Nichelle Nichols

Early life

Grace Dell "Nichelle" Nichols was born the third of six children on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to Samuel Earl Nichols, a factory worker who was elected both town mayor of Robbins in 1929 and its chief magistrate, and his wife, Lishia (Parks) Nichols, a homemaker. Disliking her name, Nichols asked her parents for a new one; they suggested Nichelle, which they said meant "victorious maiden" (from Nike and the suffix -elle). The family later moved into an apartment in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, where Nichols attended Englewood High School, graduating in 1951. From age 12, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy.

Career

Nichols began her professional career as a singer and dancer in Chicago. She then toured the United States and Canada with the bands of Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. In 1959, she appeared as the principal dancer in the film version of Porgy and Bess. Her acting break was an appearance in Kicks and Co., Oscar Brown's highly touted but ill-fated 1961 musical. In the thinly veiled satire of Playboy magazine, she played Hazel Sharpe, a voluptuous campus queen who was tempted by the devil and Orgy Magazine to become "Orgy Maiden of the Month". Although the play closed after a short run in Chicago, Nichols attracted the attention of Hugh Hefner, the publisher of Playboy, who booked her as a singer for his Chicago Playboy Club. She also appeared as Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of Carmen Jones and performed in a New York production of Porgy and Bess. Between acting and singing engagements, she did occasional modeling.

In January 1967, Nichols was also featured on the cover of Ebony magazine, and had two feature articles in it in five years. She continued touring the US, Canada, and Europe as a singer with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. On the West Coast, she appeared in The Roar of the Greasepaint and For My People, and garnered high praise for her performance in the James Baldwin play Blues for Mister Charlie. Prior to being cast as Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek, Nichols was a guest actress on television producer Gene Roddenberry's first series The Lieutenant (1964) in the episode "To Set It Right", which dealt with racial prejudice.

''Star Trek''

Main article: Nyota Uhura

On Star Trek, Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series. Her prominent supporting role as a bridge officer was unprecedented. She was once tempted to leave the series; however, a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr. changed her mind.

Towards the end of the first season, Nichols was offered a role on Broadway. Preferring the stage to the television studio, she decided to take the role. Nichols went to Roddenberry's office, told him that she planned to leave, and handed him her resignation letter. Unable to convince her to stay, Roddenberry told her to take the weekend off, and if she still felt she should leave, he would give her his blessing. That weekend, Nichols attended a banquet organized by the NAACP, where she was informed that a fan wanted to meet her.

Calling Nichols a "vital role model", King compared her work on the series to the marches of the ongoing civil rights movement. The next day, she returned to Roddenberry's office to tell him she would stay. When she told Roddenberry what King had said, tears came to his eyes.

Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison cited Nichols' role of Lieutenant Uhura as her inspiration for becoming an astronaut. Whoopi Goldberg has also spoken of Nichols' influence, saying she asked for a role on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and her character Guinan was specially created, while Jemison appeared on an episode of the series.

In her role as Lieutenant Uhura, Nichols kissed white actor William Shatner (as Captain James T. Kirk) in the November 22, 1968 Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren". It has been cited as the first example of an interracial kiss on U.S. television, although several earlier instances have been identified. The Shatner/Nichols kiss was considered groundbreaking, even though it was portrayed as having been forced by alien telekinesis. There was some praise and almost no dissent. In her autobiography Beyond Uhura, Star Trek and Other Memories, Nichols cited a letter from a white Southerner who wrote, "I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it." During the Comedy Central Roast of Shatner on August 20, 2006, Nichols jokingly referred to the kiss and said, "What do you say, let's make a little more TV history ... and kiss my black ass!"

Despite the series' cancellation in 1969, Star Trek continued to play a part in Nichols' life. She provided the voice of Uhura in Star Trek: The Animated Series; in one episode, "The Lorelei Signal", Uhura assumes command of the Enterprise. Nichols noted in her autobiography her frustration that this never happened on the original series. She co-starred in six Star Trek films, culminating in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). [[File:NichelleNicholsHWOFSept2012.jpg|thumb|right|Nichols in 2012]] In 1994, Nichols published her autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. In it, she claimed that the role of Peggy Fair in the television series Mannix was offered to her during the final season of Star Trek, but producer Gene Roddenberry refused to release her from her contract. Between the end of the original series and the Star Trek animated series and feature films, Nichols appeared in small television and film roles. She briefly appeared as a secretary in Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967), and portrayed Dorienda, a foul-mouthed madam in Truck Turner (1974) opposite Isaac Hayes, her only appearance in a blaxploitation film.

