Canadian Vulcans Honor Leonard Nimoy: Photos, Video & Reports Roundup

This afternoon Leonard Nimoy “came home” to to the town of Vulcan, Alberta, Canada, where they held a parade for their adopted favorite son, gave him the key to the city, and unveiled a bust of the actor as Spock. We have a report from the event, along with photos and video. Plus a roundup of pre-event video interviews and media reaction to the Nimoy re-retirement. [UPDATED: Video and more photos added]

 

Nimoy ‘comes home’ to Vulcan

This was Leonard Nimoy’s first trip to Vulcan (the official Star Trek capital of Canada). The actor told the gathered crowd:

I’ve been a Vulcan for 44 years. It was about time I came home

I’ve never had an experience quite as touching as this and I appreciate it. Thank you. May each and every one of you live long and prosper.

Here is some video from the presentation of the bust of Mr. Spock (via City of Vulcan):

The CBC and Reuters have also released images from the event, here are few:


Nimoy arrives, greeted by mayor and his ‘yeoman’ in uniform
(Andree Lau CBC)


A parade takes Nimoy into town
(Todd Korol/Reuters)

More photos and reports from Nimoy’s afternoon in Vulcan at cbc.ca, reuters.com, VancouverSun.com, and CalgarySun.com.

Nimoy at Calgary Comic Con

Mr. Nimoy will be rounding out his Alberta appearance at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend. For a complete list of other celebrity guests who will be attending the 2010 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo on April 24 & 25, visit calgaryexpo.com

MORE VIDEO interviews: Nimoy endorses Shatner for Governor General

Both CBC and CTV have video interviews with Nimoy conducted before the event. In both, Nimoy was asked about the calls for William Shatner to become the next Governor General of Canada. In both he noted that it would be good for Bill as it “would give him something to do.”

The Retirement heard round the world

Although it wasn’t a surprise or new news to Trek fans, Nimoy’s return to retirement became big news this week. In the last few days the story has been reported all over the entertainment and mainstream media. While many went with the standard, like Access Hollywood with ‘Leonard Nimoy To Retire’, many others mined the usual Trek clichés, while some others delved into hyperbole or questionable taste.

Here are just a few of the suspect headlines:

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I wish I lived in Vulcan.

Seriously folks t’s been cool up here in Canada today – every news outlet has been running Nimoy and Shatner stories. It’s like they own the place!

Yeah. On Yahoo Nimoy was #3 of searches Wednesday. His re-retirement was a hot piece of news.

I wish I lived in Vulcan. Okay, not really but I want to go there one day when i take a road trip.

He’s actually down to #8 on the list as of now, but still, I see your point :)

Is he wearing his “original uniform” in plainclothes–blue sweater and black pants? :)

I have never been so mad at myself. Why the hell am I not in Vulcan?!?!?!

Whoever named that chilly town Vulcan must be the same genius who named Greenland.

Yeah, we’re awesome. I live in Calgary. Vulcan is a cool place that I usually visis once a year. I hope to see Nimoy tomorrow!

Nimoy is PURE CLASS to give this little town his seal of approval and appreciation!

I wish he’d use his Phaser in Vulcan and zap some of those stupid squirrells at that house where that stupid old lady feeds them and there is about 20 of those tree rats running round all the time ….

I wish I lived in Vulcan! My God, the story of Leonard Nimoy re-retireing was even on Perez Hilton ahaha

Although I wish I could’ve been a part of history at Vulcan today, I was sidelined at Edmonton over my cancer related matters (no worries, everything’s starting to go well related to that ;) ). Hopefuly I’ll hear more about this on the news tonight. Thank you Leonard Nimoy! For making me an even prouder Albertan! :D

I already miss you Mr. Nimoy ;(

Nimoy is a class act.

hey everyone. i live in BC about 5 hours fom vulcan, so a friend and i decided to go see nimoy. we got to town aroun 2. we found a spot to park right behind the stage. it was pretty packed. we walked down the main street to the museum. there was a croud waiting at the doors, and nimoys ride was parked in front of it. he came out, waved, got in the suv and rode in a parade back to the stage. first, there was a giant starship float named the uss extendidcare. no joke. it had a captain kirk stand-in sitting in a cockpit where the bridge would be, and two orion slave girls dancing at the back beside the nacelles. it had a smoke machine and at times captain kirk was choking. then there was a band float, nimoys suv, an ambulance and a firetruck. when the parade reached the stage at the end of main street the floats turned down a road to the left and the firetruck at the end parked so close to the stage on the left that it blocked about 100 peoples view. its ok tho because the media had there own bleechers on the right side. then there was an intro of nimoy by the calgary comic expo guy and nimoy took the mic. he spoke for about, 4 minutes. then he left the stage and left town. the mayor continued to speak as the croud walked away and headed for the liquor store to buy romulan ale beer (saw the same beer at the star trek experience last year.
so i dont know if i missed somthing but nimoy didnt really connect with the town the way he said he wanted to and the event was nothing more than a way to boost the towns tourism.
i love mr. nimoy and really enjoyed seeing him in vegas last august. i really hope that he was truely touched to be there, but i feel sorry for the fans like me that drove five hours to watch a firetruck and hear leonard nimoy speak for four minutes

P.S. – i had a great time in vulcan. to spite the poor organisation of the event it was still worth the trip. vulcan is a really trippy trek locale if you can make the trip. it was one of those rare trek events that im glad i was a part of :)

They even just reported this story on BBC Breakfast News here in the UK. Way to go Vulcan!

I’m assuming JJ has already told Nimoy that he won’t be wanting him for Trek 2012, because just a few months ago Leonard said he would happily take the call. Now he has announced his retirement.
Who knows!

Leonard Nimoy is indeed a very classy guy. Met him at Comic Con in San Diego last year and he was very gracious and friendly. That’s really neat what he did for Vulcan, Alberta.

And if Star Trek 2009 really is his swan song from feature films, then he ended his career on a high note.

May he live long and prosper in retirement; he’s one of the few in Hollywood who is smart enough to know just when to stop and enjoy it all (much as Johnny Carson did).

While I would have loved to see Leonard in more projects and at conventions, it is his call how and when to retire.

I saw him ad FedCon years ago. He performed Spock and Q 2 with John DeLancie, both in character.

So I have personally met him and see him perform as Spock. What more could I ask for?

Thanks Leonard!

Ive got to see mr nimoy several times over the years and have enjoyed them all he is a fascinating man i hope he enjoys retirement thnx for the years of entertainment!!!!!!!!!

I hate the newspapers in this country (UK) complete A-holes

God, E! is pure trash. Nothing new there. Great to see Nimoy in his victory lap!

Congratulations Mr Nimoy :)

Maybe he left so nobody would ask him about Vulcan beeing sucked into a black hole?

The man is a class act. I am so pleased I was finally able to meet him this summer – a dream of mine since childhood. :)
LL&P Mr. Nimoy.

Nimoy and Shatner have finally turned into the vaudeville act they performed in Star Trek IV about whether they liked Italian or not.

Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes.

#22 what makes you say that? The coverage of Nimoy’s retirement that I’ve seen has been very good and entirely free of the usual snide comments that we so often get about Trek.

On another note, I sat and watched The Voyage Home with my 9 year old nephew today. Its the first time he has seen it- we did TWoK and TSfS in the last two weeks- and he thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact he enjoyed them all. Much to my delight.

The bus punk neck-pinch had to be rewound several times and got a great laugh every time. My nephew laughed as well! lol
What a magic film. Another reason to thank Leonard.

this made the BBC main news, Leonard and Spock and Vulcan are still worldwide mainstream news, incredible!

I’m very proud of Canada’s Trek heritage!

