William Shatner’s latest book traces his 50-year relationship with his “Star Trek” co-star Leonard Nimoy, who died a year ago.
“Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man,” was released earlier this month. The 84-year-old actor-writer said it felt right to write a book to memorialize his on-again, off-again relationship with Nimoy.
“It sort of makes the period at end of this long paragraph of our lives together. I thought I needed to say this for myself, but it may be of interest to other people,” Shatner said. “We were so much alike and had so much in common — both in our personal and professional history — that we were able to speak on terms that we both understood. I never had that before. (He was) a brother I never had. That’s how he and I referred to each other.”
Shatner said it was tough to avoid “sugarcoating” the ups and downs of his relationship with Nimoy.
The two weren’t on speaking terms when Nimoy died and Shatner acknowledged there were many things about the man known for playing Spock that he learned only through research.
“It was very difficult to be entirely honest with myself,” Shatner said. “This is the truth, as I see it. I’m not going to be around for a great deal more time, and (the book) will hopefully define, if someone is interested, what these two actors felt.
Shatner says the book isn’t meant to capitalize on Nimoy’s death but is simply another reflection from an actor who has been doing plenty of reflecting later in life.
“I don’t understand that. Why not? It happened to me. It didn’t happen to them. I have made many stories, anecdotes and dramatic readings of things that have happened to me,” he said.