Editing Leonard Nimoy (section)

== Early life ==
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, in an Irish<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bernstein |first1=Adam |date=February 27, 2015 |title=Leonard Nimoy, a pop culture force as Spock of 'Star Trek,' dies at 83 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/leonard-nimoy-a-pop-culture-force-as-spock-of-star-trek/2015/02/27/20867702-bea4-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231001030323/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/leonard-nimoy-a-pop-culture-force-as-spock-of-star-trek/2015/02/27/20867702-bea4-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html |archive-date=October 1, 2023}}</ref> section of the [[West End, Boston|West End]]<ref name="yiddishbookcenter-nimoy-west-end">
*{{cite web |author1=Yiddish Book Center |title=Leonard Nimoy |url=https://archive.org/details/LeonardNimoy15Oct2013YiddishBookCenter |website=archive.org |access-date=October 11, 2022 |date=October 15, 2013}}
*{{cite web |title=Leonard Nimoy Remembers Boston's West End Neighborhood |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/excerpts/woh-ex-0002348/leonard-nimoy-remembers-boston-s-west-end-neighborhood |website=Yiddish Book Center |access-date=October 11, 2022 |language=en}}
*{{cite news |title=A Look Into Leonard Nimoy's Time in Boston's West End |url=https://www.bdcwire.com/leonard-nimoy-boston/ |access-date=October 11, 2022 |work=BDCWire |date=February 26, 2015}}
*{{cite news |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=S.I. |title=Leonard Nimoy: An Alien from Boston |url=http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/laserorgy/archive/2011/05/09/nimoy.aspx |access-date=October 11, 2022 |work=[[The Phoenix (newspaper)|The Phoenix]] |date=May 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324054712/http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/laserorgy/archive/2011/05/09/nimoy.aspx |archive-date=March 24, 2012}}
</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sammarco |first=Anthony Mitchell |title=Boston's West End |year=1998 |publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]] |location=Charleston, SC |page=[https://archive.org/details/bostonswestend00samm/page/85 85] |isbn=978-0-7524-1257-3 |oclc=40670283 |lccn=98087140 |ref=Sammarco |url=https://archive.org/details/bostonswestend00samm/page/85 }}</ref> of [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], to Jewish immigrants from [[Iziaslav, Ukraine|Iziaslav]], [[Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theofficialleonardnimoyfanclub.com/Biography.html |title=Biography |website=The Official Leonard Nimoy Fan Club |publisher=Maggy Edwards |location=Coventry, England |access-date=June 22, 2010 |archive-date=May 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514052249/http://www.theofficialleonardnimoyfanclub.com/Biography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leonard Simon Nimoy |url=http://www.mlucks.com/genealogy/lucks/getperson.php?personID=I3854&tree=6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231001030909/https://www.mlucks.com/genealogy/lucks/getperson.php?personID=I3854&tree=6 |archive-date=October 1, 2023 |access-date=November 1, 2013 |website=Genealogy of Lucks, Kai and Related Families |publisher=Michael Lucks |location=Columbia, MD}}</ref><ref name="Ellin">{{cite news |last=Ellin |first=Abby |date=May 13, 2007 |title=Girth and Nudity, a Pictorial Mission |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13nimoy.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=November 1, 2013}}</ref> His parents left Iziaslav separately, his father first walking over the border into Poland while his mother and grandmother were smuggled out of the [[Soviet Union]] in a horse-drawn wagon by hiding under bales of hay.<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|7}} They reunited after arriving in the United States.<ref name="yiddish">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QAYvI5CC5s | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/9QAYvI5CC5s| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Leonard Nimoy's Mameloshn: A Yiddish Story |publisher=Yiddish Book Center|date=February 6, 2014 |access-date=February 26, 2015 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> His mother, Dora (née Spinner; 1904–1987), was a homemaker, and his father, Max Nimoy (1901–1987), owned a barbershop in the [[Mattapan]] section of Boston.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Boston City Directory |publisher=Sampson & Murdock company |year=1963 |pages=1308 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Barbara |date=July 1962 |title=First haircut by Leonard Nimoy's (Dr. Spock's) father, 1962 |url=https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll6/id/5139 |access-date=October 1, 2023 |website=openarchives.umb.edu |language=en}}</ref> He had an elder brother, Melvin (1926–2022).<ref name="NYT-20150227">{{cite news |last=Heffernan |first=Virginia |author-link=Virginia Heffernan |title=Leonard Nimoy, Spock of 'Star Trek,' Dies at 82|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html |date=February 27, 2015 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 27, 2015 }}</ref>

As a child, Nimoy took miscellaneous jobs to supplement his family's income, including selling newspapers and greeting cards, shining shoes, or setting up chairs in theaters, and when he got older, selling vacuum cleaners.<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|12}} He began acting at the age of eight in a children's and neighborhood theater.<ref name="yiddish" /> His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the [[accordion]], so he could always make a living, but his grandfather encouraged him to do what he then wanted to do most, which was acting.<ref name="rawnerve">{{cite episode |title=Leonard Nimoy |series=[[Shatner's Raw Nerve]] |date=January 6, 2009 |url=http://www.biography.com/tv/shatners-raw-nerve/episodes/07-leonard-nimoy |network=[[FYI (American TV channel)|The Biography Channel]] |season=1 |number=7 |last=Shatner |first=William (host) |author-link=William Shatner}}</ref> Nimoy realized he had an aptitude for singing, which he developed in his synagogue's choir.<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|17}} His singing during his [[bar mitzvah]] at age 13 was so good he was asked to repeat his performance the following week at another synagogue. [[William Shatner]] said, "He is still the only man I know whose voice was two bar mitzvahs good!"<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|18}}

