. At a press conference promoting the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct:

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Other work after ''Star Trek''

In 1978, Nimoy played Dr. David Kibner in ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''. He also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in ''The Transformers: The Movie'' in 1986.

In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a ''pro bono publico'' lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial. Nimoy also played the Mermelstein role and believes: "If every project brought me the same sense of fulfillment that ''Never Forget'' did, I would truly be in paradise."

Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in ''The Pagemaster'' in 1994. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World.''

Together with John De Lancie, another ex-actor from the Star Trek series, Nimoy created ''Alien Voices'', an audio-production venture that specializes in audio dramatizations. Among the works jointly narrated by the couple are ''The Time Machine'', ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'', ''The Lost World'', ''The Invisible Man'', and ''The First Men in the Moon'', as well as several television specials for the Sci-Fi Channel.

From 1994 until 1998, Nimoy narrated the ''Ancient Mysteries'' series on A&E; including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "Secrets of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. In 1997, Nimoy played the prophet Samuel, alongside Nathaniel Parker, in The Bible Collection movie "David". He had a central role in ''Brave New World'', a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel where he played a character reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. Nimoy has also appeared in several popular television seriesincluding ''Futurama'' and ''The Simpsons''as both himself and Spock.

Nimoy appeared in ''Hearts of Space'' program number 142 – "Whales alive."

In 1999, he voiced the narration of the English version of the Sega Dreamcast game ''Seaman'' and promoted Y2K educational films.

In 2000, he provided on-camera hosting and introductions for 45 half-hour episodes of an anthology series entitled ''Our 20th Century'' on the AEN TV Network. The series covers world news, sports, entertainment, technology, and fashion using original archive news clips from 1930 to 1975 from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and other private archival sources.

In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.

Nimoy provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game ''Civilization IV''. He did the TV series ''Next Wave'' where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film ''The Once and Future Griffith Observatory'' currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater located at the recently reopened Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

In January 2007, he granted an interview to Fat Free Film, where he discussed his early career and the benefits of being typecast.

Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the newest film.

On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's ''Shatner's Raw Nerve''.

In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of ''Fringe'', which explores the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy returned as Dr. Bell in the autumn for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of ''Fringe'', Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions." This choice led one reviewer to question if ''Fringe'''s plot might be a homage to the ''Star Trek'' episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.

On the May 9, 2009 episode of ''Saturday Night Live'', Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, he plays the older Spock from the original ''Star Trek'' timeline; Zachary Quinto portrays the young Spock.

Starring with Will Ferrell in the TV-based movie ''Land of the Lost'' in June 2009, he voiced the part of "The Zarn", an Altrusian.

Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts", an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Nimoy has also provided voiceovers for the ''Star Trek Online'' massively multiplayer online game, released in February 2010, as well as ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' as the villainous Master Xehanort. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of ''Birth by Sleep'', stated that he chose Nimoy for the role specifically because of his role as Spock.

Retirement

In April 2010, Leonard Nimoy announced that he is retiring from playing the signature character of Star Trek's Spock, citing both his advanced age and the desire to give Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character. ''Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep'' was to be his final performance. However, in February 2011, he announced his definite plan to return to Fringe and reprise his role as William Bell. His retirement from acting has not included voice acting, as his appearance in the third season of ''Fringe'' only includes his voice (his character only appears in animated scenes), and he provided the voice of Sentinel Prime in ''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''. In May 2011 Nimoy starred in the alternate version music video of Bruno Mars' ''The Lazy Song''. Nimoy revealed that he violated his retirement decision after Aaron Bay-Schuck, the Atlantic Records executive who signed Bruno Mars to the label and Nimoy's stepson, asked him to participate in the video.

Photography

Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; he still owns a camera which he rebuilt at the age of 13. His photography studies at UCLA occurred after ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'', when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers. His work has been exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Literary works

Nimoy has written two autobiographies. The first was called ''I Am Not Spock'' (1977) and was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock. The contents of this first autobiography also touched on a self-proclaimed "identity crisis" that seemed to haunt Nimoy throughout his career. It also related to an apparent love/hate relationship with the character of Spock and the Trek franchise.

