Nichelle Nichols

The American actor has died at the age of 89. Loved for her inspirational, groundbreaking role as Lt Uhura on Star Trek, here we look back at her life and ...

Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols has passed away at the age of 89. Her son, Kyle Johnson, announced her death by paying a touching tribute to his mother ...

Nichols' contribution to the film industry earned her a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992. The initiative led to the recruitment of Dr. Sally Ride, the nation's first women astronaut. 'I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further.

The actress, who was best known for her groundbreaking role in Star Trek, died on Saturday. She famously played communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

Nichols appeared on the original Star Trek for three years between 1966 and 1969. Let’s go with the kiss”. In her 1994 book Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, Nichols wrote of the iconic moment: ‘Finally, the guys in charge relented: “To hell with it.

Legendary Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, who appeared in the original series, has passed away aged 89.

She left a mark in science fiction and in NASA that opened a door for women of color for generations to come. Another fan wrote: "Nichelle Nichols meant the universe to so many of us. Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. She shone a path that made so many of us hopeful for the future. May she rest well...returning to the stars again, like the one she was down here on Earth." "Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away.

Relatives say Sunday that Nichelle Nichols, who broke ground for Black women acting on television as the beautiful, no-nonsense communications officer Lt.

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

Actor achieved worldwide fame and broke ground for Black women while playing Nyota Uhura in the original TV hit.

With her very presence and her grace she shone a light on who we as people of color are and inspired us to reach for our potential. Nichols also volunteered to recruit women and people of color for NASA.” Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future, the 23rd century, human diversity would be fully accepted. May she forever dwell among the stars,” she wrote. Nichols “modeled it for us. “One of my most treasured photos – Godspeed to Nichelle Nichols, champion, warrior and tremendous actor.

Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek, died at age 89. Nichols made history as the first Black woman to hold a leading role ...

The 2019 film, Woman in Motion, is dedicated to the impact of Nichols’ advocacy on NASA. Last December, Nichols announced her retirement from space advocacy after making a final appearance at the LA Comic Con. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.” Nichols’ legacy reaches far beyond Star Trek. She partnered with NASA to encourage the recruitment of astronauts from underrepresented backgrounds. Nichols stayed on Star Trek until the original series ended in 1969. Nichelle Nichols, who was best known for her groundbreaking role as Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series, died at age 89. Nichols joined the cast of Star Trek in 1966 as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, making history as the first Black woman to play a leading role on TV. She almost left Star Trek for a career in Broadway, but, ultimately, a meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay on the show.

The actress was best known for her role as communications officer Lt Uhura in the original Star Trek television series.

“She was a beacon of representation, who inspired people to reach for the stars. She embodied all that Star Trek stands for. While actress Jeri Ryan, who played Borg drone Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, said: “RIP to a true legend. She will be deeply missed.” Excellence in representation matters even more. May she Rest In Peace.”

She was one of the first Black female actors to achieve worldwide fame thanks to her role on the original TV smash. Her son Kyle Johnson announced her death via ...

"I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. He said it was with regret that he told fans: "Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. She was one of the first Black female actors to achieve worldwide fame thanks to her role on the original TV smash.

The actress was best known for her role as communications officer Lt Uhura in the original Star Trek television series.

“She was a beacon of representation, who inspired people to reach for the stars. She embodied all that Star Trek stands for. While actress Jeri Ryan, who played Borg drone Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, said: “RIP to a true legend. Excellence in representation matters even more. She will be deeply missed.” May she Rest In Peace.”

Nichols broke ground and paved the way for Black actors in Hollywood as Uhura. Her castmate George Takei wrote, "We lived long and prospered together."

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She became one of the first black American actresses to play a figure in authority on US television.

The importance of Nichelle's legacy cannot be over-emphasized. My favorite photo of Dad and Nichelle Nichols on set. For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 31, 2022 Thank you." Nichelle Nichols you gave so many of us hope. Despite her success, however, Ms Nicholls had initially considered leaving the show.

Her role in the 1966-69 series earned Nichols a lifelong position of honour with the series' fans.

“The characters themselves were not freaking out because a black woman was kissing a white man – in this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. That was a wonderful message to send.” The original Star Trek premiered on September 8, 1966. Nichols first worked professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at 14, moving on to New York nightclubs and working for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands before moving to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959’s Porgy and Bess, the first of several small film and TV roles that led up to her Star Trek stardom. She often recalled how the Rev Martin Luther King Jr was a fan of the show and praised her role and personally encouraged her to stay with the series. Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honour with the series’ fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies.

Nichols, the sci-fi and television icon, was 89 years old.

Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to ride on the Space Shuttle, said that Star Trek had inspired her to join NASA. Also, while the kiss is thought of as a controversial moment, Variety notes that Nichols maintained that the mail she received about it was “overwhelmingly positive and supportive.” But it was Nichols’ own role in Star Trek that went on to define her career and made her an iconic figure in pop culture.

Her death was confirmed on Instagram on Sunday by the actress's son Kyle. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away, ...

In conjunction with her Star Trek career, Ms Nichols would partner with NASA, the US space agency, in a bid to recruit more women and people of colour to its astronaut and sciences programs. "I continue to be proud to have been chosen to make those first women and minorities [in the space program] a reality." In her later years, she would make a semi-retirement from appearances at fan conventions where she and other members of the original cast were treated like royalty. Her time in that role only lasted a few years, with the show being canceled in 1969, but its significance would last for decades. Ms Nichols rose to fame when she was cast for the 1966 space adventure series Star Trek as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the ship’s communications officer. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away,” he wrote.

Nichols broke ground and paved the way for Black actors in Hollywood as Uhura. Her castmate George Takei wrote, "We lived long and prospered together."

"Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. George Takei, who costarred on Star Trek as helmsman Hikaru Sulu tweeted: "I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise," her wrote. "I decided I was going to leave, go to New York and make my way on the Broadway stage." He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch.' I was speechless." "Many actors become stars, but few stars can move a nation," tweeted actress Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s. "And he said, 'what are you talking about?' And I said, 'well, I told Gene just yesterday that I'm going to leave the show after the first year because I've been offered... She grew up singing and dancing, aspiring to star in musical theater. Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols in a Chicago suburb where her father was the mayor. "He was very upset about it. You're an integral part and very important to it." "We're on a starship. Fourth in command on a starship.

Nichelle Nichols broke racial stereotypes by sharing an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner in the show - extremely rare in the 1960s.

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr was a fan of the show and praised her role. "When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars, and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, 'You cannot do that,'" she told a newspaper in 2008. "I think many people took it into their hearts...

Nichols rose to fame when she was cast for the 1966 space adventure series Star Trek as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the ship's communications officer. The role was ...

"I continue to be proud to have been chosen to make those first women and minorities [in the space program] a reality." In conjunction with her Star Trek career, Nichols would partner with NASA, the US space agency, in a bid to recruit more women and people of colour to its astronaut and sciences programs. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Her time in that role only lasted a few years, with the show being canceled in 1969, but its significance would last for decades. Nichols rose to fame when she was cast for the 1966 space adventure series Star Trek as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the ship’s communications officer. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away,” he wrote.

The actress was best known for her role as communications officer Lt Uhura in the original Star Trek television series.

“She was a beacon of representation, who inspired people to reach for the stars. She embodied all that Star Trek stands for. While actress Jeri Ryan, who played Borg drone Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, said: “RIP to a true legend. Excellence in representation matters even more. She will be deeply missed.” May she Rest In Peace.”

Ms Nichols whose fans included Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama, 'succumbed to natural causes and passed away' on Saturday, her son said.

“She was a beacon of representation, who inspired people to reach for the stars. While actress Jeri Ryan, who played Borg drone Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, said: “RIP to a true legend. She embodied all that Star Trek stands for. She will be deeply missed.” May she Rest In Peace.” Excellence in representation matters even more.

