Whether it's floating in deep space, resting aboard the International Space Station, or orbiting the sun, "Star Trek" cast members have been buried in some truly "out there" spaces.
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00:00Whether it's floating in deep space, resting aboard the International Space Station, or
00:04orbiting the sun, Star Trek cast members have been buried in some truly out-there spaces.
00:10No character in the Star Trek franchise is as recognized or loved by fans as the half-Vulcan,
00:14half-human Mr. Spock, portrayed by Leonard Nimoy. As detailed in Nimoy's autobiography,
00:19I Am Spock, the actor found his runaway fame difficult early on, writing,
00:23"...I was overwhelmed by all the attention. Overwhelmed, flattered, excited, and terrified."
00:28Seeking to draw a line between himself and the character, Nimoy wrote his first autobiography,
00:33I Am Not Spock, in 1975. The title caused an uproar among Star Trek fans, leading many
00:38to believe he hated the character. Two decades later, Nimoy explained his true feelings about
00:42his complicated relationship with Spock in his follow-up autobiography, I Am Spock. He
00:47wrote,
00:48"...I don't hate the Vulcan. If someone came up to me and said, you can't be Leonard Nimoy
00:51anymore, but you can be anyone else you want, I wouldn't hesitate to beat with my answer.
00:55I'd want to be Spock."
00:57"...Do you mind us still seeing you as Spock?"
00:59"...No, I expect it'll go on for as long as I live."
01:03Nimoy died at the age of 83 in his Bel Air home on February 27, 2015, of chronic obstructive
01:08pulmonary disease. He's buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.
01:14With the health and well-being of the Enterprise crew in his hands, Dr. Leonard Bones McCoy,
01:18played by DeForest Kelly, approached his duties with a fiery emotion that never failed to
01:22draw the irritation of the logical Mr. Spock.
01:25"...Spock, you haven't changed a bit. You're just as warm and sociable as ever."
01:30Prior to Star Trek, DeForest Kelly was best known for portraying villains in Hollywood
01:33westerns. Although Kelly had been typecast in bad guy roles, he was Gene Roddenberry's
01:37first choice to play the Enterprise's crotchety ship's doctor. Nonetheless, Kelly missed out
01:42on appearing in either of Star Trek's two pilots. He at last joined the cast for The
01:46Corbramite Maneuver, the first regular episode to be shot.
01:50On June 11, 1999, Kelly died of stomach cancer at Los Angeles' Motion Picture and Television
01:55Fund Hospital. He was 79. Kelly was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific
02:00Ocean.
02:02Canadian-born actor James Doohan will forever be remembered as the Enterprise's miracle
02:06worker, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott. Affectionately known as Scotty, Mr. Scott saved the Enterprise
02:11crew countless times by pushing his beloved warp engines to breaking point.
02:16I can't change the laws of physics. I've got to have 30 minutes.
02:21A World War II veteran, Doohan landed at Juno Beach during the D-Day invasion, where he
02:26was injured by friendly machine gun fire. Shot six times, Doohan took four bullets to
02:30his right leg and another severed his right middle finger. On July 20, 2005, Doohan died
02:35of pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 85. A portion of Doohan's
02:40cremated remains was launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2012. Another
02:46portion of the actor's cremains was secretly smuggled aboard the International Space Station
02:50and laminated photo cards of Doohan, hidden in the flight data file of entrepreneur and
02:54citizen astronaut Richard Garriott. With the blessing of Doohan's son, Chris, who concocted
02:58the scheme, Garriott sent one card floating into space and concealed another beneath the
03:03floor cladding of the ISS's Columbus module.
03:06Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, was a constant in Star Trek The Original Series,
03:11ailing other space vessels on the bridge of the Enterprise. But her role was far bigger
03:15than that. Her character made history with television's first interracial kiss, and was
03:19such an important trailblazer that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. urged Nichols not to leave
03:23the show. When Nichols walked into the audition, her character didn't even have a name. It
03:27was Nichols who suggested Uhura, derived from the Swahili word for freedom. Nichols would
03:31later go on to work with NASA to recruit women and minorities into spaceflight training.
03:37She died in 2022 at the age of 89, and shortly afterwards, her remains left our planet, too.
03:41Her ashes were sent into deep space to orbit the sun, far from the influence of Earth's
03:46gravity.
