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Nichelle Nichols, Uhura of 'Star Trek' fame, dies at 89

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="In this file photo taken on August 13, 2006, Canadian actor William Shatner and US actress Nichelle Nichols attend Comedy Central" s="" roast="" of="" Shatner="" at="" the="" CBS="" Studio="" center="" in="" Los="" Angeles.="" Nichelle="" a="" groundbreaking="" Black="" actress="" who="" played="" communications="" officer="" Nyota="" Uhura="" with="" cool="" authority="" on="" popular="" series="" has="" died="" Chris="" Delmas="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/entertainment/07/31/20220731-nichols.jpg"/><figcaption>In this file photo taken on August 13, 2006, Canadian actor William Shatner and US actress Nichelle Nichols attend Comedy Central&#x27;s roast of Shatner at the CBS Studio center in Los Angeles. Nichelle Nichols, a groundbreaking Black actress who played communications officer Nyota Uhura with cool authority on the popular 1960s series &quot;Star Trek,&quot; has died at 89. Chris Delmas / AFP</figcaption></figure></div>WASHINGTON, United States - Nichelle Nichols, a groundbreaking Black actress who played communications officer Nyota Uhura with cool authority on the popular 1960s series &quot;Star Trek,&quot; has died at 89.Her son, Kyle Johnson, announced the death on the official uhura.com website, saying, &quot;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.&quot;A family spokesman said Nichols died in Silver City, New Mexico, where she had been living with her son.Tributes poured in quickly, including from a long list of devoted &quot;Trekkies.&quot;George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu shared the bridge with Lieutenant Uhura on the USS Enterprise, called her &quot;trailblazing and incomparable,&quot; while prominent Georgia politician Stacey Abrams lauded her as a &quot;champion, warrior and tremendous actor.&quot;Nichols made history with one of the first interracial kisses on US television -- a 1968 embrace shared with the Enterprise&#x27;s Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner (a kiss deemed worthy of a separate entry in Wikipedia).Martin Luther King Jr. himself once praised Nichols, who broke ground with her powerful performance at a time when Black actors more often were cast as servants or criminals.Nichols, who had trained in ballet and musical theater, at one point told &quot;Star Trek&quot; creator Gene Roddenberry that she wanted to quit the show to return to the theater.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/10/14/21/star-treks-william-shatner-becomes-worlds-oldest-space-traveler">&#x27;Profound experience&#x27;: Star Trek&#x27;s William Shatner becomes world&#x27;s oldest space traveler</a></li></ul>But when she mentioned that to King, in a chance meeting recounted by the Hollywood Reporter: &quot;All the smile came off his face and he said, &#x27;You can&#x27;t do that. Don&#x27;t you understand, for the first time, we&#x27;re seen as we should be seen? You don&#x27;t have a Black role. You have an equal role.&#x27;&quot;She stayed.While best known as Uhura, Nichols had a varied career, dancing with Sammy Davis Jr. in &quot;Porgy and Bess,&quot; appearing on the NBC series &quot;Heroes&quot; and recording an album. She also played Uhura -- a name taken from the Swahili for &quot;freedom&quot; -- in the first six &quot;Star Trek&quot; movies.Later, Nichols worked as a recruiter for NASA -- which reached out to her after she had criticized its lack of diversity -- and successfully encouraged several talented African-Americans and women of all races to consider careers with the space agency. bbk/bfm© Agence France-Presse

Nichelle Nichols, a groundbreaking Black actress who played communications officer Nyota Uhura with cool authority on the popular 1960s series 'Star Trek,' has died at 89.