Leonard Nimoy’s son reveals how tragedy transformed his relationship with ‘Star Trek’ actor
Adam Nimoy’s relationship with his father, Leonard Nimoy, was healed through heartbreak.
Adam, 67, writes in his upcoming memoir, “The Most Human: Reconciling with my Father, Leonard Nimoy,” that for decades he was either barely speaking to his dad or completely estranged.
But when Adam’s second wife was diagnosed with cancer, the “Star Trek” actor stepped up to the plate.
“He was the go-to guy, which was absolutely unthinkable just a few years before. I would never have called him. Never. I didn’t call him when I broke up my marriage of 18 years and I moved out of my house, leaving my two kids,” Adam tells Page Six exclusively.
“[But] my dad became the dad that I always needed but never really had. So it was a very transformative experience.”
The author says their relationship began to improve a few years earlier when the actor, who died in 2015 at the age of 83, sent his son a letter listing all of Adam’s deficiencies.
Although they were both sober at the time, Adam says that his father was not taking accountability.
“He was sober but not necessarily in recovery,” Adam explains. “He did not take his own inventory. He took my inventory and that’s kind of a no-no.”
Adam admits his first impulse was to blow up at his father but a friend showed him another way.
His friend advised him to take his own inventory and make amends with his father while letting go of the resentment he had toward him.
“He immediately invited me to a Shabbat dinner the following Friday at his house,” Adam recalls.
Their strained relationship started in Adam’s childhood amid his father’s immense fame for his role as Spock.
“It’s tough to fight with a guy who’s got millions of fans all over the world who just think he’s amazing,” Adam says. “And then I come along and say, ‘I got news for you. You’re human just like the rest of us. And you make mistakes.'”
He describes their mended relationship “a relief” and “a lovely thing,” which was cemented with their work on the 2016 documentary “For the Love of Spock” about Leonard’s life.
“It was a way for me to honor my father,” Adam says. “And it was a way for him to really look at where he had come from and what he had done in his life.”
“The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy” is out June 4.
Adam will be at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side on June 6 and Bookends in New Jersey on June 7.
