The late Leonard Nimoy may be honored in a new way with an official request submitted by a member of the US House of Representatives for the Star Trek legend to be the subject of an upcoming commemorative U.S. stamp.
Nimoy on a stamp?
Congressman Adam Schiff, who represents California’s 30th congressional district, has submitted a letter to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee urging them to submit a recommendation to the Postmaster General to issue a commemorative USPS stamp in honor of Leonard Nimoy. Schiff’s letter states in part:
Live long and prosper! This is a phrase that is part of our lexicon, as is the unforgettable character who first proclaimed those words. I am writing to support the creation of a stamp for Leonard Nimoy, an extraordinary activist, actor, and dear friend.
Mr. Nimoy is best known for his world-renowned portrayal of Mr. Spock in the Stark Trek franchise. Mr. Nimoy was revered by fans for this role, best put by the New York Times as “bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century.”
Leonard Nimoy at 2013 premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness
The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee is a board appointed by the Postmaster General that meets quarterly to select subjects for recommendation of future stamps. Leonard Nimoy fits their criteria for consideration. The USPS regularly issues commemorative stamps for notable Americans and historic figures. Individuals who have been honored with commemorative stamps recently include Representative John Lewis, folk singer Pete Seeger, novelist Usula K. Le Guin, artist Roy Lichtenstein, former first lady Nancy Reagan, and baseball all-star Yogi Berra.
While Leonard Nimoy was born in Boston, he spent most of his life living in the Los Angeles area and as noted by Rep. Schiff, he and his wife Susan were active in the community supporting numerous organizations, including the Griffith Park Observatory which named the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater in his honor. Not mentioned in this letter, through a generous contribution from Susan, UCLA is naming a performing arts center opening this fall the Nimoy Theater.
Post by @trekmovieView on Threads
The process of getting a stamp recommended, designed, and approved can take some time, but a letter from a member of Congress will certainly get the attention of the committee. The USPS has previously honored Star Trek with a special series of stamps issued for the 50th anniversary of the franchise in 2016. The postal service also released a stamp in 1999 featuring the USS Enterprise as part of a “Celebrate the Century” series.
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Live long, and postage.
Beam me up stampy
It’s a shame they don’t make Short Treks anymore – I’d quite like to see one called ‘My Mailman is a Vulcan!’, which would have a bit of a ‘Carbon Creek’ feel to it.
I can’t even remember the last time I even used a stamp or mailed anything. Still cool though!
It’s hard to believe that Leonard Nimoy has been gone for almost a decade. A postage stamp would be a great way to honor him.
I recently watched For the love of Spock. It had me in tears.
Great documentary.
It made me cry as well, watching wealthy people fundraise from fans for their little film project. No one ever talks about how Adam Nimoy was hired to direct a few TNG episodes right around the same time Leonard Nimoy agreed to appear as Spock in TNG. Coincidence?
Adam apparently landed a gopher/assistant role on TUC that I had been talked up for briefly, so obviously having an ‘in’ matters.
But the TNG appearance was assumed to be quid pro quo, like a free ad for TUC as well as a ratings thing for TNG, so it’d be presumptutous of me to assume getting Adam his first directing gigs was also part of that.
I love this dude — our next U.S. Senator here in CA.
Well, we here in Iowa don’t care for the guy.
He not old enough for ya?
Who cares about Iowa.
Apparently, James Kirk’s ancestors.
For all we know there could have been a mandatory resettlement program for centuries after ww3, maybe the Kirks were forced to live there.
Looking at Iowa today, that’s not a bad attempt at predicting the future.
You know your Midwest state is f***** when Nebraska seems more reasonable…lol
He’s not running for Senate in Iowa, so you really don’t need to worry about that. There are a couple of solid candidates running, they’ll all do a fine job when elected.
Considering your governor in Iowa is anti-LGBTQ bigot, who is against a woman’s right to choose, perhaps there are more important things for Iowans to be focused on.
Yeah, like farm subsidies, gerrymandering and guns…lots of guns.
Get over yourself, and focus on something that isn’t about sexuality. Creep.
Actually, it would’ve very nice if you people did just that very thing — just letting people live their lives without accusing them of being “groomers” or otherwise scapegoating them to distract from your own profound moral failures and hypocrisy.
Had a nasty reply all set to go to Raygun, then noticed your wonderful post. Scrapped mine as being inelegant by comparison, you got the job done.
Thx. That comment went straight to moderation, and mild though it was, I’m actually surprised they published it.
Except that he’s 100% correct…there is that.
LOL I’m a creep for pointing out an accurate truth? A truth by the way that is antithetical to the values of Trek and Gene Roddenberry. Congressman Schiff’s recommendation is an honor not only to Star Trek, but to the legacy of Nimoy himself.
Are you kidding me?? LOL. Iowa’s government makes EVERYTHING about sexuality. They’re a bunch of anti-LGBTQ bigots.
whoa…..I said I don’t like Adam Schiff, which lots of people don’t, and you’re turning this in to an abortion debate? Wow dude: zero to 100 in .03 seconds.
Well when someone brings up Iowa, it’s hard not to think about your Trump enabling old as sand senator and you’re crazy-angry homophobic governor.
Hmm. I have met her a few times, seemed pretty nice to me.
That’s good, because your 90-year old dude in Iowa needs lot’s of care, and don’t forget the Depends.
I’d get some. And I never buy stamps anymore. Live Long and Postal.
I hate that Shifty and I have this is common.
That’s okay. The real issue for you is that “Shifty” and Nimoy had their politics, as well as the politics of the entire Trek franchise, in common.
Shatner was clueless about things, not understanding how Nimoy could complain about America being in an immoral war. I think he admitted he didn’t even accept that as a possibility at first, though that changed during the 70s.
William Shatner’s native ideology, if any, pretty much boils down to the promotion and success of one Bill Shatner. He’s actually not without his thoughtful moments, and I’m not looking to vilify a man whose work (for all its own issues) has enriched the lives of everyone here, and far beyond. But his narcissism isn’t exactly news, and I suspect that in the case of Vietnam he instinctively understood that whatever public position he took roughly half of his fanbase would be turned-off, and he understandably didn’t want that. Nimoy, contrawise, saw that the real issue was the servicemen and civilians who were dying every day. That impulse to do the right thing, regardless of the personal consequences, is why, of the two, Nimoy is both loved *and* admired.
Can you think of a moral reason to support the Vietnam War? I mean as a concept, leaving aside that it was often conducted, militarily but much more diplomatically and politically, in a very messed-up way.
Especially consider it in hindsight (which of course no one had at the time), moving a bit to the west. But the signs were there even at the time.
You know who supported that complexity? A little show called “Star Trek.”
Shatner will go to his grave in self service, Nimoy embraced his civic responsibility. There’s a beautiful auditorium at the Griffith Observatory that bears his name, among other examples of his work in the community.
Both men made their choices – and I don’t condemn either of them for it. How they’ll be remembered will be a reflection of those choices.
And yet Shatner had made stands with respect to animal cruelty that weren’t necessarily popular at that time, since they were anti-hunting, well ahead of when Trek decided to save whales. Not saying he didn’t have his self-serving moments (well, okay, decades), but he chose to quit hunting out of guilt.
I did martial arts pretty heavily during the Seventies, and remember picking up a MA magazine featuring an interview with The Shat where he said that he did hunt, but only with a bow and arrow, since he felt that gave the animal a sporting chance. He also emphasized (I think) that he ate what he killed. As someone who detests cruelty and unnecessary suffering, but who is decidedly not a vegetarian, there’s not much in that I can quarrel with.
Well he went whole-hog (sorry, couldn’t resist) on getting in touch with self, going vegetarian for awhile at his wife’s urging (that may have been part of a health/image thing too.) Apparently after hunting bears, he moved on to hunting snow leopards, but used a camera instead of big pointed stick, so I take that as some kind of evolution.
Your kilometerage may vary.
Being self-serving and supporting causes that are close to his heart aren’t mutually exclusive. If he’s lent support to anti-cruelty activities, especially if he came to his own epiphany on the subject, he shouldn’t be denigrated for that.
I imagine you’re aware that Shatner gives heavily to charity himself. If there was such a thing as a spectrum of niceness that could be measured, I imagine even Shatner would agree that Nimoy would come out ahead of him, but Shatner doesn’t seem to be the jerk people think he is. *A* jerk, maybe, but a lot of that is show.
Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking that two senior citizens like Shatner and Takei can’t be *that* petty to each other in real life. I hope…
Scroll down a couple of posts and read some of the attributes of Mr. Nimoy that the Congressmember feels have earned him the right to be honored on US postage. You should be thrilled to have this in common……
It’d be nice if it was like those old prismatic 3D stamps made in Bhutan back in the 60s, so that it would be Spock from one angle, but then Mel Mermelstein — who was older than Nimoy and still outlived him! — from the other. don’t want to forget either of these characters of his.
I’m assuming this is a Leonard Nimoy stamp, not a Mr. Spock stamp. To honor Mr. Nimoy the artist would be great.
Agreed!
Leonard wasn’t just a wonderful actor — though we all know that he was — he was also a wonderful man. There are SO many stories of his standing up for people who had less power than he.
