Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast Am on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Nori with you.
Speaker 2: Adam Nimoy with US. Graduate of UC Berkeley and Loyola
Speaker 2: Law Schools. After seven years in the entertainment law field,
Speaker 2: he left to pursue a directing career, and he has
Speaker 2: directed more than forty five hours of network television, as
Speaker 2: well as documentary films about his father, Leonard Nimoy. Adam,
Speaker 2: welcome to the program. So good to have you.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me, George, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Your father gave us years of entertainment, my friend, Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yes, he did, he did. He's quite quite, very productive
Speaker 3: during his career, very lucky, a very driven guy with
Speaker 3: a lot of interest, very versatile actor, renaissance man, true artist.
Speaker 2: What did you think of him in Star Trek as
Speaker 2: Bock when you were growing up?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean the show came on the air when
Speaker 3: I was ten year years old. I've been watching a
Speaker 3: lot of sixties TV up to that point, so I
Speaker 3: was very much aware of what he was doing and
Speaker 3: very much prepared for it. Thankfully. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 3: love Spock right away. He was just a new, interesting,
Speaker 3: unique character. It was great were coming into the and
Speaker 3: the era of color programming for all three networks, and
Speaker 3: this show just looked great and we were ready.
Speaker 2: For him, and he was. He was close friends with
Speaker 2: William Shatner, wasn't he.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a complicated question, Joan. Uh. There was a
Speaker 3: period of time where they were very close, and I'm
Speaker 3: really grateful for that. There were several years when they
Speaker 3: had sort of reconciled many of their differences and very
Speaker 3: close personal friends. My dad actually announced to my sister
Speaker 3: and I that Bill was his best friend, and I
Speaker 3: thought that was lovely that they did have a nice relationship.
Speaker 2: For one Now, your father's parents were immigrants from Ukraine.
Speaker 2: I wonder what they'd be saying about things going on today.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a very difficult situation. I mean, it was
Speaker 3: a difficult situation when they were in Ukraine, which is
Speaker 3: why they laughed. There was a lot of violence against
Speaker 3: people in their village, Jewish people in particularly like my grandparents,
Speaker 3: and they were forced to leave. They didn't want to leave,
Speaker 3: and they ended up They came from a very rural
Speaker 3: area and ended up in downtown Boston. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's not I mean, the country has has had a
Speaker 3: very difficult history. It's a very difficult time now, and
Speaker 3: I think they'd be very sympathetic with their you know,
Speaker 3: with the people in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your father was born in Boston. My mother was
Speaker 2: born not too far from Boston and Fitchburgh and god willing,
Speaker 2: she's still kicking at ninety five.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. Wow.
Speaker 2: What kind of relation did you have with your father,
Speaker 2: Adam growing up?
Speaker 3: Well, George is very complicated. This is something that I
Speaker 3: talk about pretty extensively in this new memoir I just published,
Speaker 3: The Most Human. I kind of dealve very deeply into
Speaker 3: my history with my dad, beginning when I was with
Speaker 3: when I was a kid. I had a very complicated
Speaker 3: relationship with him because, you know, my dad was born
Speaker 3: during the Depression in Boston to these immigrant parents, and
Speaker 3: he had a very different upbringing than I did. He
Speaker 3: was very much it was very difficult for them. It
Speaker 3: was very challenging. My dad was hustling to earn money
Speaker 3: at a very young age. He was selling newspapers on
Speaker 3: the Boston Common when he was ten years old during
Speaker 3: World War Two, and then he came to California with nothing.
Speaker 3: His parents didn't support his desire to become an actor,
Speaker 3: and he had a hustle when he was in LA
Speaker 3: and then by you know, nineteen fifty six when I
Speaker 3: came along, he had a family afford to support, so
Speaker 3: we had It was very difficult with him to begin
Speaker 3: with because my dad didn't have much of a childhood.
Speaker 3: He had to grow up pretty fast, and my childhood
Speaker 3: with him was was very awkward, I would say, kind
Speaker 3: of distant. Although my dad tried to do father's son
Speaker 3: outings with me, I never really felt an emotional connection
Speaker 3: to him.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't it his grandfather that kind of pushed
Speaker 2: him into the acting field.
Speaker 3: Now, his grandfather supported that idea. Yeah, yeah, my grandfather
Speaker 3: told him that he should she he should learn how
Speaker 3: to play the accordion. Yes, his parents did not approve
Speaker 3: of him wanting to wander off and pursue an acting career.