Nichols appeared in animated form as one of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers in the "Anthology of Interest I" episode of Futurama, and she provided the voice of her own head in a glass jar in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". She voiced the recurring role of Elisa Maza's mother Diane Maza in the animated series Gargoyles, and played Thoth Khepera in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. In 2004, she provided the voice for herself in The Simpsons episode "Simple Simpson". In the comedy film Snow Dogs (2002), she appeared as the mother of the male lead, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. In 2006, she played the title character in the film Lady Magdalene's, the madam of a legal Nevada brothel in tax default. She also served as executive producer and choreographer, and sang three songs in the film, two of which she composed. She was twice nominated for the Chicago theatrical Sarah Siddons Award for Best Actress, first for her portrayal of Hazel Sharpe in Kicks and Co., and again for her performance in The Blacks.

Nichols had a recurring role on the second season of the NBC drama Heroes, first in the episode "Kindred", which aired October 8, 2007. She portrayed Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family financially and personally devastated by Hurricane Katrina, who cares for her orphaned grandchildren and her great-nephew, series regular Micah Sanders. In 2008, Nichols starred in the film The Torturer, playing the role of a psychiatrist. In 2009, she joined the cast of The Cabonauts, a sci-fi musical comedy that debuted on DailyMotion. Playing CJ, the CEO of the Cabonauts Inc, she was also featured singing and dancing. On August 30, 2016, she was introduced as the aging mother of Neil Winters on the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless. She received her first Daytime Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series" for the role on March 22, 2017.

Music

Nichols released two music albums: Down to Earth, a collection of standards released in 1967, during the original run of Star Trek; and Out of This World, released in 1991, a more rock-oriented album themed around Star Trek and space exploration.

As Uhura, Nichols sang on the Star Trek episodes "Charlie X", "The Changeling", and "The Conscience of the King".

Work with NASA

After the cancellation of Star Trek, Nichols volunteered her time in a special project with NASA to recruit minority and female personnel for the space agency. She began this work by making an affiliation between NASA and a company which she helped to run, Women in Motion.

The program was a success. Among those recruited were Dr. Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and United States Air Force Colonel Guion Bluford, the first African-American to go into space, as well as Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ronald McNair, who both flew successful missions during the Space Shuttle program before their deaths in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. Recruits also included Charles Bolden, the former NASA administrator and veteran of four shuttle missions, Frederick D. Gregory, former deputy administrator and a veteran of three shuttle missions and Lori Garver, former deputy administrator. An enthusiastic advocate of space exploration, Nichols served from the mid-1980s on the board of governors of the National Space Institute (today's National Space Society), a nonprofit, educational space advocacy organization.

In late 2015, Nichols flew aboard NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Boeing 747SP, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn on an eight-hour, high-altitude mission. She was also a special guest at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on July 17, 1976, to view the Viking 1 soft landing on Mars. Along with the other cast members from the original Star Trek series, she attended the christening of the first space shuttle, Enterprise, at the North American Rockwell assembly facility in Palmdale, California. On July 14, 2010, she toured the space shuttle simulator and Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center.

Nichols' work with NASA is given significant focus in the documentary Woman in Motion about her life.

Personal life

In her autobiography, Nichols wrote that she was romantically involved with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for a few years in the 1960s. She said the affair ended well before Star Trek began, when she realized Roddenberry was also involved with her acquaintance Majel Hudec (known as Majel Barrett).

When Roddenberry's health was fading, Nichols co-wrote a song for him, "Gene", which she sang at his memorial service.

She also wrote that she had "a short, stormy, exciting relationship" with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1959.

Nichols married twice—first to dancer Foster Johnson (1917–1981), whom she married in 1951 and divorced the same year. They had one child together, Kyle Johnson, who was born August 14, 1951. She married Duke Mondy, in 1968; they divorced in 1972.

Nichols' younger brother, Thomas, was a member of the Heaven's Gate cult for 20 years. He died on March 26, 1997, in the cult's mass suicide that purposefully coincided with the passing of Comet Hale–Bopp. Thomas frequently identified himself as Nichelle's brother in promotional materials released by the cult.

On February 29, 2012, Nichols met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. She later tweeted, "…[President] Obama was quoted as saying that he'd had a crush on me when he was younger… I asked about that, and he proudly confirmed it! President Obama also confirmed for me that he was definitely a Trekker! How wonderful is that?!"

Health and death

In June 2015, Nichols suffered a mild stroke at her Los Angeles home and was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital. A magnetic resonance imaging scan confirmed a small stroke had occurred, and she began inpatient therapy. In early 2018, she was diagnosed with dementia, and subsequently announced her retirement from convention appearances.

Following a legal dispute over the actions of her manager-turned-caretaker Gilbert Bell, her son Kyle Johnson filed for conservatorship in 2018. Before a court granted his petition in January 2019, Nichols' friend Angelique Fawcette, who had already expressed concern in 2017 over Bell's control of access to her, pressed for visitation rights, including by opposing Johnson's petition. That dispute, and a 2019 court case by Bell over being evicted from the guesthouse on Nichols' property, were both ongoing as of August 2021.

Nichols died of heart failure in Silver City, New Mexico, on July 30, 2022, at the age of 89, and her ashes were launched into deep space along with those of Majel Barrett and Douglas Trumbull.

Recognition

In 1982, Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his novel Friday to her. Asteroid 68410 Nichols is named in her honor.

In 1992, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her contribution to television. In 1999, Nichols was awarded a Goldene Kamera for Kultstar des Jahrhunderts (Cult Star of the Century). 2010, Nichols received an honorary degree from Los Angeles Mission College. Nichols received The Life Career Award, from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, in 2016, the first woman to receive it. The award was presented as part of the 42nd Saturn Awards ceremony. Nichols was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2018.

Nichols was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Udea nicholsae, a species of snout moths, was named in her honour.

The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds began with a pre-credits dedication, referencing one of her recurring lines from the original series: "For Nichelle who was first through the door and showed us the stars. Hailing frequencies forever open..."

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games and theme park attractions

Books

Discography

• Down to Earth (Epic Records, 1967)
• Uhura Sings (aR-Way Productions, 1986)
• Out of this World (GNP Crescendo, 1991)

References

References

1. Sottile, Zoe. "Nichelle Nichols, trailblazing 'Star Trek' actress, dies at 89". CNN.
2. Hahn, Michael. (August 20, 2009). "GPN-2004-00017 – Nichelle Nichols, NASA Recruiter".
3. Currie, Netisha. (March 1, 2016). "To Boldly Go Where No (Wo)Man Has Gone Before…". Rediscovering Black History, [[National Archives and Records Administration.
4. McCann, Bob. (December 21, 2009). "Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television". McFarland.
5. Adell, Sandra. (1996). "African American Culture". Gale.
6. (August 29, 2006). "Women in Space - Following Valentina". Springer Science & Business Media.
7. "Robbins History".
8. "Nichelle Nichols's Biography". Thehistorymakers.org.
9. (October 18, 2016). "Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols: 'Martin Luther King was a Trekker'".
10. "'1950 Englewood High School (Chicago, Illinois) Yearbook".
11. "Beyond Uhura Star Trek and Other Memories, By Nichelle Nichols · 1994".
12. Hayward, Anthony. (2022-08-01). "Nichelle Nichols obituary". The Guardian.
13. "Kicks and Co. Original Broadway Cast – 1961 Broadway".
14. (January 1962). "Satirical flop brings star success".
15. Still, Larry. (October 12, 1961). "Oscar Brown musical gets warm reception in windy city".
16. Dagan, Carmel. (July 31, 2022). "Nichelle Nichols, Uhura in 'Star Trek,' Dies at 89".
17. (January 1967). "A new star in the TV heavens".
18. "Nichelle Nichols".
19. "LIEUTENANT, THE: TO SET IT RIGHT {UNAIRED EPISODE} (TV)".
20. Nishi, Dennis. (January 17, 2011). "SpeakEasy: 'Star Trek's' Nichelle Nichols on How Martin Luther King Jr. Changed Her Life". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
21. "Nichelle Nichols on how Dr. MLK, Jr. dissuaded her from quitting Star Trek - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG".
22. Huff, Richard. (January 17, 2011). "'Star Trek' actress Nichelle Nichols: Martin Luther King Jr. impacted decision to stay on Enterprise". [[New York Daily News]].
23. (July 11, 2011). "A Conversation with Nichelle Nichols".
24. Nichols, Nichelle. (October 19, 1994). "Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories". [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]].
25. Strachan, Alex. (August 5, 2010). "Nichelle Nichols on playing Star Trek's Lt. Uhura and meeting Dr. King".
26. "Whoopi Goldberg".
27. Nichols, Nichelle. (April 7, 2002). "Nichelle Nichols – Communications expert Uhura from Star Trek's Original series".
28. (September 5, 2001). "Nichols Talks First Inter-Racial Kiss".
29. (August 20, 2006). "William Shatner".
30. Mangels, Andy. (Summer 2018). "Star Trek: The Animated Series". [[TwoMorrows Publishing]].
31. (October 29, 2019). "The Tampa Tribune". Newspapers.com.
32. Shields, Meg. (June 15, 2020). "On Blaxploitation and Breaking Barriers: The Radical Impact of Nichelle Nichols".
33. (March 12, 2015). "Futurama: "Anthology Of Interest I"/ "War Is The H Word"". Avclub.com.
34. (July 23, 2015). "Futurama: "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"/"The Sting"". Avclub.com.
35. (June 22, 1997). "22 Jun 1997, Page 212 – The Orlando Sentinel at". Newspapers.com.
36. (September 9, 2014). "Glamour, Gidgets, and the Girl Next Door: Television's Iconic Women from the ... – Herbie J. Pilato – Google Books". Rowman & Littlefield.
37. "2 May 2004, 40 - Calgary Herald at Newspapers.com".
38. (January 25, 2002). "25 Jan 2002, 20 – Sioux City Journal at". Newspapers.com.
39. (August 31, 2007). "31 Aug 2007, H2 – The Atlanta Constitution at". Newspapers.com.
40. (May 22, 1995). "22 May 1995, 6 – The Tribune at". Newspapers.com.
41. Pascale, Anthony. (July 7, 2009). "Nichelle Nichols Joins Sci-Fi Comedy Web Series 'The Cabonauts'".
42. (March 22, 2017). "The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Announces Nominations For The 44th Annual Daytime Emmy® Awards".
43. Planer, Lindsay. "Down to Earth".
44. (March 29, 1992). "29 Mar 1992, 34 – The Courier at". Newspapers.com.
45. "Nichelle Nichols – Out of This World".
46. (December 28, 1932). "Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Uhura, Passed Away at Age 89". Gizmodo.com.
47. Prafder, Erika. (February 2, 2011). "To boldly go: Groundbreaking actress Nichelle Nichols continues to expand her horizons". [[New York Post]].
48. (July 29, 2009). "Where No Woman Has Gone Before: An Actress Spotlight on Nichelle Nichols".
49. Levi, Linda. (February 21, 2011). "Black History Month Profile: Nichelle Nichols".
50. "Nichelle Nichols, National Space Society Board of Governors".
51. "Nichelle Nichols".
52. "Nichelle Nichols, NASA Recruiter".
