Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy

I absolutely adore this guy. If memory serves me right I believe I first saw him in Columbo and then later in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It's his 80s birthday today, congratulation Leonard.

Lived long: Check
Prospered: Check

I will hereby celebrate by listing my favourite Leonard Nimoy characters.

Kovack from Baffeled

A cheesy lovable guy in a cheesy lovable film with a storyline of supernatural quality which makes no sense.
Actually the film Baffled was a pilot for a series that was never made. It was like the X-files of the seventies, just with the main characters being sweet instead of distant (sorry Mulder and Scully but, well).

As mentioned the story of Baffled was hard to follow but it had other qualities like pretty locations, some simple but clever editing, a creative "psychic vision" scene and the main couples (Nimoy & Susan Hampshire) joyful behaviour. They like addressing each other by saying their full names, which sounds a bit poetic at times.

Oh yes and I like this poster.

Dr. Barry Mayfield from Columbo

One cold opportunist that schemes a murder so clever that I wish he would have gotten away with it. Ooops, no this wasn't a spoiler, Columbo is a detective show where you learn who the murderer is before the investigation. I'm glad Nimoy got a murderer part in it, maybe it's not flattering but he was perfect. Mayfield also belongs to the exclusive club of villains that made the always so kind Lt. Columbo loose his temper.
I also like the name Mayfield, it's the first and only time I've heard that name.

Miller from Catlow

Talking about cold, this guy, Miller, takes the prize. A bounty hunter who seems to solely exist for the cause of making the life of our hero and anti-hero more difficult. Miller's goal is to hunt down Catlow (Yul Brynner), a funny wisecracking cattle thief.

Miller comes off as somebody who doesn't give a shit of whoever might be around him, he only sees his target. He doesn't give a shit about the beautiful woman who tries to seduce him, he doesn't give shit about the sheriff who needs his help (Miller just makes matters worse), he doesn't even give a shit that he has to battle Catlow naked, he's like a Western version of T-1000 (Wait an minute, Yul Brynner anyone?).
So to all of you who expect Nimoy to only do emotionless cold characters Miller is the ultimate.

Dr. David Kibner from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers

 Aliens are taking over people's life while the original person withers to dust. They are hard to detect, so who to trust?

I dare say this is a great character because he has made fans of the film scratch their heads for decades now. Did we ever see the human being David Kibner or was he something else from the very beginning? 
His behaviour and uttering confuse throughout the film. He's a good trusted friend of the main protagonist Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland). He is introduced before he enters the screen by Matthew talking about how Kibner is a understanding and brilliant psychologist. Through Matthew the viewer get the idea of Kibner as a patient listener, so when he finally shows up something seems chillingly wrong.

I have to hand it both to the actors and the writers, they convey paranoia perfectly. The lines that the characters are saying combined with their behavior keeps the viewers on edge, never sure who to trust. This is especially empathized through Nimoy's David Kibner. 

William Bell from Fringe

We follow the Fringe team lead by FBI's Olivia Dunam, a troubled character with a strange past. She teams up with Peter Bishop, a guy with an even stranger past, Peter's father the brilliant but mentally compromised scientist Walter Bishop and his assistant.
It's John Noble as Walter Bishop that made this show worth watching for me. Crazy scientists are nothing new but John Nobel's performance is funny and sensitive. Walter is easy to care about.
With Walter the story of William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) surface, a story of a long and complicated friendship.

As with Kibner, William Bell is not shown when introduced to the show and, boy, this character must have one of the longest introduction since Mrs. Columbo.
It takes a season of the Fringe team talking about him before he actually shows up. After that long I felt like interviewing the character. My first question would be: Why are you blaming everything on poor lovely Walter?
A bit blunt I know but I couldn't help but feeling that Bell got away way too easily, he always came off as justified and he made wonderful Walter feel very bad. (Sigh, Walter my heart is bleeding for you.)
Having said that I have to be fair and mention that Bell did care greatly for Walter and in later episodes, well I won't spoil, so lets say he made sure Walter will get all the help he needs.

Paris from Mission:Impossible

According to the man himself he was first fascinated by the idea of playing an Impossible Force agent. With the character Paris there was the possibility to be different characters in every episode. Paris was like every Mission:Impossible agent, darn efficient and a 100% loyal to his team (except when being brainwashed). He was one of these agents that was a trouble magnet but it's not a surprise since he had to socialize a lot with bad guys. Being a magician was his everyday occupation, an expert of disguise while being in the team.
Sadly Nimoy got bored of the character realizing that Paris was more an idea than a full fleshed personality. Still Paris was an important member of the team, quick thinker, he seemed to have some humour but didn't show any joy over their foes grim demises. There were some episodes where Paris got to show some of his personality but mostly he played the part of others.
Like with most of the Impossible Force agents Paris was easy to like.     

Mr. Spock from Star Trek

In the future a Federation starship will be on a five years mission exploring new worlds and civilizations. Lead by an hot captain who looses his shirt all the time and a stern first officer who has left his home-planet Vulcan to join the Federation fleet, adventures were set every week.

Oooooohhh, this is so obvious that it's obscene. Couldn't I've come up with something more original? The answer is NO.
There's no coming past this, Mr. Spock is not a Science Fiction icon for nothing.
For one this character survived cranky Paramount executives which believed his devilish appearance would put the viewers off. Oh how wrong they were. Mr. Spock went from a supposedly minor background character to a favourite in no time. The male viewers wanted to be him and the female viewers wanted to...well...you know.

Pointy eared, freaky eyebrows and seemingly emotionless Spock gave the insight from someone who observed humans with an alien eye. Even though he was half human on his mother side, he considered himself a Vulcan but realized soon that his mixed origin was a battle of it's own.

Another reason for this character to be on top of this list is how carefully and beautiful done his development of personality went. Spock could seem cold and stubborn but he was also artistic and most important philosophical. Through the years Spock's view on life changed without loosing his values but incorporated them into new observations and learning. The change was wonderful and may I say logical.
He became well rounded and even though his appearance is a bit unusual, after all this years he is like a real person.

Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy.