FANS and stars have paid tribute to the actor Leonard Nimoy who has died aged 83.

Best known for playing Mr Spock in Star Trek, Nimoy was an accomplished director and a (slightly less accomplished) singer.

Although the original series of Star Trek only ran for three seasons, fans kept the memory of Gene Roddenberry's show alive after it ended in 1969.

In 1973 Nimoy and William Shatner were tempted back to play their roles of Spock and Captain Kirk for an animated series and Roddenberry set about reviving the live-action show.

Television executives could not bring themselves to commission an expensive science fiction series so the plans for Star Trek Phase 2 were put on hold.

This would prove fortunate as Nimoy had refused to commit to the revival.

However, when the smash success of Star Wars proved there was box office gold in sci-fi, Paramount gave the go-ahead for a big budget Star Trek feature.

Again Nimoy prevaricated, so the producers cast two women - a female vulcan and a bald former beauty queen, Persis Khambatta - to replace the Spock character.

When Nimoy changed his mind - after a personal petition from producer Jeffrey Katzenberg - the script of Star Trek: the Motion Picture was re-written to accommodate Spock.

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Although the first Star Trek movie is generally regarded as a flop it was popular enough for a lower budget sequel, The Wrath of Khan, a couple of years later.

Wrath of Khan controversially killed the Spock character and, when Paramount commissioned a third feature, some way had to be found to bring the Vulcan back.

Nimoy - by now reconciled to the fact that he would forever be associated with the character - returned for all subsequent Star Trek adventures with the original cast. He also tried his hand at directing.

He was the only member of the original cast to return when JJ Abrams resurrected the franchise in 2009.

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Nimoy began his acting career in his early twenties, teaching drama in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s.

He also appeared as a Martian in the 1952 movie serial Zombies of the Stratosphere.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy said he died of  chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles this morning. He was 83.

Nimoy's final tweet, a couple of days ago, was: "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP."

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