Speaker 3: To them, that was like saying, you want to join
Speaker 3: the circus. They were very much, you know, dedicated to
Speaker 3: the American dream of you have kids in America and
Speaker 3: they go to college and they become professionals, which my
Speaker 3: dad's older brother, my uncle Mel did do he went
Speaker 3: to myt But my dad's grandm father was much more adventurous,
Speaker 3: so much so that he's the one who initially left
Speaker 3: Ukraine and came to Boston. Was the first one to
Speaker 3: come to Boston, and he spook my dad a few
Speaker 3: extra bucks to help him on his journey out west.
Speaker 2: And your dad, God love him, served on the military
Speaker 2: back in the early fifties, didn't he.
Speaker 3: He was in the Army Reserve. That's correct. He was
Speaker 3: stationed in Atlanta, where my sister was born. And I
Speaker 3: think you know, you remember the exact date he was discharged.
Speaker 3: Somebody asked of that. I wish I could remember. I know,
Speaker 3: it was like December nineteen fifty five. I mean, he
Speaker 3: just rolled off his tongue. You know, it was very
Speaker 3: much vivid on his mind, that memory.
Speaker 2: He did a lot of programs and a lot of
Speaker 2: different shows. His acting career was pretty extensive beyond Star Trek.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, I mean, he was a number of shows.
Speaker 3: This is why he was really ready for Star Trek.
Speaker 3: He was in dozens of big parts and different TV shows,
Speaker 3: many of them playing Native Americans and in westerns, in
Speaker 3: gun Smoke and in Rawhide and Wagon Train and at
Speaker 3: Tombstone Territory. He was in Get Smart. He was, you know,
Speaker 3: just the outer limits. It's just endless, the stuff that
Speaker 3: he was appearing on. And I'd be watching this stuff
Speaker 3: as a kid. I'd be watching TV and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, my dad would appear. Was because we never
Speaker 3: knew when he was going to be on, and it
Speaker 3: was very it was kind of jarring, but it always
Speaker 3: filled me with a sense of pride.
Speaker 2: He was also in Mission Impossible, and I didn't know
Speaker 2: that at that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he rolled right into Mission after Star Trek Rap
Speaker 3: because Marty Landau had decided to leave the show and
Speaker 3: they were looking for someone to replace him, and it
Speaker 3: was a great opportunity for him. It was also shot
Speaker 3: at Desilu. They shot Mission in the two sound stages
Speaker 3: right next door to where they shot Star Trek. I
Speaker 3: believe both series began in nineteen sixty six under Desilu Studios,
Speaker 3: So it was a great opportunity for him. He was
Speaker 3: with Mission for two years.
Speaker 2: Did he like the Splock part?
Speaker 3: Well, I think he loved the Spock part. Unfortunately. He
Speaker 3: published an autobiography in the mid seventies entitled I Am
Speaker 3: Not Spot, which kind of gave the wrong message and
Speaker 3: upset quite a number of hands. Yeah, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean know, my dad loves Spock. I mean he
Speaker 3: was very invested in Spots. Block was very much a
Speaker 3: part of my dad, very much liked my dad. Spot
Speaker 3: created a lot of opportunities for my father. You know,
Speaker 3: he really, you know, invested a lot of himself in
Speaker 3: that character and in building that character. And character you know,
Speaker 3: came along right at the right time for my dad.
Speaker 3: He was at the top of his game. He had
Speaker 3: enough experience in TV to know what he was doing.
Speaker 3: He got some excellent direction, a number of great directors
Speaker 3: on the original series who helped him out, help and
Speaker 3: develop the character. Yes, Letard love Spock, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Did he ever talk about the ears?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, the years, yeah, we you know. The story
Speaker 3: is at the analog of trouble developing the ears. Initially,
Speaker 3: this was Jeane Rodenberry's idea, and they were having trouble
Speaker 3: kind of molding them and fitting them on his ears
Speaker 3: and making them look real. And my dad even went
Speaker 3: to Gene and suggested the possibility of losing the idea
Speaker 3: of these ears, and Gene was insistent, which is interesting
Speaker 3: from my dad. It was a really interesting lesson that
Speaker 3: Jean had a vision for the character and he did
Speaker 3: not let go of it. He didn't want to compromise it.
Speaker 3: He really felt strongly about that. And then, you know, eventually,
Speaker 3: with the help of Freddie Phillips, who was the makeup artist,
Speaker 3: they found somebody who could really create the prosthetic ear.
Speaker 3: And then when we were making my dad and I
Speaker 3: were working on the documentary of Spots together, he looked
Speaker 3: up spots ears, you know, he google searched it and
Speaker 3: I came up with, I don't know, a couple of
Speaker 3: hundred thousand entries and articles and references, which which really
Speaker 3: tickled him. He was very proud of that.