The actor made history for her role as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Up until her death, Nichelle was in the middle of a bitter conservatorship battle over her estate between her longtime talent manager Bell and her son amid claims of elder abuse; it gained renewed interest amid the #FreeBritney movement surrounding Britney Spears. Her recruits included Guion Bluford, the first African-American astronaut in space, and Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut. Although she would go on to work as a model and dancer, Nichelle toured internationally as a singer with the big bands headed by Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. Nichelle made her film debut opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1959 picture Porgy and Bess and began work in television a few years later. She had reportedly been battling dementia since 2013 and had a mild stroke two years later. However, she had originally planned to resign after her first year on the show. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all,” he added. I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, ‘Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a Black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’” Whoopi said. He said, ‘I am a Trekker, I am your biggest fan.’” “When I was 9 years old, Star Trek came on. We never thought we’d see this on TV.’” “I thought it was some Trekker, some kid.

THE DEATH of Star Trek legend Nichelle Nichols has been met with thousands of tributes from not only fans but celebrities from across the globe, ...

This includes medicines to prevent and dissolve blood clots, reduce blood pressure and reduce cholesterol levels. There are two main causes of stroke, and a related condition known as transient ischaemic attack (TIA), where the blood supply to the brain is temporarily interrupted. The second, is where a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts. Treatment depends on the type of stroke an individual has had, including which part of the brain was affected and what caused it. "Currently she is awake, eating, in good spirits and able to have full conversations. Having been most well known her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, it is reported that the star had been in Los Angeles filming another Star Trek movie called Renegades: Ominara, which only days before the announcement of her death, she said would be her “final performance”.

Nichelle Nichols, the legendary actor who played Lt. Uhura in the original series of 'Star Trek', passed away this weekend due to natural causes.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away,” Johnson wrote in the message. As a whole, Star Trek dismantled many racial and gender stereotypes in the 1960s, with Nichols being the most prominent example of this, with Uhura being noted as one of the most level-headed and collected of all the main characters, a status that was largely unheard of for Black characters. Nichols’s work as Lt. Uhura is regarded as majorly significant in the development of the film and television industry as it broke barriers, with her being one of the first Black American actors to play a figure with authority, helping to fight back against the widespread racism in the country at the time.

Actor who blazed a trail for black women on American TV in the 1960s in the role of Lt Uhura in Star Trek.

She later played Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family devastated by Hurricane Katrina, in the second series (2007) of the TV sci-fi drama Heroes. When it was confirmed that he had, they began discussing Uhura, whose name came from the title of a novel about the fight for freedom in Africa that Nichols had with her at the audition. In the 1974 blaxploitation film Truck Turner, she was Dorinda, a foul-mouthed madam hiring a gangster to carry out revenge on the bounty hunters (played by Isaac Hayes and Alan Weeks) who killed her pimp boyfriend. After Nichols and her family moved to Chicago, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy from the age of 12. Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, championed sexual and racial equality, and presented a hopeful vision of the future in the series. She saw Uhura – her name was based on uhuru, the Swahili for “freedom” – not only as a role model for black people, but also for women with ambitions to become astronauts or scientists.

Singer and actor was a trailblazer on and off the screen ... OBIT Nichelle Nichols, who long ago achieved immortality in her role as Uhura on Star Trek, has died ...

If that does come to pass — and especially if she is a woman of color — Nichelle Nichols will have undoubtedly played her part in making it happen. We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. Though the original Star Trek TV series lasted only three years, the show became a mainstay of syndication and a touchstone of popular culture. The name of her Trek character – Lieutenant Uhura – was Nichols's suggestion. She wasn't the first woman of color on American TV screens, nor even the first in a prominent role. Born in 1932, her four-octave vocal range saw her perform with Duke Ellington at the tender age of 14 and sparked aspirations to become a singer.