Sad news today as the man who for years told us to "live long and prosper" has passed away at the age of 83. Leonard Nimoy, the actor, writer, artist, and poet most famous for playing Spock on Star Trek, died today just days after checking in to the hospital with severe chest pains. It was discovered that Nimoy was in the final stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nimoy had been a smoker throughout a large portion of his life, and recently had begun speaking out about the dangers of smoking. That was par for the course for him, though, as he was always willing to use his celebrity to champion for the causes he believed in.
Recently he had been appearing on the Fox series, Fringe, and reprised his role as Spock in J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek franchise.
