Live long and prosper, Leonard Nimoy!

On this day, March 26th, 1931, in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts, Leonard Simon Nimoy was born to Max and Doris Nimoy — both Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, now part of present-day Ukraine — and today he turned 83 years young.

Leonard Nimoy is exactly four days younger than his Star Trek co-star, William (“Common People“) Shatner.

Never a Star Trek devotee, I’ve always nevertheless really loved Leonard Nimoy, and I honestly do regard Spock as one of the greatest and most original television characters of all-time.

(Note of interest: Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in October of 1991, was an admirer of the novelist Ayn Rand, and Spock is Roddenberry’s loose interpretation of the Randian ideal.)

Happy Birthday, Leonard Nimoy.

You always struck me as a happy person.