Speaker 2: Your father was one of the reasons I ended up
Speaker 2: in broadcasting because I loved his show In Search Of
Speaker 2: It was one of those captivating programs that dealt with everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, In Search Of was a terrific show. It came
Speaker 3: at a really great time in the seventies when Mission
Speaker 3: was over, Star Trek was over, and it was a
Speaker 3: real bread and butter of situation for Dad while he
Speaker 3: continues to pursue theater work. So it was a great
Speaker 3: job for him to have there were a lot of
Speaker 3: great interesting episodes, and I must say, you know, Georgia,
Speaker 3: there were also a number of what I like to
Speaker 3: call placebo episodes that were sort of, you know, hard
Speaker 3: to really figure out what it was about. It was
Speaker 3: just kind of filler episodes. But it was a fun show.
Speaker 3: It was an interesting show, and I think it was
Speaker 3: really kind of sparked my dad's imagination.
Speaker 2: Was it your father's career, Adam, that got you into
Speaker 2: the film business in Hollywood?
Speaker 3: Well? Yeah, I mean no, initially, no, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: I wanted to create my own path, which is why
Speaker 3: I went into law school. I wanted to do something
Speaker 3: that Leonard couldn't do, because Leonard could do anything. I
Speaker 3: was trying to create my own identity, you know, to
Speaker 3: begin with. I mean, a lot of the times we
Speaker 3: grow up wanting to be anything but our father figure,
Speaker 3: you know, and we push against it, and you know,
Speaker 3: we tried to strive to go in a different direction,
Speaker 3: and then in the end, I just wanted to end
Speaker 3: up being like my dad, because the fact of the
Speaker 3: matter was that although I loved going to law school
Speaker 3: and I'm glad I got a lot of agree in
Speaker 3: practice for seven year years it was just not a
Speaker 3: very interesting profession. I want to do something more creative.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a storyteller, just like my dad,
Speaker 3: And in that respect, yes, I was inspired by him
Speaker 3: to pursue a career in the entertainment business.
Speaker 2: Your father passed away, of course, in twenty fifteen, at
Speaker 2: the age of eighty three, and the subtitle of your book,
Speaker 2: The Most Human is Reconciling with my father, Leonard Deimoy.
Speaker 2: What was that reconciliation all about?
Speaker 3: Well, it was all about many years of dysfunctional interaction
Speaker 3: between the two of us. The awkwardness that I experienced
Speaker 3: as a young boy kind of blossomed him to a
Speaker 3: lot of conflict with my dad when I got into
Speaker 3: my teen years, conflict that periodically would flare up between us,
Speaker 3: which we were never able to really figure out how
Speaker 3: to deal with. We didn't have the tools, and all this,
Speaker 3: as I discussed in my book, all this was exacerbated
Speaker 3: by my addiction in marijuana and my dad's admitted alcohol problem.
Speaker 3: He was an alcoholic, and so I had a very
Speaker 3: strange relationship with my dad, George, and that I was
Speaker 3: so proud of him, and I had so many quick
Speaker 3: experiences with him throughout the years, I mean wonderful opportunities
Speaker 3: as a result of his many successes, but periodically and
Speaker 3: regularly if we disagreed about something, that could really flare
Speaker 3: up and become a lot of just a lot of
Speaker 3: unpleasant conflict with him. And so we got to a point,
Speaker 3: a real low point relationship where we were very distant
Speaker 3: from each other, almost as strange, and it just got
Speaker 3: to a point where we needed to figure a way out.
Speaker 3: And it was recovery that really did it. We were
Speaker 3: both in recovery, twelve step recovery, and we finally found
Speaker 3: tools that we could use to try to figure out
Speaker 3: how to be loving and accepting of one another and
Speaker 3: move on with our lives. And the last years of
Speaker 3: our lives we were very close together.
Speaker 2: Well, that's fantastic. He died of what COPD?
Speaker 3: He died OFD I was diagnosed. I can't even remember.
Speaker 3: It was probably not that long before he passed away.
Speaker 3: And I was just very lucky that those last seven
Speaker 3: years he was struggling quite a bit. But those last
Speaker 3: years of his life were years that you and I
Speaker 3: were at a very close relationship someone so that we
Speaker 3: were thinking of that we went to Boston and made
Speaker 3: a documentary about his life there, and that we were
Speaker 3: working on this documentary about Spot in anticipation of fifty
Speaker 3: years of Star Trek before he just when he passed away.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was thirty years of cigarette smoking. I mean,
Speaker 3: he was lucky didn't have cancer, but the COPD kind
Speaker 3: of constructive pulmonary disease finally caught up with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had really did. And towards the end of
Speaker 2: his life, did you see a change with him, Adam?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the end of his life, he changed quite a bit.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, this is the other problem we
Speaker 3: were having was that when I was growing up, family
Speaker 3: life was not really a priority for my daddy. He
Speaker 3: admitted this, This whole priority was survival because he was
Speaker 3: supporting his family and succeeding, you know, and pursuing his
Speaker 3: career while my mother, you know, really held down the
Speaker 3: ford at home. So and later on in his life
Speaker 3: things really had changed to the point where he said
Speaker 3: in an interview his priority did become family, which I
Speaker 3: was very grateful for.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. At what point did he decide to retire.
