Nichelle Nichols is dead at age 89. The Star Trek actress died on Saturday, July 30, in Silver City, New Mexico.
Her son, Kyle Johnson, confirmed her death on Sunday, July 31. “I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” Johnson’s post on Nichols’ official Facebook page announced. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”
Johnson, 70, continued: “I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected.”
Nichols’ official cause of death was heart failure, according to the New York Times.
Born in December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols grew up in the Chicago suburb with father Samuel, the town mayor, and her mother Lishia, but she left at just 15 to start her career when she joined Duke Ellington’s tour as a singer and dancer. Porgy and Bess was her first onscreen role as a dancer in 1959. She made her way to Peyton Place and the TV series Tarzan before landing on Star Trek as Lt. Uhura in 1966.
The actress famously tried to quit the sci-fi series after just one season, intending to return to Broadway. She handed in her resignation to showrunner Gene Roddenberry and was told to take the weekend to think about her decision before he would agree to let her go. She changed her mind after meeting one particular fan — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“That weekend, I went to what I remember as a NAACP fundraiser, though it could have been something else,” Nichols recalled to StarTrek.com in 2010. “Whatever it was, I was in Beverly Hills. I was being seated at the dais as other notables were coming to join us. One of the organizers came over to me and said, ‘Ms. Nichols, I hate to bother you just as you’re sitting down to dinner, but there’s someone here who wants very much to meet you. And he said to tell you that he is your biggest fan.’ I said, “Oh, certainly.’ I stood up and turned around and who comes walking over towards me from about 10 or 15 feet, smiling that rare smile of his, is Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember saying to myself, ‘Whoever that fan is, whoever that Trekkie is, it’ll have to wait because I have to meet Dr. Martin Luther King.’ And he walks up to me and says, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.’ You know I can talk, but all my mouth could do was open and close, open and close; I was so stunned.”
King told Nichols that Star Trek was the only show that he and his wife, Coretta Scott King, allowed their young children to stay up and watch. Nichols was touched and said she’d really miss her costars, and the activist discouraged her from quitting.
“He said, ‘You cannot,’ and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, ‘Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. Three hundred years from now, we are here. We are marching, and this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.’ He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling,” she explained. “And he said, ‘You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd Century.’”
She concluded, “That’s all it took.” She remained with the original Star Trek through 1969, appearing in 69 of the show’s 80 episodes. She returned as Uhura in the first six Star Trek movies and voiced the lieutenant in Star Trek: The Animated Series in the mid-1970s.
Breaking barriers was a theme throughout Nichols’ career. Uhura and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) shared the first interracial kiss on broadcast television in 1968. “I am so sorry to hear about the passing of Nichelle,” Shatner tweeted on Sunday. “She was a beautiful woman & played an admirable character that did so much for redefining social issues both here in the US & throughout the world. I will certainly miss her. Sending my love and condolences to her family.”
In 1992, she received a star Hollywood Walk of Fame and became the first Black actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Nichols helped inspire many young women to become astronauts, not only as her fictional character but also as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Space Institute (now the National Space Society) and her work with the Space Cadets of America. NASA awarded her a Public Service Award in 1984 for her help diversifying the field.
“We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible,” NASA shared via Twitter on Sunday. “She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars.”
Her final TV roles were on The Young and the Restless in 2016 and Sharknado 5: Global Swarming the following year. Her last film was the 2020 Star Trek parody Unbelievable.
Nichols was briefly married to Forest Johnson in 1951, with whom she shared Kyle, now 70. The pair divorced later that year, and the Illinois native was married to Duke Mondy from 1968 to 1972. After a 2015 stroke and a 2018 dementia diagnosis, Kyle filed for conservatorship in 2018, which is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit .
News of Nichols’ death spawned reactions from stars across Hollywood. Scroll down to see George Takei, Lynda Carter, Celia Rose Gooding and more pay tribute:
The ghosts of SURvers past. Laura-Leigh, Faith Stowers and Vail Bloom are among the Vanderpump Rules stars who have stepped away from the Bravo hit.
Cameras started following the staff at Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR in 2012 after she rose to fame on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Season 1, which premiered in January 2013, starred Lisa, Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, Kristen Doute, Tom Sandoval, Kristen Doute and Scheana Shay. Tom Schwartz, Tina McDowelle, Peter Madrigal, Laura-Leigh, Frank Herlihy, Mike Shay, Kristina Kelly, Jen Bush and Jeremy Davidson had recurring roles on the series.
By season 3, several faces had come and gone, and Schwartz was upgraded to a full-time cast member. Ariana Madix and James Kennedy were also officially part of the cast. Lala Kent, Faith and Brittany Cartwright were first featured on the series in season 4.
“You can all tell that we’re very much evolving, so it’s almost like grown-up fighting now, as opposed to high school fighting,” Jax told Us Weekly exclusively in November 2018. “I mean, there’s still high school fighting. Certain people on our show like to keep the high school vibe going, but for the most part, it’s getting into adult fighting now.”
Season 8 saw several new additions to the cast, including Dayna Kathan, Max Boyens, Brett Caprioni, Danica Dow and Charli Burnett. Stassi’s then-fiancé, Beau Clark, and James’ then-girlfriend, Raquel Leviss, were also featured more heavily.
“When we started this show it was our real group of best friends,” Katie told Us in November 2019 ahead of the season 8 premiere. “[The newcomers] have just met at SUR, they didn’t know each other before so it’s kinds of interesting. It’s a different dynamic because they didn’t have the history that we have. So you can’t really compare us to them.”
