Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ dies at 89
Nichelle Nichols, who played the communications officer on the Starship Enterprise on “Star Trek” and famously participated in what was thought to be the first interracial kiss on television, has died.
Nichols died of heart failure Saturday night at a hospital in Silver City, New Mexico, a friend of the family handling media inquiries for Nichols’ son confirmed Sunday to the Los Angeles Times. She was 89 years old.
Nichols suffered a stroke at her Woodland Hills in 2015 and was struggling with dementia, and had been in a yearslong conservatorship battle with her son, a former manager and a close friend.
Nichols gained fame as the beautiful, composed, immensely competent Lt. Uhura on three “Star Trek” TV seasons and in six “Star Trek” movies. A Black American cast as a master of 23rd century intergalactic technology, she had a role that defied the typical portrayal of Black women as