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His second autobiography was ''I Am Spock'' (1995), communicating that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed the character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled ''A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life'' (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid-1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one-man play called ''Vincent'' based on the play ''Van Gogh'' by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of ''Primortals'', a comic book series published by Tekno Comix that involved a first contact situation with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.

Music career

During and following ''Star Trek'', Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including ''Trek''-related songs such as "Highly Illogical", and cover versions of popular tunes, such as "Proud Mary". In regards to how his recording career got started, he stated:

The albums were popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from the mid-sixties goth soap opera ''Dark Shadows''. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' films were released.

In addition to his own music career he directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college. He released a version of Johnny Cash's song "I Walk the Line".

Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band Information Society in the late Eighties. The song, "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (released in 1988), reached #3 on the US Pop charts, and #1 on Dance charts. The group's self-titled LP contains several other samples from the original Star Trek television series.

Nimoy also appears in the alternate music video for the song "Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars.

Personal life

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary ''A Life Apart: Hasidism in America'', about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published ''The Shekhina Project'', a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober (1927–2011), whom he divorced in 1987. He had two children with her, director Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy, who both appeared in an Oldsmobile commercial, with the tagline "This is not your father's Oldsmobile". In 1988, he married actress Susan Bay, who is a cousin of director Michael Bay.

In a 2001 DVD, Nimoy revealed that he became an alcoholic while working on ''Star Trek'' and ended up in rehab. Also in William Shatner's 2008 book ''Up Till Now: The Autobiography'', Shatner speaks about how later in their lives Nimoy tried to help Shatner's alcoholic wife.

Nimoy still has the last pair of Spock's ears he wore on the series, as a memento. He has said that the character of Spock, which he played twelve to fourteen hours a day, five days a week, influenced his personality in private life. Each weekend during the original run of the series, he would be in character throughout Saturday and into Sunday, behaving more like Spock than himself more logical, more rational, more thoughtful, less emotional and finding a calm in every situation. It was only on Sunday in the early afternoon that Spock's influence on his behavior would fade off and he would feel more himself again – only to start the cycle over Monday morning.

Nimoy also introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early ''Star Trek'' episode "The Enemy Within". Initially, Spock was supposed to knock out an evil Kirk in the Engineering room by striking him on the back of the head. Nimoy felt that the action was not in keeping with the nature of Spock's character, so he suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative, suggesting that Vulcans have the ability to emit energy from their fingertips, which, if applied to the correct nerve cluster, could render a human unconscious. Nimoy explained this to the episode's director and according to Nimoy, the director had no idea what he was talking about. However, Nimoy would express relief in later interviews and appearances that when he explained the concept to William Shatner, he got it immediately, and Nimoy credits Shatner's reaction to the nerve pinch in the episode as what really sold the neck pinch. In early scripts for ''Star Trek'', the nerve pinch was referred to as the "F.S.N.P.," which stood for "Famous Spock Neck Pinch."

He has remained good friends with co-star William Shatner (also of Ukrainian-Jewish descent) and was best man at Shatner's third marriage in 1997. Shatner is only four days older than Nimoy. He also remained good friends with DeForest Kelley until Kelley's death in 1999.

The Space Foundation named Nimoy as the recipient of the 2010 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for creating a positive role model that inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe. An honor Nimoy did not receive, however, was the naming of asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock after his character, at least not directly. The asteroid was named by discoverer James B. Gibson after his pet cat, "Mr. Spock," said feline indeed being named after the ''Star Trek'' character.

Filmography

Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
1951		Young Ball Player
	''Kid Monk Baroni''	Paul 'Monk' Baroni
''Zombies of the Stratosphere''	Narab
1952	''Francis Goes to West Point''	Football player	Spoken part but uncredited
1953	''Old Overland Trail''	Chief Black Hawk
1954	''Them!''	Army Sergeant
1954		Julius Carver & Karlo Rozwadowski	(TV series) Episodes "The Big Boys" in 1954 & "The Big Name" in 1959.
1956		Tom Kennedy & ?	(TV series) 2 episodes, "His Brother's Fist" (1956) & "Cold Peril" (1957)
1957		Harry Wells, Ray	(TV series) 2 episodes, as Harry Wells in "Hot Dust" (1957) & Ray in "Blood Money" (1958)
	''The Brain Eaters''	Professor Cole
''Sea Hunt''	Indio	(TV series) 6 episodes (1958–1960)
	''Bonanza''	Freddy	(TV series) Episode "The Ape"
''M Squad''	Bob Nash	(TV series) Episode "Badge for a Coward"
		Hansen	(TV series) (Episode "A Quality of Mercy")
	Anko	(TV series) Episode "Incident Before Black Pass"
	''The Balcony''	Roger
	Lt. Beldon M.D.	(TV series) Episode "Man of Violence"
		Konig	(TV series) (Episode "Production and Decay of Strange Particles")
	Judson Ellis
''The Man From U.N.C.L.E.''	Vladeck	(TV series) Episode "The Project Strigas Affair"
	''Get Smart''	Stryker
''Gunsmoke''	John Walking Fox
''Daniel Boone''	Oontah	(TV series) (Episode "Seminole Territory")
''Deathwatch''	Jules LaFranc
1966	''Star Trek''		(TV series) (79 episodes)
1969			(TV series) (49 episodes)
1971	''Catlow''	Miller
	''Baffled!''	Tom Kovack	(TV)
	Dr. Barry Mayfield	(TV)
''Star Trek: The Animated Series''		(voice) (22 episodes)
1974	''Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love''	Mick	(TV)
1976		Narrator(1976–1982)	(TV series)
1978		Dr. David Kibner
1979	''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''
1981			(TV)
	''A Woman Called Golda''	Morris Meyerson	(TV)
	Achmet	(TV mini-series)
''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''
	1983	''T.J. Hooker''	Paul McGuire	(TV Series) (Episode "Vengeance is Mine")
	''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''
''The Sun Also Rises''	Count Mippipopolous	(TV)
	''The Transformers: The Movie''	Galvatron	(voice), main Decepticon antagonist/ main villain
''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''
''Faerie Tale Theatre''	The Evil Moroccan Magician	(TV Series) (Episode "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp")
1989	''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''
		Mel Mermelstein	(TV)
''Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories''	Narrator	(TV)
''Star Trek: The Next Generation''		(TV series) (episodes "Unification (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''
1993		Mr. Moundshroud	(voice)
1994	''The Pagemaster''	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde	(voice)
	''Bonanza: Under Attack''	Frank James	(TV)
	Thomas Cutler
''Titanica''	Narrator	(documentary)
1997	''David''	Samuel	(TV)
1998		Mustapha Mond	(TV)
	''Seaman (video game)''	Narrator	(video game)
''Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists''	Akron/Baraka/King Chandra	(voice)
		Professor Emmett Fowler	(TV series) (episode "The TorMentor")
''Atlantis: The Lost Empire''	King Kashekim Nedakh	(voice)
2005	''Civilization IV''	Narrator	(video game), (voice)
	Dr. William Bell	(TV series) (four episodes – but only provided a voice-over in one of them)
		(voice)
	''Star Trek Online''	Mr. Spock (Narrator)	(video game), (voice)
''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep''		(video game), (voice)
	Dr. William Bell	(TV series) (recurring from "There's More Than One of Everything".)
2011	''Transformers: Dark of the Moon''	Sentinel Prime (also as Spock on a television set in the background)	(voice) main Autobot antagonist/Autobot Traitor

Director

''Vincent'': Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978–1981)

''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984)

''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986)

''Three Men and a Baby'' (1987)

''The Good Mother'' (1988)

''Funny About Love'' (1990)

''Holy Matrimony'' (1994)

episodes of ''Night Gallery'', ''T.J. Hooker'', ''The Powers of Matthew Star'' and ''Deadly Games''

Videography

Music videos

"Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy

"Going Down to Liverpool" by The Bangles (1985)

"The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars (2011)

Writer

Bibliography

''I Am Not Spock'' (1977)

''Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens'' (1978)

''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979) (Contributions uncredited) ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984) (Contributions uncredited)

''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986)

''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (1991)

''I Am Spock'' (1995)

''Shekhina'' photography (2005) (ISBN 978-1-884167-16-4)

''The Full Body Project'' (2008)

Poetry

''You & I'' (1973) (ISBN 978-0-912310-26-8)

''Will I Think of You?'' (1974) (ISBN 0912310701)

''We Are All Children Searching for Love: A Collection of Poems and Photographs'' (1977) (ISBN 978-0-88396-024-0)

''Come be With Me'' (1978) (ISBN 978-0-88396-033-2)

''These Words are for You'' (1981) (ISBN 978-0-88396-148-3)

''Warmed by Love'' (1983) (ISBN 978-0-88396-200-8)

''A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life'' (2002) (ISBN 978-0-88396-596-2)

Discography

:''See also: Leonard Nimoy discography (includes compilations and re-issues)''

''Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space'' (Dot Records), (1967).

''Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records), (1968).

''The Way I Feel'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25883), (1968).

''The Touch of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25910), (1969).

''The New World of Leonard Nimoy'' (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25966), (1970).

References

External links

Leonard Nimoy's personal website

Leonard Nimoy's entry at Startrek.com

Leonard Nimoy at Alien Voices

Interview with Leonard Nimoy at hossli.com

Leonard Nimoy Poetry and Photography on The HyperTexts

Interview with Leonard Nimoy by the Archive of American Television (2000)

2010 Interview with Nimoy about his "Secret Selves" show at Mass MoCA

Media

Newsmaker of the Week: Leonard Nimoy (30-min. interview, free)

Archive of American Television Interview with Leonard Nimoy Nov 2, 2000

Interview with Leonard Nimoy about photography, on ''The Callie Crossley Show''

Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of the Korean War Category:American Orthodox Jews Category:American poets Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American voice actors Category:American video game actors Category:Antioch College alumni Category:English-language film directors Category:Jewish actors Category:Dot Records artists Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:United States Army soldiers

an:Leonard Nimoy bn:লেনার্ড নিময় ca:Leonard Nimoy cs:Leonard Nimoy da:Leonard Nimoy de:Leonard Nimoy es:Leonard Nimoy eo:Leonard Nimoy fa:لنارد نیموی fr:Leonard Nimoy hr:Leonard Nimoy id:Leonard Nimoy it:Leonard Nimoy he:לאונרד נימוי hu:Leonard Nimoy nl:Leonard Nimoy ja:レナード・ニモイ no:Leonard Nimoy pl:Leonard Nimoy pt:Leonard Nimoy ro:Leonard Nimoy ru:Нимой, Леонард simple:Leonard Nimoy fi:Leonard Nimoy sv:Leonard Nimoy tr:Leonard Nimoy uk:Леонард Німой zh:伦纳德·尼莫伊

''The Steve Harvey Show'' (also known as ''Steve Harvey'') is an American sitcom that aired for six seasons from August 25, 1996 to February 17, 2002 on The WB Television Network. It was created by Winifred Hervey and directed by Stan Lathan.

Synopsis

Steve Hightower (Steve Harvey) is a has-been 1970s funk legend who is now a music teacher/Vice-principal at Booker T. Washington High in Chicago's West Side. Budget cutbacks meant Steve also had to teach drama and art, much to his surprise. Cedric Robinson (Cedric the Entertainer) is a coach at the high school, and Steve's long-time best friend. The principal of Booker T. Washington High is Steve's former classmate, Regina Grier (Wendy Raquel Robinson), who Steve affectionately calls "Piggy", due to the fact that she was overweight as an adolescent.

Steve seemingly meets his match in a pair of his students: Romeo Santana (Merlin Santana), a stylish, popular, self-absorbed ladies' man, and the equally vacuous Stanley Kuznocki, nicknamed Bullethead (William Lee Scott).