Vanderpump Rules underwent a major cast shakeup in 2020 after it was confirmed Stassi, Kristen, Jax, Brittany, Max, Brett, Danica and Dayna wouldn’t be back for season 9. The show also didn’t film at all in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and returned in September 2021.
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Scroll through for an update on the former Vanderpump Rules stars:
Sisters forever. Though she wasn’t in attendance, Alyssa Milano gushed over the Charmed reunion that happened at 90s Con.
“This makes me happy for the OG Charmed fans. What a gift!” the actress, 50, captioned a photo of Shannen Doherty, Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs at the Charmed panel.
The three women were joined by Brian Krause, Dorian Gregory and Drew Fuller for a reunion at the convention in Hartford, Connecticut, on Sunday, March 19. Milano was the only main cast member missing.
The original Charmed ran from 1998 to 2006 on The WB and followed the three Halliwell sisters — played by Doherty, Combs and Milano — who discover they’re witches. After the third season, Doherty shocked audiences when she left the series amid a rumored feud with Milano, and her character, Prue Halliwell, was killed off.
“There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work,” Doherty, now 51, detailed to Entertainment Tonight in 2001.
In October 2022, Milano said she felt at fault for some of their tension on the Charmed set. “I would say we are cordial,” the actress, who played Phoebe Halliwell, said of their current relationship during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “You know, I could take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had. I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about. And I have some guilt about my part in that.”
She added that she has reconnected with Doherty after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. The Riverdale guest star went into remission in 2017 but the cancer returned in 2020. “I will send her DMs every couple of months to just check in,” Milano added in October.
While her issues with Doherty had long been rumored, tension between Milano and McGowan started building in 2018 amid the #MeToo movement. McGowan joined Charmed amid Doherty’s absence in the fourth season, playing long-lost half-sister Paige Matthews for four seasons.
The Brave author famously called Milano “a lie” for her involvement with the Time’s Up organization in a January 2018 interview with Nightline coanchor Juju Chang.
Milano responded to McGowan’s comments in a statement to Nightline at the time. “I am and always have been completely supportive of Rose and admire her bravery and speaking out about her experiences,” she said. “My goal throughout the past few months with both #MeToo and the TimesUp movement has been to use my platform to give others a voice so we can all work together to stamp out sexual harassment and sexual assault.”
The following April, Milano said she didn’t interpret any of McGowan’s comments as hateful. “[I don’t] see that as the same thing as hate,” she exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “I see that as a beautiful soul that was hurting so badly that she was talking from that hurt. And I understand.”
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For her part, McGowan remains close with Combs, 49. “I really love my Charmed co-star Holly Marie Combs. This juman means a lot to me. Blessed be forever! #Charmed,” the Jawbreakers actress captioned a February selfie with her pal via Instagram.
Forever the Tai to his Travis. During the Clueless reunion panel at 90s Con 2023, Breckin Meyer opened up about the death of his late costar, Brittany Murphy, 14 years after her tragic passing.
“The one thing that really bummed [me out] about Brittany not being here [is thinking about] what she’d be doing now because of how talented she was,” the 48-year-old Good Girls alum said during the cast’s convention panel on Sunday, March 19, which was attended by Us Weekly. “Brittany could sing like nobody’s business, and I look at things like [how] they’re doing the movie Wicked now. I hear about that, [and I know] Brittany would be killing this stuff right now. You know, [projects like] West Side Story, all that stuff.”
Meyer, who played Travis Birkenstock in 1995’s Clueless, added: “The [tough part] is, like, we all don’t get to see the incredible work she was gonna do, which sucks.”
Murphy, who playednew girl Tai in the iconic ’90s flick, died in December 2009 at the age of 32. Her death — which was ruled as “accidental” — was a result of pneumonia, anemia and multiple drug intoxication.
Following her tragic passing, her Clueless pals have frequently been candid about her enduring legacy, including Meyer.
“10 years ago this magical, fantabulous angel left us WAY too early. So crazy talented & the sweetest lil fairy ya ever could meet,” the Franklin & Bash alum, who played the Uptown Girls star’s love interest in Clueless, tweeted in December 2019. “Full Disclosure: Travis kisses Tai on the head because Brit was always like a lil sister to me. Missing Brit lots today.”
During Sunday’s panel, Meyer — who was joined by costars Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash and Elisa Donovan — revealed that he had known Murphy “forever” prior to their Clueless audition.
“So Brit and I played boyfriend and girlfriend in a couple things [before Clueless],” the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past actor recalled during the convention, which was held at the Hartford Convention Center in Connecticut. “I was tight with someone who played her big sister on a sitcom and I had no job, so I was around the set a lot [and] so I played Brittany’s boyfriend there. We were tight already [when we got the Clueless roles].”
He added: “When I auditioned, it was nice because any time you audition with someone you know, you’re just like, ‘One box, I can check: Comfortable.’”
Meyer, who arrived via skateboard to meet director Amy Heckerling at his Clueless callback, noted the roles of Travis and Tai nearly went to his pal Seth Green and his then-girlfriend, Alanna Ubach.
“It was just kind of one of [us or] the other,” the Garfield: The Movie star added. “It was between the two couples and luckily [Seth and Alanna are] not together anymore. So it worked out! But, yeah, when I saw Brittany [audition], I [thought], ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna get the part, but obviously, if you don’t make a movie with her, don’t make the movie,’ she’s that great. She was.”
Several of Meyer’s fellow 90s Con panelist also shared their fond memories of the late Just Married star.
“I remember Brittany coming in, and she was so great,” Silverstone, 46, said on Sunday.
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