R.I.P. Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek)

Read More Nichelle Nichols Finally, did you know that Nichelle Nichols (the actress that plays Lieutenant Uhura) have released not one, but two albums ? I actually didn't know she was a recording artist until I started doing research for this article. …

Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Uhura from the original Star Trek series, has died on Saturday. She was 89 years old.

We did see her at Wizard World Minneapolis in 2017, but were not allowed to take her photo. To be honest, I thought she looked worse for wear, requiring an assistant and wheelchair to get around.

For Star Trek and music fans, Nichelle Nichols releaesd two albums, Down to Earth and Out of This World.

Variety noted Nichols’ landmark moment:

Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in television history on “Star Trek.” That moment, with her co-star William Shatner, was a courageous move on the part of her, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and NBC considering the climate at the time, but the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which aired in 1968, was written to give all involved an out: Uhura and Captain Kirk did not choose to kiss but were instead made to do so involuntarily by aliens with the ability to control the movements of humans. Nevertheless, it was a landmark moment.

There had been a couple of interracial kisses on American television before. A year earlier on “Movin’ With Nancy,” Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra on the cheek in what appeared to be a spontaneous gesture but was in fact carefully planned. The Uhura-Kirk kiss was likely the first televised white/African American lip-to-lip kiss.

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