In 1997, the show introduced a new character, a secretary named Lovita Jenkins (Terri J. Vaughn), a woman who is fundamentally good in nature, but nonetheless, considerably unrefined in terms of disposition. Cedric and Lovita begin dating, and eventually marry and produce a child. The show also featured a succession of young actresses who served as female foils to Romeo and Bullethead; the longest-lasting of these was Lori Beth Denberg as the overachieving, socially inept Lydia Gutman. Rapper The Lady of Rage also had a recurring role as Coretta Cox, a physically massive, brutish teenaged girl in romantic pursuit of Romeo.

Steve was part of a fictional singing group called "Steve Hightower and the High Tops," who would temporarily reunite to perform on occasion (the spelling of "High Tops" appears on a promotional poster that hangs on Steve's wall). The members consisted of Steve, T-Bone (played by T.K. Carter, later by Don 'D.C.' Curry), Pretty Tony (played by Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers), and Clyde (played by Jonathan Slocumb). Two of their signature songs (performed several times on the show) were "When the Funk Hits the Fan," and "Break Me Off a Piece of That Funk." Though Cedric was not an original member of the group, he usually sang with them on several events.

A few other recurring characters throughout the series included Cedric's grandmother named "Grandma Puddin'" (played by Cedric the Entertainer) and Regina's boyfriend, Warrington Steele (played by Dorien Wilson). Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell appeared in several episodes as "Junior" and "Vincent." Wayne Wilderson portrayed Byron, a "bougie" type character who was a TV producer and a member of the Onyx Club (a professional men's group that Steve and Cedric tried to join). Dwayne Adway played Jordan Maddox, a professional basketball player who was briefly married to Regina before dying during their honeymoon. Ernest Lee Thomas made a couple of appearances as the Reverend who eulogized Maddox, and who married Cedric and Lovita.

Running gags

There were a few recurrent gags throughout the series. For instance, Lovita had several relatives named after products or items (her brother's name was Duracell; she had cousins named "Kinko", "Bruschetta," "Clinique," and "Camay").

Steve also made several references to his well known hot spot "The Nasty Kitty" and his favorite working girl, Bubblicious, even though the strip club is never seen. Steve's topical humor of popular culture was also another recurring gag. One example of these jokes: "When I see that woman, I'm like Shaq doing Shakespeare- I just don't know how to act!". Another recurring gag on the show was despite being a one-time famous musician in the universe of the show, Steve was always mistaken for being other famous musicians. For example, in an episode guest starring Jerry Springer, he refers to him as "That Cop from the Village People." Another episode featured singer Teena Marie, who when Steve went to introduce himself to see if she'd remember him, answers "Oh Yes! Lionel! How are you? Give my best to the rest of The Commodores." (This was in obvious reference to singer Lionel Richie).

Though Regina blossomed into a beautiful, stylish lady, she sometimes displayed her insecurities, and was highly competitive (always displayed childlike exuberance whenever she won a trophy by yelling her signature catch phrase "Bam! In your face!", and once cheated Steve in a game of Scrabble because he played it better than she). In addition, the romantic tension between Steve and Regina eventually blossomed into a relationship.

A very well known gag was Cedric's story about being from Willacoochee, Georgia, where he was raised in a one bedroom shack. The story was never finished, the scene would change or someone would interrupt him. Cedric's love for decking out his Hyundai, which was never seen in the show, was another running gag, as well as offering to take Lovita out to dinner whenever he had a two-for-one coupon at the Sizzler restaurant.

Occasional gags referenced Bullethead's trailer park lifestyle, and Romeo's numerous names (he has used the names Romeo Miguel Jesus Pele Rojas Alejandro Santana). In one episode, he wrote all of his names on paper but never prepared his assignment, resulting in an "F." Lydia almost always displayed an obsession for her fellow classmate/alleged lover, Arthur Rabinowitz (whom Steve referred to as "that polite Jewish boy that does his taxes"), and for her favorite entertainer, Barbra Streisand; however, she had total disdain for classmates "Heather the cheerleader" and "Jennifer the cheerleader". One other gag was that teachers would refer to a student (amongst themselves) due to a condition or appearance ("Helmet Boy" for wearing a special helmet in gym class; "Au Natural Girl" for having a strong body odor, and "Firestarter" for one kid who kept setting items on fire).

