The day I met Mr. Spock

Leonard Nimoy was a charming fellow whose ears looked perfectly normal when I interviewed him along with another reporter when he was on location in Great Falls 21 years ago.

He graciously answered questions about his legendary role as an alien with pointy ears on the "Star Trek" television episodes and films, and he expressed strong optimism about a new comedy film he would direct in Montana.

Nimoy died Friday in Southern California; sadly, he succumbed to a lung disease he attributed to years of smoking. Nimoy quit tobacco about a decade before he came to Great Falls in 1993.

Nimoy was a talented actor who gained fame on the television series "Star Trek" in the late 1960s, portraying a normally robotic, passionless alien from the planet Vulcan who served as science officer on the USS Enterprise. He later played in more than a half-dozen "Star Trek" films on the big screen, and made several guest appearances on various "Star Trek" TV spinoff series.

By the time I interviewed him in the summer of 1993, along with our entertainment reporter at the time, Jo-Ann Swanson, Nimoy had tried film directing, and he was a darling of Hollywood for directing the 1987 comedy hit "Three Men and a Baby."

So Nimoy was hoping for another big comedy hit to be filmed in the Great Falls area, called "Holy Matrimony."

It had several indications of potential success — Nimoy's 1987 hit and a knack for directing comedy; and a strong group of actors including Patricia Arquette, a talented blond actress who recently won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 2014 film "Boyhood"; and dark-haired, skilled actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has twice been nominated for Golden Globe awards. Gordon-Levitt was a boy at the time, but he delivered the movie's best performance.

Unfortunately, a poor script didn't help, and the film about Montana Hutterites was a flop. It didn't receive wide release and was simply released to video, an unfortunate finish to the project.

It's not clear what went wrong with "Holy Matrimony," although Nimoy was animated and forceful when Swanson suggested to him the movie might not be a hit.

"I think it's going to be big box-office," Nimoy predicted.

That wasn't to be, but Nimoy was gracious, smiled a lot and didn't mind talking about his "Star Trek" days.

His popular character of Spock supposedly was killed off in a 1982 film, "Star Trek II," and Nimoy figured that was it for the Vulcan with points on his ears and sharply angled eyebrows.

"I really thought that was over," Nimoy told me. But, as Hollywood is wont to do, Spock came back to life in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." He starred with actor William Shatner (Capt. James T. Kirk) and other members of the crew in six films in all featuring the original cast of the TV series.

Nimoy got into his new role by directing "Star Trek III," adding he was shocked when he sat down with film editors for what is called a "first assembly" of a film.

"I really wasn't prepared for that," Nimoy told me. "I sat down for about two hours of total despair. I thought, 'Oh, God, what have I done?'"

He seemed to be grateful for his famous ride on the star ship Enterprise for all those years, although he offered mixed feelings about the space adventure over the decades.

"This thing took on a life of its own," Nimoy said. "There are some things that we really didn't have control over. I'm amazed by it all."

At the end of the interview, Swanson said "what the heck" and asked Nimoy for his autograph.

"Well, if she's going to ask for it, I will, too," I said.

It wasn't very professional, but I do have Nimoy's autograph.

Meeting Nimoy was fun, and the fact he was a good guy added to the good cheer.

I got to interview one of my heroes, and he wasn't a big jerk.

Joel Corda, choir director and guitar instructor at C.M. Russell High School, underscored that same impression of Nimoy. Then 20, Corda played in a band called City Limits during the summer of 1993, and the group drew a crowd of more than 200 young people, who paid $2 or $3 each to get into the former West Side Community Hall on Great Falls' West Side.

The group was playing as Nimoy wandered in. He must have noticed the crowd and stopped to check it out, Corda said.

"There was this moment — that is Spock!" Corda remembers thinking from the stage. Nimoy stood in the back and listened for a while.

"He left us a $20 tip," plus a nice note for the band in an envelope, Corda related. "It just really struck me as the kind of humanitarian (he was). It was a sweet thing to do. I'm pretty sure he's heard better music in his life."

Sabra Gebhardt of Great Falls had an unusual encounter with Nimoy on July 4, 1993, after an Independence Day parade. She had eaten lunch downtown with a baby in tow. Driving home, she was frustrated barriers were still erected downtown long after the parade had finished.

Gebhardt hollered at a man with sunglasses, demanding to get through. The man took off his dark glasses, and she immediately recognized him as Nimoy, whose film was shooting scenes downtown.

"He was very nice to me and I wasn't very nice to him," she said. "It was hot."

True to form, Nimoy was polite, even after the recent mother yelled at him.

Too bad Nimoy didn't live even longer than age 83, but we all prospered having Nimoy on this earth.

Richard Ecke writes a weekly column on city life. Reach him at 406-791-1465, or email him at recke@greatfallstribune.com