We boast the best Captain & a town called Vulcan!

And we are the closest nation to the UFP in philosophy & culture-

It was recently reported that we have more inter-racial marriages than any nation on Earth, perhaps one of those is a Vulcan married to a human.

Sad to see Mr Nimoy dissapear from Film, TV and Star Trek appearances but what joy he has brought us. Its good to see people turn out and give him such warm praise and adulation.
BTW Would like to see more footage of this.
Greg
UK

#28
You rewind?

Next you will tell me you use stone tools and bear skins…

Can’t believe he is not going to do the sequel. Won’t be the same if Bill is there and he is not. I wonder if Bob an Alex were or are going to write something for him

I was at his panel at the convention today. Amongst other things, I learned that he did not know that Spock would be resurrected for ST:III until he was actually seeing ST:II in the theatre with his family and saw that Paramount had added a scene to the end where his torpedo coffin was intact on the Genesis Planet. At that point, he told his wife that Paramount would be calling.

I also learned that there was no truth to the rumor that Kim Cattrell posed nude as Valeris with only her vulcan ears on the set of ST:VI.

A class act, as usual (unlike his cohort). And the bust actually looks well done.

#32 well, whatever you call skipping a DVD back. Search? Scene select? Whatever, lol, you know what I meant. ;-)

Hi All,

Being one of the many faces in the crowd I wasn’t sure if I was going to ‘feel’ the anticipation and love for Mr. Nimoy. Gladly I found myself swept away as if I was a child; hard pressed to remember I have two kids to keep an eye on.
Thank-you for coming to Vulcan.
As a grown man and father you tend to forget your own youth; so worried about the kids, the wife, the family, the job…on & on…for a few minutes it all went away. Thanks!

With Warmest Regards,
The Theomeister

Canada gave the world Kirk it seems just that we give them Spock, if only for a little while.

Vulcan – My Birth Place and where I learned all my “People Skills” Such as saying Hi and smiling at all – that training sure came in handy when I was a olympic torch Bearer – Want you to know the ladies in Red are two of the best citizens of the town – made my day to see you Betty! Love to all the Vulcan’s – Live long and Prosper – Thanks for all your work to make it to the news and welcome Mr. Spock! Blessings, Janet Nickason

Hi, My name Samantha, and I have been trying to find a website like this for a long time. Finally, someone who apreciates Leonard Nimoy the same way I do! He is honestly and truely my hero. He has helped me overcome my disabilities, as well as my issues at home. see, I am eighty percent deaf, and I have multiple mental and emotional disorders. On top of that, I have been taking care of my mom since I was a small child. She has lupus, and is very lucky to have lived this long. This will give you an idea of how sick she is:
When I was about six years old, she got really sick from food poisioning, and was admitted into the hospital. I was to stay with my great grandmother for a few days while she was in the hospital. My grandmother brought me to her appartment and as she tucked me into bed, she told me that my mom was probably not going to make it. I got scared, but she said that my mom was going to call in a few minutes. When the phone rang, I picked it up and it was my mom. We talked for a little while, and She told me not to be scared, that she was going to come home the next day. She sounded scared as she said it, and I started crying. When I told her I knew what the doctor had said, she said,
\\\”Sam, listen to me.\\\” and she started singing You Are My Sunshine. She said,
\\\”You are the reason I am going to keep living.\\\” She explained to me that when I was born, she prayed to God that he would let her live to see me grow up. She said
\\\”I am not going anywhere for a good long time.\\\” That was not the laast time she has been that sick. Just recently, she started having siezures, which means that the lupus has gone to her brain. I have been too scared to leave her side, untill now. Because of Leonard Nimoy, I have overcome my ferars, and I was able to talk my mom into moving closer to my grandmother. Now I am at Penobscot Job Corps Academy right now, thanks to Leonard Nimoy. I

wish there was a way that I could write to him, because I know I could never meet him in person.