Cast

Main cast

Steve Harvey – Steven "Steve" Hightower

Cedric the Entertainer – Cedric Jackie Robinson

Merlin Santana – Romeo Santana

William Lee Scott – Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki

Wendy Raquel Robinson – Principal Regina Grier-Maddox

Terri J. Vaughn – Lovita Alizé Jenkins-Robinson (1997-2002)

Tracy Vilar – Sophia Ortiz (1996-1997)

Netfa Perry – Sara (1996-1997)

Ariyan A. Johnson – Aisha (1997-1998)

Lori Beth Denberg – Lydia Liza Guttman (1998-2002)

Recurring cast

Kel Mitchell – Vincent (1996-1999)

Kenan Thompson – Junior (1996-1999)

T. K. Carter – T-Bone (1996-1999)

Ronald Isley – Pretty Tony (1996-2001)

Jonathan Slocumb – Clyde (1996-2001)

The Lady of Rage – Coretta "The Ox" Cox (1997-2000; credited during season 4 episodes as "Robin Yvette")

Wayne Wilderson – Byron (1998-2001)

Dorien Wilson – Warrington Steele (1998-1999)

Samm Levine – Arthur Rabinowitz (2001)

Don "D.C." Curry – T-Bone (1999-2001)

Dwayne Adway – Jordan Maddox (2000)

Special guest appearances

Teena Marie

Jerry Springer

Bow Wow

Jermaine Dupri

Teddy Riley

Snoop Dogg

Sean Combs

Kim Fields

Isabel Sanford

Judge Greg Mathis

Antonio Fargas

Busta Rhymes

Brian McKnight

Nikki Cox

Boris Kodjoe

Gabrielle Union

Bumper Robinson

Seasonal ratings in the United States

! Season	! Network	! Season premiere	! Season finale	! Rank	! Viewers(in millions)
! 1		August 25, 1996	May 18, 1997
! 2	September 10, 1997	May 13, 1998
! 3	September 18, 1998	May 20, 1999
! 4	September 24, 1999	May 19, 2000
! 5	October 8, 2000	May 20, 2001
! 6	October 14, 2001	February 17 , 2002

Series end

In 2001, Harvey decided to pursue other projects. He wished to end the show after the fifth season, but at the insistence of the WB network, reluctantly filmed a 13-episode sixth season.

The series ended with Regina mulling over a job offer to be a principal at a private school in California. Steve, who doesn't want Regina to go, acts supportive despite his feelings. Regina ends up taking the job and with encouragement from Lydia, Bullethead, and Romeo, Steve decides to go after her to reveal his true feelings. Meanwhile, Cedric and Lovita win the lottery and Lovita goes into labor (Terri J. Vaughn's real-life pregnancy was written into the show that season).

Death of Merlin Santana

On November 9, 2002, nine months after the series ended, Merlin Santana was shot and killed while sitting in his car in South Los Angeles, California. He was 26 years old. The reason for his death is that one of the killers' girlfriend falsely stated that Santana tried to rape her.

Syndication

The series was first distributed to syndication to WB and UPN affiliates in the United States by Sony Pictures Television in September 2002, and remained airing in broadcast syndication in some U.S. markets on various local stations (such as WCIU and MeTV in Chicago) as late as 2008.

The series aired on BET until March 2009, and currently TBS in the United States, (ending its run on September 24, 2011) UK Channel Trouble. It was broadcast on Ion Television until March 16, 2009. TBS missed most of the first inning of Game 6 of the 2008 American League Championship Series, with viewers getting a rerun of ''The Steve Harvey Show'' instead. TBS picked up the game just prior to the last out in the bottom of the first, with announcer Chip Caray apologizing to viewers for "technical difficulties." TBS acknowledged there was a problem with one of their routers used in the broadcast transmission of the relay of the telecast from Atlanta.

DVD release

In 2003, Sony Pictures released ''The Best of the Steve Harvey Show, Vol. 1'', on Region 1 DVD. The disc features five episodes of the series.

Awards and nominations

Nominated rowspan=4Nominated rowspan=24NominatedNominatedNominatedNominatedWon

style="background-color: #BCBCBC"	Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
rowspan=2	1996	NCLR Bravo Awards	|	Outstanding Individual Performance in a Comedy Series	Tracy Vilar
Nominated	Outstanding Individual Performance in a Comedy Series
rowspan=3	1998	ALMA Award ||	Nominated	Outstanding Comedy Series	-
Nominated	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Nominated	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
1999	|	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series	Merlin Santana
rowspan=2	1998	NAACP Image Awards ||	Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Steve Harvey
Nominated	Outstanding Comedy Series
rowspan=3	1999	|	Outstanding Comedy Series	-
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
rowspan=5	2000	|	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Terri J. Vaughn
Nominated	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
rowspan=7	2001	|	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	William Lee Scott
Nominated	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Nominated	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
rowspan=6	2002	|	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Merlin Santana
Nominated	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Comedy Series
Won	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
2003	|	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Terri J. Vaughn

References

External links

Category:1996 American television series debuts Category:2002 American television series endings Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:American television sitcoms Category:Black sitcoms Category:English-language television series Category:Fictional versions of real people Category:High school television series Category:Television series by NBC Universal Television Category:Television series by Sony Pictures Television Category:Television shows set in Chicago, Illinois Category:WB network shows

fr:The Steve Harvey Show

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Steve Harvey
birth name	Broderick Steven Harvey
birth date	January 17, 1957
birth place	Welch, West Virginia, U.S.
occupation	ActorComedianRadio and Television personalityAuthor
years active	1985–present
residence	Atlanta, Georgia
website	http://www.steveharvey.com
britishcomedyawards	}}

Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey (born January 17, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He is best known as the star of the WB sitcom ''The Steve Harvey Show'', and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film ''The Original Kings of Comedy''. Currently, he is the host of the nationally syndicated radio program ''The Steve Harvey Morning Show'', and the current host of the television game show ''Family Feud''. He also hosts the ''Steve Harvey Project'', on an extended cable channel. He is the author of ''Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment'', which was published in March 2009, and the book ''Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find and Keep a Man''.

Biography

Early years

Harvey was born in Welch, West Virginia, the son of Eloise and Jesse Harvey, a coal miner. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated from Glenville High School in 1974. Shortly after high school he attended Kent State University and West Virginia University and is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He has had previous occupations, including a boxer, an insurance salesman and a mailman.

Comedy career

Steve Harvey first performed stand-up comedy on October 8, 1985 at the Hilarities Comedy Club in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a finalist in Second Annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search in 1989, eventually leading to a long stint as host of ''It's Showtime at the Apollo'', succeeding Mark Curry in that role. His success as a stand-up comedian led to a starring role on the ABC show ''Me and the Boys'' in 1994. He would later star on the WB network show, ''The Steve Harvey Show'', which ran from 1996 to 2002. While wildly popular in the African-American community (the show won multiple NAACP Image Awards), the show never achieved critical acclaim outside of the African-American community, a matter about which Harvey has often complained.

In 1997, Harvey continued his work in stand-up comedy, touring as one of the Kings of Comedy, along with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac. The comedy act would later be put together into a film by Spike Lee called ''The Original Kings of Comedy''. DVD sales of ''The Original Kings of Comedy'' and ''Don't Trip, He Ain't Through With Me Yet'' increased Harvey's popularity. Harvey released a hip hop and R&B; audio CD on a record label he founded, and authored a book, ''Steve Harvey's Big Time''. That title was also used as the name of Harvey's comedy and variety television show (later renamed ''Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge'') which aired on The WB network from 2003 until 2005. Harvey also launched a clothing line which features the line of dress wear. In 2005 he co-starred in the movie ''Racing Stripes''. He had appeared in the 2003 movie ''The Fighting Temptations'' alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles.