His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of [[Clifford Odets]]'s ''[[Awake and Sing!]]'',<ref name="Ellin" /> about the struggles of a matriarchal Jewish family similar to his during the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. He said, "Playing this teenage kid in this Jewish family that was so much like mine was amazing{{nbsp}}... The same dynamics, the same tensions in the household."<ref>Pogrebin, Abigail. ''Stars of David'', Broadway Books (2005) p. 197</ref> The role "lit a passion" that led to his acting career, with Nimoy saying "I never wanted to do anything else."<ref name=Fischer>{{cite book|author=Fischer, Dennis|title=Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895–1998|publisher=McFarland|year=2000|pages=480–492|isbn=978-0-7864-6091-5}}</ref> Shatner has said that Nimoy also worked on local radio shows for children, often [[voice acting]] Bible stories:
{{blockquote|Obviously, there was something symbolic about that. Many years later as Captain Kirk, I would be busy rescuing civilizations in distress on distant planets while Leonard's Mr. Spock would be examining the morality of man- and alienkind.<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|17}}}}

Nimoy took drama classes at [[Boston College]], and after moving to [[Los Angeles]], he used $600 he saved from selling vacuum cleaners to enroll at the [[Pasadena Playhouse]], supporting himself by being a theatre usher, taxicab driver and stocking vending machines.<ref name="diehl19680825">{{cite news | url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/08/25/91290697.html?pageNumber=173 | title=Girls All Want To Touch The Ears | work=The New York Times | date=August 25, 1968 | access-date=February 27, 2015 | author=Diehl, Digby | pages=173}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Goodyear |first=Dana |date=December 25, 2023 |title=Mr. Spock's Widow Puts on a Show |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/mr-spocks-widow-puts-on-a-show |access-date=December 31, 2023 |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |date=Spring 2005 |title=Story Book: Legends from the Heights |url=http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/spring_2005/ll_legends.html |journal=Boston College Magazine |issn=0885-2049 |access-date=August 2, 2010 |archive-date=September 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921213619/http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/spring_2005/ll_legends.html |url-status=dead }} Adapted from ''Legends of Boston College'' (2004); Boston, MA: New Legends Press. {{ISBN|978-0-975-55070-0}}. {{OCLC|57510969}}.</ref>{{r|darrach19770725}} However, he was soon disillusioned and quit after six months, feeling that the acting skills he had already acquired from earlier roles were more advanced: "I thought, I have to study here three years in order to do this level of work, and I'm already doing better work".<ref name=Shatner>Shatner, William. ''Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man'', St. Martin's Press N.Y. (2016), {{ISBN|978-1250083319}}</ref>{{rp|25}}

He became a devotee of [[method acting]] concepts derived from the teachings of [[Konstantin Stanislavsky]], realizing the stage allowed him to explore his original inspirations for acting: the "psychological, emotional, and physical territories of life that can't be done anywhere else".<ref name=Fischer />{{rp|481}} Like his method actor role model, [[Marlon Brando]], Nimoy wore jeans and T-shirts. Between studies, he took a job at an ice cream parlor on the [[Sunset Strip]].<ref name=Fischer />{{rp|481}}

In 1953, Nimoy enlisted in the [[United States Army Reserve]] at [[Fort McPherson]] Georgia, serving for 18 months until 1955, leaving as a Staff Sergeant. He had been in the [[Special Services (entertainment)|Army Special Services]], putting on shows which he wrote, narrated, and emceed.<ref name="Military">{{cite web | title = Famous Veteran: Leonard Nimoy | publisher =Military.com | url =http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-leonard-nimoy.html | access-date = February 27, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Nimoy, Leonard, S/SGT {{!}} TWS |url=https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApps?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=350515 |access-date=October 1, 2023 |website=army.togetherweserved.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Curthoys |first=Kathleen |date=February 27, 2015 |title=Leonard Nimoy, a former soldier, dies at 83 |url=https://www.armytimes.com/off-duty/movies-video-games/2015/02/27/leonard-nimoy-a-former-soldier-dies-at-83/ |access-date=October 1, 2023 |website=Army Times |language=en}}</ref> One of his soldiers was [[Ken Berry]], whom he encouraged to go into acting as a civilian and helped contact agents.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=December 2, 2018 |title=Ken Berry, Star of 'F Troop' and 'Mama's Family,' Dies at 85 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/obituaries/ken-berry-dies-at-85.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York City |access-date=December 4, 2018}}</ref> During that period, he directed and starred in ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'', with the Atlanta Theater Guild.<ref name=Fischer />{{rp|481}}{{efn|In 2002, the [[Military Personnel Records Center]] reported that Nimoy's entire Army personnel file had been destroyed in the [[National Personnel Records Center fire]] of 1973. A reconstructed file, containing a pay sheet and some personal details, was then created and placed in the agency's security vault for high-profile military service records.<ref>"Freedom of Information Act Request, Leonard Nimoy", NPRC-NARA, published March 13, 2002</ref>}} Soon after he was discharged, his wife Sandi was pregnant with their second child, and they rented an apartment while he became a cab driver in Los Angeles.<ref name=Shatner />{{rp|41}} He once picked up Senator [[John F. Kennedy]] at the [[Bel Air Hotel]] in 1956, before the [[1956 Democratic National Convention|Democratic Convention]] began on August 13. As the Senator was not carrying any cash, Nimoy had to follow him into the [[Beverly Hilton]] to collect his $1.25 from someone Kennedy knew. He got a $1.75 tip.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://metv.com/stories/spock-once-picked-up-jfk-in-his-cab |title=Spock once picked Up JFK in his cab |publisher=metv |date=May 11, 2023 |accessdate=May 13, 2023}}</ref>