Editing Leonard Nimoy (section)

== Other career work ==
=== Photography ===
Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; for the rest of his life, he owned a camera he had rebuilt at the age of 13. During the 1970s, he studied photography at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]].<ref name="rawnerve" /><ref>[http://petapixel.com/2015/02/27/leonard-nimoys-passion-for-photography/ Leonard Nimoy's Passion for Photography], PetaPixel, February 27, 2015</ref> His photography studies at UCLA occurred after ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'' while he was seriously considering changing careers. His work has been exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]]<ref name="rawnerve" /> and the [[Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art]].

=== Directing ===
Nimoy's directorial debut was in 1973, with the "Death on a Barge" segment for an episode of ''[[Night Gallery]]'' during its final season. In the early 1980s, he resumed directing consistently, including television and film.

Nimoy began feature film directing in 1984 with ''[[Star Trek III: The Search for Spock]]'', the third in the film series. He directed the second most successful movie (critically and financially) in the franchise, ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'' (1986), and then ''[[Three Men and a Baby]]'', the highest-grossing film of 1987. These successes made him a star director.<ref name="harmetz19881030">{{cite news |last=Harmetz |first=Aljean |author-link=Aljean Harmetz |date=October 30, 1988 |title=Leonard Nimoy at the Controls |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/30/movies/leonard-nimoy-at-the-controls.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=May 24, 2011}}</ref> He directed ''[[The Good Mother (1988 film)|The Good Mother]]'' (1988) and ''[[Funny About Love]]'' (1990). In 1994 he directed his last feature film, ''[[Holy Matrimony (1994 film)|Holy Matrimony]]''. His final directorial credit was "Killshot", the 1995 pilot episode for ''[[Deadly Games (TV series)|Deadly Games]]'', a short-lived science-fiction television series.

At a press conference promoting the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie, he said he had no further plans or ambition to direct although he enjoyed it.<ref name="Powers">{{cite interview |last1=Nimoy |first1=Leonard |last2=Quinto |first2=Zachary |subject-link2=Zachary Quinto |interviewer=Nicole Powers |title=Leonard Nimoy And Zachary Quinto: The Two Faces Of Spock |url=https://suicidegirls.com/girls/nicole_powers/blog/2680122/leonard-nimoy-and-zachary-quinto-the-two-faces-of-spock/ |work=[[SuicideGirls]] |publisher=Sg Services, Inc. |location=Los Angeles |date=May 1, 2009 |access-date=August 2, 2010}}</ref>

=== Writing ===
Nimoy authored two volumes of autobiography. The first is ''[[I Am Not Spock]]'' (1975) and was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock. The contents of this first autobiography also touched on a self-proclaimed "[[identity crisis]]" that seemed to haunt Nimoy throughout his career. It also related to an apparent love and hate relationship with the character of Spock and the ''Star Trek'' franchise.

{{blockquote|I went through a definite identity crisis. The question was whether to embrace Mr. Spock or to fight the onslaught of public interest. I realize now that I really had no choice in the matter. Spock and ''Star Trek'' were very much alive and there wasn't anything that I could do to change that.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://startrekdom.blogspot.com/2007/05/leonard-nimoys-lovehate-relationship.html |title=Leonard Nimoy's Love/Hate Relationship with Mr. Spock |last=B. |first=Jared |date=May 24, 2007 |website=Trekdom – Star Trek Fanzine |type=Blog |access-date=November 1, 2013}}</ref>}}

In the second volume, ''[[I Am Spock]]'' (1995), Nimoy communicates that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way he never would have, had he not portrayed the character. Nimoy maintained that in some meaningful sense he had merged with Spock while distancing between fact and fiction. In 2014, the audiobook version of ''I Am Spock'', read by Nimoy, was published.<ref>Brilliance Audio, {{ISBN|978-1491575727}}</ref>

He composed several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. A later poetic volume titled ''A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life'' was published in 2002. His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thehypertexts.com |title=The HyperTexts |access-date=November 1, 2013}}</ref> Nimoy adapted and starred in the one-man play ''Vincent'' (1981), based on the play ''Van Gogh'' (1979) by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of ''[[Primortals]]'', a comic book series published by [[Tekno Comix]] about [[First contact (science fiction)|first contact]] with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with [[Isaac Asimov]]. There was a novelization by [[Steve Perry (author)|Steve Perry]].

=== Music ===
{{See also|Leonard Nimoy discography}}
[[File:Leonard_Nimoy_1967.jpg|thumb|Nimoy playing guitar in 1967]]
In December 1966, when it became apparent that the original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' was developing a strong following in spite of low [[Nielsen ratings]], [[Dot Records]] approached the producers of the show. The result was the signing of Nimoy to that label. Dot Records was a subsidiary of [[Paramount Pictures]], and both Paramount and [[Desilu]]—the studio producing ''Star Trek''—were acquired by [[Gulf+Western]]: first Paramount in 1966, and then Desilu in 1967. So after the [[merger]] of the two companies, Nimoy wound up working for Paramount both as an actor (from 1966 to 1971) and singer (from 1967 to 1970), doing two television series (''Star Trek'' and ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'') and five albums. Nimoy later recorded a few [[spoken word]] albums and contributed narration to albums such as ''[[Whales Alive]]''.

Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band [[Information Society (band)|Information Society]] in the late Eighties. The song, "[[What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)]]" (released in 1988), reached No.{{nbsp}}3 on the US Pop charts, and No.{{nbsp}}1 on the Dance charts.

Nimoy played the part of the chauffeur in the 1985 music video of The Bangles' cover version of "[[Going Down to Liverpool]]". He also appeared in the alternate music video for the song "[[The Lazy Song]]" by pop artist [[Bruno Mars]].<ref name="LazyLeonard2">{{cite web|date=May 26, 2011|title=Watch: Leonard Nimoy Gets 'Lazy' In Bruno Mars Music Video [Updated]|url=http://trekmovie.com/2011/05/26/watch-leonard-nimoy-gets-lazy-in-bruno-mars-music-video/|access-date=June 3, 2011|website=TrekMovie.com|publisher=SciFanatic Network}}</ref>