Summary

• William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's 50-year friendship ended with an unresolved rift, causing deep regret for Shatner.
• A breach occurred when Nimoy was upset about unauthorized footage being taken of him during a convention appearance.
• Nimoy's illness and eventual passing may have contributed to the inability to reconcile, but Shatner continues to remember him fondly.

The half-century friendship between Star Trek: The Original Series icons William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy ended with a tragic falling out. Close for many years, the two Star Trek actors had much in common. Born four days apart in March 1931, from similar backgrounds, they both dreamed of acting and struggled to mild - and ultimately great - success. Coming together in late 1965 on the set of the second (and successful) Star Trek pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” they then embarked on a journey to launch a significantly successful franchise that would span universes and a multi-decade brotherly bond that would sadly end with an unresolved rift.
Shatner and Nimoy had previously worked together on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., season 1, episode 9, “The Project Strigas Affair.” However, in Leonard, My Fifty-Year Friendship With A Remarkable Man co-written by William Shatner and David Fisher, Shatner doubts that either remembered doing so upon their reunion on the Star Trek set. Despite initial bumps in their early relationship, Nimoy and Shatner became friends over Star Trek’s three-year, three-season, seventy-nine-episode run. Their connection deepened through regular fan conventions and a run of six movies to a fifty-year friendship that echoed that of their respective Star Trek characters, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

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