53. Arcynta Ali Childs. (June 11, 2011). "Q & A: Nichelle Nichols, AKA Lt. Uhura, and NASA". Smithsonian.com.
54. (July 14, 2010). "Nichelle Nicholls, Star Trek's Uhura, in the Shuttle Simulator at NASA at Houston".
55. (April 5, 2021). "Woman in Motion Honors Nichelle Nichols' Contributions to Space Exploration".
56. Nichols, Nichelle. (October 1994). "Beyond Uhura". [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]].
57. Fishgall, Gary. (September 30, 2003). "Gonna Do Great Things: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr". Scribner.
58. Bedard, Mike. (July 31, 2022). "The Devastating Death Of Nichelle Nichols".
59. "Nichelle Nichols' Connection to the Heaven's Gate Cult Tragedy".
60. Bearman, Joshuah. (March 21, 2007). "Heaven's Gate: The Sequel". [[LA Weekly]].
61. (March 28, 1997). "Some members of suicide cult castrated". CNN.
62. Jackson, David. (April 5, 2012). "Obama gives Vulcan salute with Lt. Uhura". [[USA Today]].
63. (June 5, 2015). "Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Lt Uhura, suffers stroke".
64. Whitney, Erin. (June 5, 2015). "'Star Trek' Star Nichelle Nichols Hospitalized".
65. Cohen, Jess. (April 10, 2018). "Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols Diagnosed With Dementia".
66. Pascale, Anthony. (May 19, 2018). "Nichelle Nichols Announces Farewell Tour, Convention And Documentary".
67. Easter, Makeda. (August 15, 2021). "Inside the heartbreaking conservatorship battle of a 'Star Trek' legend". Los Angeles Times.
68. Weber, Bruce. (July 31, 2022). "Nichelle Nichols, Early 'Trek' Star Who Boldly Blazed Path, Dies at 89". [[The New York Times]].
69. (August 26, 2022). "Nichelle Nichols to become latest Star Trek star to have ashes sent into space".
70. Heinlein, Robert A.. (June 1983). "[[Friday (novel)". [[Henry Holt and Company]].
71. Chamberlin, Alan. (September 26, 2005). "68410 Nichols (2001 QB154)".
72. (June 15, 2016). "Goldene Kamera 1999 – 34. Verleihung".
73. Whitmore, Greg. (July 31, 2022). "Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols: a life in pictures". [[The Guardian]].
74. (December 6, 2012). "Inkpot Award".
75. "Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. | Membership".
76. (2022). "Revision of Afrotropical ''Udea'' Guenée in Duponchel, 1845, with description of five new species of the ''U. ferrugalis'' (Hübner, 1796) group (Lepidoptera, Crambidae, Spilomelinae)". Nota Lepidopterologica.
77. Barnes, Mike. (July 31, 2022). "Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on 'Star Trek,' Dies at 89". The Hollywood Reporter.
78. "Nichelle Nichols".
79. (1968). "Screen World 1968". Biblo & Tannen.
80. Ottoson, Robert. (1984). "American International Pictures: A Filmography". Garland.
81. Muir, John Kenneth. (March 27, 2007). "Horror Films of the 1980s". McFarland.
82. Scheck, Frank. (January 4, 2018). "'Surge of Power: Revenge of the Sequel' Review".
83. (January 24, 2005). "Ice Cube and Nia Long Star in Romantic Comedy Movie 'Are We There Yet?'". Johnson Publishing Company.
84. (October 17, 2008). "17 Oct 2008, Page 3-5 – Chicago Tribune at". Newspapers.com.
85. Farber, Stephen. (October 15, 2008). "Tru Loved". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
86. "The Torturer – Full Cast & Crew".
87. (October 28, 2018). "28 Oct 2018, C9 – Democrat and Chronicle at". Newspapers.com.
88. (October 26, 2018). "American Nightmares (2018)".
89. Phillips, Jevon. (December 28, 2017). "Nichelle Nichols, turning 85 today and still busy acting, talks about life after 'Star Trek'". [[Los Angeles Times]].
90. Marcus, Laurence. "Tarzan".
91. Nemetz, Dave. (July 31, 2022). "Nichelle Nichols, Who Played Uhura on Star Trek, Dead at 89". TVLine.
92. Villano, Mark. (July 20, 2022). "Insight, the Series – A Hollywood Priest's Groundbreaking Contribution to Television History".
93. Whitmore, Greg. (July 31, 2022). "Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols: a life in pictures". The Guardian.
94. "Nichelle Nichols (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors.
95. Mohan, Monita. (July 31, 2022). ""Trials and Tribble-ations" Remains a Star Trek Crossover Dream-Come-True".
96. Scanlan, Dan. (June 30, 2018). "'Trek' actress living long and prospering". The Florida Times-Union.
97. "The Cabonauts videos".
98. "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster".
99. Swift, Andy. (July 26, 2016). "Nichelle Nichols On 'The Young And The Restless' — 11,000th Episode".
100. (June 9, 2017). "Nichols to Guest Star on Downward Dog".
101. Burt, Kayti. (January 6, 2022). "Star Trek: Prodigy Just Went All In On Franchise Easter Eggs".
102. "Beyond Uhura".
103. "Saturn's Child".