Nearly thirty years after he famously declared I Am Not Spock in a book with the same title, Leonard Nimoy is happy to concede, "I am the actor who played Spock, so, I guess, in some meaningful sense, I am Spock."

Indeed, he wrote a follow-up in 1995 proclaiming just that.

"I am totally comfortable with [this situation]," Nimoy told MassLive.com while in Springfield for the United Fan Con the weekend before last. "I am not really, I mean, not 'really' Mr. Spock. I am an actor who played that part."

The first book, he said, was a study in how an actor creates a character, but he found that fans were offended by the implication. "I gave the book a very bad title. It was my idea, and it was a bad idea. I thought it would be interesting to people, but it turned out to be a problem."

He wrote I Am Spock in part to clear up that misunderstanding, since it led to a belief that he didn't like Spock and Star Trek. "I come from Boston. My parents come from Russia...I told about the differences between myself and Spock, because people are very curious."

At 74, Nimoy has retired from both acting and directing, expressing his creativity through photography. His art was on display at UFC, which had the highest pre-registration in 15 years.

For more, including Nimoy's recollection of traveling to Russia for the debut there of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, see the original article at MassLive.com.

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