Nichelle Nichols

幻游百科,影视科幻的百科全书

Jump to: navigation, search
Image:Uhura.jpg
Actress: Nichelle Nichols
Character: communications officer Nyota Uhura
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series (Regular Cast)

Star Trek: The Animated Series (Regular Cast)

Movies: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Born: December 28, 1933
Place of Birth: Robbins, Illinois, USA
Image:Nichols old.jpg

Nichelle Nichols (real name Grace Nichols) is an American actress, born on December 28, 1933 in 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.

目录

[编辑]

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 would tell 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 television's first interracial kiss as seen in the original series episode "Plato's Stepchildren".

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.

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. During the late 1970s until 1987, Nichelle Nichols was employed by NASA, making recruitment and training films, and was in charge of astronaut recruits and hopefuls. Most of the recruits that she launched were minority candidates of different races and/or ethnicities, as well as gender.

[编辑]

Early career & other roles

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 by Gene Roddenberry and featuring 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).

Her other film roles 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).

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).

[编辑]

Background information

Nichelle Nichols was considering leaving the Star Trek franchise after the first season. Fed up with the racist harassment, culminating with her learning that studio executives were withholding her fan mail, she submitted her resignation. She withdrew it when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. personally convinced her that her role was too important a cultural breakthrough to leave. She made both her first ("The Corbomite Maneuver") and last (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) Star Trek appearances with DeForest Kelley.

Her younger brother Thomas Nichols commited suicide March 26, 1997 with the Heaven's Gate cult members in Rancho Santa Fe, California near San Diego.

[编辑]

Appearances

[编辑]

See also

[编辑]

External Links

取自"http://fance.net/index.php/Nichelle_Nichols"
Personal tools