In 2008, Harvey hosted the Disney Dreamers Academy with Steve Harvey, a teen-focused personal and professional enrichment event that took place January 17–20, 2008 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Harvey along with a team of judges chose 100 teens to attend the event.

Radio host

''The Steve Harvey Morning Show''

Harvey is the host of a weekday-morning radio program, ''The Steve Harvey Morning Show'', which was originally syndicated through Radio One, Inc. from September 2000 until May 2005, and which continues to air to the present time.

Television roles

Himself ''Me and the Boys (TV series) ''The Steve Harvey Show'' ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show) ''Family Feud''

Year !! Title !! Character!! Notes !! Reference
1993–2000	''Showtime at the Apollo''	|	Host
1994–1995	Me and the Boys'' ||	Steve Tower	Main Role
1996–2002	|	Steve Hightower	Main Role
2010	Who Wants To Be a Millionaire'' ||	Himself	Host
2010–present	|	Himself	Host

''Family Feud''

Steve became the host of ''Family Feud'' in September 2010, replacing host John O'Hurley.

Film roles

Himself ''The Fighting Temptations'' ''Love Don't Cost a Thing (film) ''Johnson Family Vacation'' ''You Got Served'' ''Racing Stripes'' ''Madea Goes to Jail (film)

Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes !! Reference
2000	''The Original Kings of Comedy''	|	Host / Stand-up Comedy
2003	|	Miles the DJ	Minor Role
2003	Love Don't Cost a Thing'' ||	Dad	Main Role
2004	|	Mack	Supporting Role
2004	|	Mr. Rad	Supporting Role
2005	|	Buzz the Fly (voice)	Supporting Role
2009	Madea Goes to Jail'' ||	Himself	Cameo

Personal life

Harvey has been married three times and has four biological children. He has twin daughters, Karli and Brandi (born 1982) and a son, Broderick Jr. (born 1991), from his first marriage. Harvey also has another son, Wynton (born 1997), from his second marriage to Mary Shackelford. The couple divorced in November 2005.

In June 2007 he married his current wife, Marjorie Bridges, who he says is responsible for making him a better man and changing his life. The Harveys live in Atlanta, Georgia with four of their youngest children as a "blended family".

Controversies

On March 27, 2009, Harvey appeared on an episode of The Tyra Show with Tyra Banks to promote his book ''Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man''. During the course of the interview, Harvey advised that women should not date atheists. Saying

You sitting up there talking to a dude and he tells you he’s an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home. You talking to a person who don’t believe in God . . . what’s his moral barometer? Where’s it at? It's nowhere.

Later that year, on May 30, Harvey appeared on an episode of Larry King Live guest hosted by Joy Behar. During that interview, Harvey reiterated his assertion that women should not date atheists, who he claimed have "no moral barometer". Harvey stated that he refuses to speak to anyone claiming to be an atheist, who he said are "idiot(s)". Harvey went on to suggest that modern astrophysics and evolutionary biology are without merit by saying

You can't just tell me it spun out of a gastrous [sic] ball and then all of a sudden we were evolved from monkeys. Why we still got monkeys? [sic]

In August 2011 on his radio show, Harvey called Cornel West and Tavis Smiley "Uncle Toms" because they have criticized President Barack Obama.

Awards

In 2007, Harvey won the ''Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year'' award by Radio & Records magazine. Other finalists included: Delilah, Blair Garner, Kidd Kraddick, ''The Lia Show'' and John Tesh.

References

External links

www.steveharvey.com -- Official website

Category:1957 births Category:African American comedians Category:African American film actors Category:African American television actors Category:African American writers Category:American Christians Category:American comedians Category:American game show hosts Category:American radio personalities Category:American stand-up comedians Category:Christian creationists Category:Family Feud Category:People from Cleveland, Ohio Category:Living people Category:People from McDowell County, West Virginia Category:Radio personalities from Chicago, Illinois Category:Radio personalities from Dallas, Texas Category:Radio personalities from Los Angeles, California Category:Radio personalities from West Virginia Category:Radio personalities from Atlanta, Georgia

fr:Steve Harvey pt:Steve Harvey