Speaker 2: I mean he passed away in twenty fifteen, but did
Speaker 2: he stop years before that, not really.
Speaker 3: I mean he never he never retired, He just started
Speaker 3: to slow down a little bit. I think the pivotal
Speaker 3: moment for me was when he was given the offer
Speaker 3: to be involved with another Star Trek feature being directed
Speaker 3: by JJ Abrams in the first two installments that JJ directed,
Speaker 3: and they wanted to bring him back again, and that
Speaker 3: job he had to turn down, which shocked me because
Speaker 3: you know, he was so proud of being in the
Speaker 3: original pilot of Star Trek and being in the last
Speaker 3: incarnation through JJ, but then it got to a point
Speaker 3: where he just didn't feel like he could do it.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you, Adam going to school
Speaker 2: and then we all know what kids are like, knowing
Speaker 2: that you were the son of Swak. How did the
Speaker 2: kids in school treat you?
Speaker 3: Well? Initially nobody knew really, I mean when it was
Speaker 3: when the Star Trek first came on, nobody really put
Speaker 3: it together. Uh and uh, and I had I was
Speaker 3: able to maintain my anonymity. But but in one class
Speaker 3: I did tell a kid. I asked him if he
Speaker 3: was watching Star Trek and he said yes. I said, well,
Speaker 3: mister Spock is my dad. And he went he went
Speaker 3: berserk and then told everybody in the class and then
Speaker 3: it was absolute chaos. And after that, I just decided
Speaker 3: to try to keep a low profile. And I never,
Speaker 3: I really, you know, didn't like to advertise that I
Speaker 3: was Leonard's son. But there was one kid in this
Speaker 3: art class I was in. I think his name was
Speaker 3: like Mike Brown. He was he was one of the
Speaker 3: bullies at school. He was a guy that was very
Speaker 3: nervous to be around. But he always called me ears,
Speaker 3: which which got a lap out of everybody in the class.
Speaker 3: And I can appreciate that as well. I mean, you know, look,
Speaker 3: people were we had a lot of celebrities, as you know,
Speaker 3: children at school, and it wasn't that unusual, and people
Speaker 3: I think were very nice to me.
Speaker 2: Is your sister Julie still with us?
Speaker 3: She is?
Speaker 2: Now, that's goood.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: How did how was her growing up relationship with your father?
Speaker 3: Well, she had a little She definitely had a closer relationship.
Speaker 3: I got more of the of the conflict with him.
Speaker 3: She had some issues with him, but they were definitely
Speaker 3: much closer than I was. And I, you know, I
Speaker 3: was very grateful to have Julie. She's only seventeen, months
Speaker 3: older than me, and I keep reminding her of that fact.
Speaker 3: She'll always be older to me. That But I was
Speaker 3: very grateful for Julie because Julie really validated me and
Speaker 3: feeling that a lot of the conflict that were issues
Speaker 3: that my father had and that that it wasn't me
Speaker 3: and I shouldn't worry. And she was, you know, she
Speaker 3: supported me, she was behind me, and I really needed that.
Speaker 3: I really appreciated that from her.
Speaker 2: Is your mother still with us, Adam.
Speaker 3: No, she's not. She passed away in twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: Oh jeez, before Leonard, did she.
Speaker 3: Yes, she was a little older than Leonard. They were
Speaker 3: the same age when they passed. My mother was eighty
Speaker 3: three as well. And yeah, I'm really grateful for her because,
Speaker 3: I mean, you have to understand, George, is she is
Speaker 3: the one who ran the household while my dad was
Speaker 3: gone all the time hustling work. I mean, even when
Speaker 3: he wasn't doing TV shows, he was working on jobs.
Speaker 3: He was rarely around. And then when Star Trek came around,
Speaker 3: he was almost never around. So really grateful to her.
Speaker 3: And the interesting thing about my mom is that even
Speaker 3: though times were very tough with you know, after I
Speaker 3: was born from fifty six to sixty six. Those ten
Speaker 3: years were a real struggle for my parents, but my
Speaker 3: mother never wavered in her support and believed in my
Speaker 3: father's ability and his had shared his dream of pursuing
Speaker 3: an acting career.
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