It’s impossible to step into the shoes of a legend and successfully walk their unique path with as much elan, but Zachary Quinto was tasked with just such a daunting chore back in 2009. The young actor joined Chris Pine, Karl Urban, and J.J. Abrams for the long-awaited Star Trek reboot over 15 years ago, but Quinto was the one who had to take on the iconic role of Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock for a new generation of Trekkies.
Upon reflection, Quinto did a masterful job portraying the franchise’s most famous Vulcan in the three Kelvin Universe installments: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). However, Quinto must have felt some of the pressure lifted from his shoulders because of Nimoy’s presence in the 2009 movie, which flourished into a true friendship.
The two shared an undeniable on-screen chemistry as they played off one another — each impressively flexing their acting chops — as the younger and elder versions of Spock. So, it shouldn't comes as a surprise that the actor spoke fondly of the late Mr. Nimoy while promoting his medical drama Brilliant Minds season 2. Quinto said to the hosts of Today:
“Leonard was a big influence on my life, and I’m certainly grateful for that […] His wife, Susan Nimoy was actually a guest star on the first season of Brilliant Minds. She came up and did a wonderful episode, and we’re still very much in touch and very close. And I adore her.”
Nimoy’s Star Trek legacy is undeniable, but Quinto did a fine job playing the half-human/half-Vulcan. Quinto even wants to play Spock again, but he’ll never be able to catch up to the sheer amount of times Nimoy portrayed the fan-favorite over the years. Nimoy’s Mr. Spock was the first member of the Core 7 (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov) to be cast. In fact, Mr. Spock was the only of those characters to be a part of the original, unaired television pilot (at the time) “The Cage” before it was scraped and the show was reworked with William Shatner becoming Spock’s captain and friend nearly 60 years ago.
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