03:47Anton Yelchin became part of Star Trek history in 2009 when he took on the role of Starfleet
03:52ensign Pavel Chekhov, the Enterprise's eager Russian-born navigator in J.J. Abrams' alternate
03:57timeline reboot. A versatile actor with an eclectic list of credits, Yelchin appeared
04:01in everything from indie fare like Jim Jarmusch's moody vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive,
04:06to big-budget genre pictures like Terminator Salvation.
04:09Tragically, Yelchin was killed aged 27 on June 19, 2016, from being crushed between
04:15his vehicle and a brick pillar at his Los Angeles home. He is buried at Hollywood Forever
04:20Cemetery, and his grave is marked by a life-size statue in his likeness.
04:25Mexican-born actor Ricardo Montalban also played one of Star Trek's most compelling
04:28villains, Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically engineered tyrant from Earth's past. In the
04:33first season episode, Space Seed, Kirk and company discover Khan and his army of superhumans
04:38in suspended animation aboard a derelict late-20th-century sleeper ship. Once revived, Khan attempts to
04:43take over the Enterprise, but is ultimately exiled to an uninhabited planet.
04:47Montalban returned as Khan in the 1982 feature film Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, in which
04:52Khan hijacks a Federation starship in a bloody attempt to wreak vengeance on his old enemy
04:56James T. Kirk.
04:59Montalban was also well-known for his role as the enigmatic Mr. Rourke on the 1970s ABC
05:04drama Fantasy Island, and for appearing in a series of ads for the Chrysler Cordova.
05:09I request nothing beyond the thickly cushioned luxury of seats available even in soft Corinthian
05:15leather.
05:16On January 14, 2009, 88-year-old Montalban died in his Los Angeles home from natural
05:21causes. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
05:27Acclaimed stage actor Mark Leonard is probably most recognizable for his role as Spock's
05:31Vulcan father, Sarek.
05:32You embarrassed Spock this evening. Not even a mother may do that. He is a Vulcan.
05:39He also played a Romulan in the season one episode Balance of Terror. In addition to
05:42his work on Star Trek, Leonard appeared in Shakespeare plays, performed on Broadway,
05:47and was in famous films like Annie Hall.
05:49Leonard died in 1996 of a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma. He was 72 years old.
05:55Leonard's remains can be found at Hebrew Cemetery in South Haven, Michigan.
05:59Decades after his first appearance, Harcourt Fenton Harry Mudd remains one of Star Trek's
06:03most popular characters. A 23rd century grifter, conman, smuggler, and all-around scoundrel,
06:09Mudd was portrayed by character actor Roger C. Carmel in the season one episode Mudd's
06:13Women. Although that episode ended with his arrest, the Enterprise crew had not seen the
06:16last of Harry Mudd.
06:18The cosmic rapscallion returned the next year as the ruler of a planet of androids in I,
06:23Mudd.
06:24And I do the telling on this planet, Kergel boy. You do the listening.
06:28Aside from Harry Mudd, Carmel's greatest claim to fame was a role on the 1967 NBC sitcom
06:33The Mother's-in-Law. Carmel continued to appear as a guest star on several comedies throughout
06:38the 70s and 80s, but by the end of his life, he was relegated to commercial work as a pitchman
06:42for Noggle's Restaurants.
06:44Carmel died in November 1986, aged just 54, at his West Hollywood condominium. The cause
06:49of death was reported as hypertropic cardiomyopathy. Carmel is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery
06:55in Glendale, New York.
06:57Grace Lee Whitney may have appeared in just eight episodes of Star Trek's first season,
07:01but as yeoman Janice Rand, she figured prominently into some of the show's most memorable stories.
07:06But her early exit from Star Trek is one of the most notorious controversies in the series'
07:10history. Whitney, under pressure to maintain her figure and embroiled in tumultuous relationships,
07:15turned to alcohol and diet pills. Ultimately, her struggles with substance abuse resulted
07:19in her dismissal from the series. Her character was written out of the show because her presence
07:23precluded Kirk from pursuing other romantic interests.
07:26In her memoir, The Longest Trek, Whitney describes the sexual assault she suffered at the hands
07:30of an unnamed executive as being the catalyst for her exit from Star Trek during her addiction
07:34issues. She wrote,
07:36"...I tried to do what he wanted me to do so I could get it over with. I knew deep down
07:40inside that I was finished on Star Trek. At that moment, however, I didn't care about
07:44that. The only thing that mattered was getting out of that room alive."