These are a couple of anecdotes that are reasonably well known among rabid Nimoy fans but that might not be known by casual fans. I pass them along for those who might not have heard them. They show Mr. Nimoy’s kindness and thoughtfulness, qualities that are all too rare in Hollywood but that were wonderfully characteristic of Mr. Nimoy.
During the TV-show era, Walter Koenig and George Takei learned that they were being paid the same amount as each other, but Nichelle Nichols was being paid less. Koenig was a newcomer, but Nichols had been with the show from the first season, so it wasn’t fair that she was earning less than Koenig. Koenig knew he didn’t have the clout with the studio to be able to do anything about this, so he went to Leonard Nimoy, who said, “I’ll take care of it.” Mr. Nimoy talked to the people in charge and got Ms. Nichols equal compensation.
Similarly, when they were going to make the animated series in the 70’s, the powers that be decided to cut costs by having James Doohan voice both Scotty and Sulu and by having Majel Barrett voice both Chapel and Uhura. Mr. Nimoy was furious that they planned to use George Takei’s and Nichelle Nichols’ faces in the animated series without actually hiring them to voice their characters or paying them anything for the use of their likenesses. He refused to voice Spock unless Takei and Nichols were hired, so … they were hired.
At that point, Gene Roddenberry started calling Leonard Nimoy “the conscience of Star Trek.” He didn’t mean that Spock was the conscience of the stories — though he often was — he meant that the actor was the conscience of the people making the show.
Grace Lee Whitney revealed in her autobiography that she was sexually assaulted by someone associated with Star Trek, a person she only calls “The Executive.” She was — understandably — extremely upset by the assault but didn’t want to lose her job. And if you think things are tough for survivors of sexual assault now, they were LOTS worse in 1966. She needed to talk to SOMEbody, though, someone who knew everyone involved but who she could trust both to be gentle with her and to keep her secret. The person she talked to was, of course, Leonard Nimoy. I thought it was noteworthy that even when talking about something as horrific as being sexually assaulted, Grace Lee Whitney was so impressed by Leonard Nimoy’s kindness to her that she wanted to mention it in her autobiography.
Mr. Nimoy’s coworkers were so impressed by his kindness and humanity in an industry that’s known for being especially cutthroat that they told these stories about him.
Mr. Nimoy was a serious photographer, to the extent that he took courses in photography and thought of giving up acting entirely to pursue a career as a fine art photographer. He did a series of photographs of Jewish women to portray feminine images of the divine and also a series of photographs of classic nudes. At a photography showing, he was approached by a full-figured woman who told him that his pictures were all of the same type of woman, and he needed to show the beauty of women like her.
Mr. Nimoy accepted the challenge, first photographing the woman who challenged him, then seeking out a group of extremely large models — the Fat Bottom Revue — and photographing them. This series of photos became known as The Full Body Project, and when showing these photos, Mr. Nimoy would talk about how oppressive American standards of beauty were to normal women. Mr. Nimoy had always been quite thin, and he had no personal stake in this issue, but once he’d been alerted to the problem, he approached it with his usual intelligence, thoughtfulness, and kindness.
Everyone who’s ever seen him knows that Mr. Nimoy was a great actor. It turns out that he was also a great human being … and I think enough of that peeked through while he was playing Spock that part of why we love the character is because of qualities that weren’t necessarily in the script, that were infused by the actor.
Thanks for sharing these anecdotes, Corylea! A model for us all to emulate.
You’re welcome! And yes, he was.
He was a good guy, no doubt. Yet, as the documentary makes clear, he had a very problematic relationship with his own son. (As a fan, too, I wish he’d found it in his heart at the end to forgive Shatner, who for all his faults obviously loved Nimoy and valued their friendship.) We all have our issues.
I’ve read Adam Nimoy’s autobiography. In it, he whines constantly about how unhappy he is and blames his drug addiction on everyone but himself.
Leonard’s father never understood or appreciated him, but Leonard went out and made something of himself. Leonard worked hard to support his family, and all Adam does is whine that Leonard didn’t do enough for him.
I know with whom my sympathies lie. :-)
Thanks for sharing. I’ve heard most of those attributes, and it’s good for all to know these are attributes to strive for, not something to be sneered at.
I’d personally start a stamp collection just for this!
Canada released a lot of cool stamps and coins for Star Trek in 2016 and 2017. DS9 coin was cool
I want to make something clear here. Back in November of 2021, I wrote to the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee to request Leonard Nimoy be considered for a commemorative stamp. Susan Nimoy found out about this request and supports it. Rep. Adam Schiff was contacted by Susan for his support which he gave. This is not a political issue and should not be turned into one! This is to honor a man I would assume we all admire. Please support this endeavor.