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, N.M., 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 years-long 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 domestics or entertainers.
Nichols came to embrace her role and appeared at "Star Trek" events throughout her life. She became an eloquent advocate for the U.S. space program and led a successful drive to recruit women and minorities into astronaut training.
Elegant, assertive and capable of rigging up a subspace bypass circuit in practically no time at all, Uhura inspired a generation of Black women. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg, on first seeing Nichols when she was about 9, remembered running through the house yelling, "Everybody, come quick, come quick — there's a Black lady on television and she ain't no maid!"