07:47Whitney eventually overcame her demons to become a popular figure at Star Trek conventions
07:51in the 80s. She also returned for four Star Trek films and appeared as Rand in a 1996
07:56episode of Star Trek Voyager. Whitney died of natural causes, aged 85, at her home in
08:01Corsegold, California, on May 1, 2015. She was cremated, and her ashes are in the possession
08:06of her family.
08:08William Campbell made his Star Trek debut in the episode The Squire of Gothis, playing
08:12Trelane, a powerful alien in the guise of an 18th-century English dandy. He returned
08:16in the fan-favorite second-season episode The Trouble with Tribbles as Klingon Commander
08:20Koloth. Campbell reprised the role in the 1994 Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode Blood
08:25Oath. Campbell's other acting credits included Elvis Presley's 1956 film debut Love Me Tender,
08:31Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13, and 1964's Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Campbell died
08:36of natural causes on April 28, 2011, at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in
08:41California. He was 87 years old. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
08:48Jeffrey Hunter portrayed Christopher Pike, captain of the USS Enterprise and James T.
08:52Kirk's predecessor in Star Trek's first pilot, The Cage. Much of the footage from The Cage
08:56was incorporated into the two-part episode The Menagerie, which elaborated on Spock's
09:00relationship with his former commanding officer and the tragic fate that befell him.
09:04Hunter appeared in a number of popular films throughout the 1950s and 60s, including the
09:08classic Howard Hawks western The Searchers. On May 26, 1969, Hunter, age 42, was found
09:15unconscious after an apparent fall in his home. He died the following day. His autopsy
09:19revealed that the actor had suffered a stroke. He is buried at Glenhaven Memorial Park in
09:24Sylmar, California.
09:26In 1977, Paramount announced plans to launch a new network and revive Star Trek. Sets were
09:31built, costumes were designed, and much of the original cast was slated to return. New
09:36characters would also join the crew, and among them was Eilea, a bald, beautiful, and
09:40highly intelligent alien portrayed by former Miss India versus Kombata. Unfortunately,
09:45the network never materialized, and many of the resources for the show were poured into
09:49making the first Star Trek film.
09:51Much of the plot for 1979's Star Trek The Motion Picture would hinge on Kombata, whose
09:55character is abducted from the Enterprise by the machine entity V'ger. After Star Trek
10:00The Motion Picture, Kombata appeared in the 1981 Sylvester Stallone action film Nighthawks
10:05and a number of B-movies. Kombata died of a heart attack in Mumbai, India, on August
10:0918, 1998, at just 49. She was cremated, and her ashes scattered.
10:15Actor Michael Ansara played Commander Kang in the third-season episode, Day of the Dove,
10:20which found the Enterprise crew locked in a battle of swords against the Klingons. Ansara
10:24would return as a much older Kang on both Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager.
10:29Syrian-born Ansara was frequently cast in Native American roles during the 50s and 60s.
10:34In the 90s, Ansara lent his distinctive voice to the villain Mr. Freeze on Batman the Animated
10:38Series. The 91-year-old actor died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on July 31, 2013, at
10:45his home in Calabasas, California. He's buried at L.A.'s Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
10:50Christopher Plummer is best remembered for playing Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
10:55But in 1991, the acclaimed actor took on the role of the eyepatch-wearing Klingon General
10:59Chang in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country.
11:02I played this, I think, the only Klingon that didn't have a hairpiece.
11:07A longtime fan of the Star Trek universe, Plummer had been watching the series since
11:10its debut, and even called himself a Trekkie. Plummer died on February 5, 2021, at the age
11:15of 91, after a decades-long career on stage, in film, and on television. His cremated remains
11:21were entrusted to the care of his loved ones.
11:24Nobody was closer to Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry and his legacy than his wife,
11:28Majel Barrett. In 1964, Roddenberry cast Barrett as Number One, the calmly authoritative
11:33First Officer of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek's first pilot, The Cage. In addition
11:38to her role in the pilot, Barrett portrayed Nurse Christine Chappell in the original series
11:42in the animated Star Trek series, and later appeared in two Star Trek films.
11:46Fans of Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine will also remember
11:50Barrett as Lwaxana Troi, the meddling, outspoken mother of the Enterprise's counselor Deanna
11:55Barrett died of leukemia on December 18, 2008, at the age of 76. Her ashes and a portion
12:01of her husband's cremains were launched into deep space by Celestis Memorial Spaceflights
12:05in January 2024.