Nichelle Nichols' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Star Trek: The Original Series Lieutenant … Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier Nichelle Ni… Star Trek: The Animated Series Lieutenant … Devna Magen Lieutenant … Doctor Sara… Alice Nyota Uhura… Aged Doctor…

Main Movie Roles 2008 - The Torturer 2005 - Are We There Yet? 2002 - Snow Dogs 1997 - Trekkies 1991 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1989 - Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 1986 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 1986 - The Supernaturals 1984 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1979 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1974 - Truck Turner 1967 - Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion 1959 - Porgy and Bess

BIOGRAPHY:

Nichelle Nichols is an American actress from Robbins, Illinois. She is most famous for portraying communications officer Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and the first six Star Trek movies. She also provided the voices for a number of other characters on the animated series.

Hailing from Robbins, Illinois, USA, Ms. Nichols was discovered by jazz legend Duke Ellington in her mid-teens, Nichols toured with both Ellington and Lionel Hampton as a lead singer and dancer. She broke into acting in the film Porgy and Bess (1959, with Sammy Davis, Jr., Loulie Jean Norman, and Brock Peters) and has had an acting career lasting over 45 years.

Her first television role was on The Lieutenant (1964, which was written and produced by Gene Roddenberry and featured Gary Lockwood and Don Marshall). She has also made TV appearances as herself in It Takes Two (1969), Head of the Class (1988), and Weakest Link (2002); she also voiced animated versions of herself on The Simpsons (2004) and in two episodes of Futurama (2000, 2002).

She appeared as Ruana in two Tarzan films: Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion (1967, with fellow Star Trek actor Lloyd Haynes, William Marshall, and Jason Evers); and Tarzan's Deadly Silence (1970, with Robert DoQui). These were episodes from the Tarzan TV series edited together and released as films.

She also appeared in the TV movies Gettin' Up Mornin' (1964, with Davis Roberts and Don Marshall) and William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1983, with Ted Sorel, Earl Boen, Barrie Ingham, Dan Mason, James Avery, and her original series co-star Walter Koenig).

Aside from the first six Star Trek films, her other film credits include: Made in Paris (1966, with Jack Perkins), the blaxploitation classic Truck Turner (1974, with Dick Miller), Mister Buddwing (1966, with Ken Lynch, Bart Conrad, and Charles Seel), The Supernaturals (1986, with LeVar Burton and Jessie Lawrence Ferguson), Disney's Snow Dogs (2002), and, most recently, Are We There Yet? (2005, with Jerry Hardin). Nichols co-produced and plays the title role in the yet-to-be-released Lady Magdalene's.

In 2006, Nichols returned to the role of Uhura in the fan film, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.

In August 2007, it was announced that Nichols would have a recurring role in the hit NBC series Heroes. [1] She was the second star of Star Trek: The Original Series to appear on the series, after George Takei. Star Trek: Enterprise star Dominic Keating also had a recurring role on the series and Star Trek star Zachary Quinto returned in his famous role as the villainous Sylar. Other performers who appeared on the show during the second season included Joanna Cassidy and regular Christine Rose.

Legacy

Her role as Uhura on Star Trek was one of the first times that an African-American actress portrayed a non-stereotypical role. Previously, most African-American female characters on American television were depicted as maids or housekeepers, and Nichols' role helped break that stereotype barrier. Years later, Whoopi Goldberg told Nichols about excitedly watching Uhura, as a child, and telling her mother "Come quick! Come quick! There's a black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid!" She participated with series star William Shatner in another breakthrough, with American "episodic" television's first interracial kiss between fictional characters, as seen in the original series episode "Plato's Stepchildren". (Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. had openly kissed months earlier in a musical-variety special broadcast by NBC on December 11, 1967, entitled Movin' With Nancy.)

She became the first African-American actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood's Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the Star Trek cast. In 1992, she earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After meeting Nichols at a Star Trek convention in 1975, scientist Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer suggested the actress to spearhead NASA's recruitment drive. Nichols took up the role in 1977, making recruitment and training films, and supervising astronaut recruits and hopefuls. She noted that the applicant count went from less than 100 a year to 1,649 within six months. Most of the recruits that she launched were women or from ethnic minorities. For her efforts, Nichols was named as NASA's 'Woman of the Year' in 1979. Nichols is good friends with former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison. Dr. Jemison was a fan of the original Star Trek and was inspired by Nichols when she decided to become the first African-American female astronaut. Jemison herself appeared in TNG: "Second Chances".




TRIVIA:

• Made both her first (Star Trek, Season 1, Episode 10: entitled "The Corbomite Manoeuvre") and last (_Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)_ (qv)) "Star Trek" appearances with 'DeForest Kelley' (qv).
• Has appeared in episodes of three different series with 'William Shatner' (qv), 'Leonard Nimoy' (qv) and 'George Takei' (qv): _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv), _"Star Trek" (1973)_ (qv) and _"Futurama" (1999)_ (qv).
• Measurements: 35-23-37 (as a glamour model in 1960), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
• Author of a book, "Saturn's Child".
• Ranked #17 on Wizard magazine's Sexiest Women of TV for her role on _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv) (March 2008).
• Confessed in her autobiography she once had a close, personal relationship with _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv) creator 'Gene Roddenberry' (qv).
• Became the first African-American to place her handprints in front of Hollywood's Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv) crew. In 1992 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• Former NASA astronaut Dr. 'Mae C. Jemison' (qv) was inspired by 'Nichelle Nichols' (qv) when she decided to become the first African American female astronaut. Jemison was a fan of the original _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv).