Nichelle Nichols, the Star Trek legend who played Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series, has died at the age of 89.
Nichols son, Kyle Johnson, shared the news on his mother’s official Instagram account, saying that he regrets to inform us that “a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years.”
“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away,” Kyle Johnson wrote. “Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Her’s was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.
“I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected.”
Nichols was born in Robbins, Illinois in 1932 and was one of six children. She would grow up in Chicago and would make her first big appearance as an actor in the musical Kicks and Co. in 1961. She would act in other roles following that one, including as a guest star in Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s first series The Lieutenant, but Star Trek was where she made her historic mark.
Her legendary run as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series can’t be justly put into words. She was one of the first black women to be featured in a major television series and would pave the way for so many others that followed her.
However, Nichols almost left Star Trek after only a year on the series, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a huge fan of Star Trek, changed her mind and said she “could not give up” because she was making such a difference for black children and young women around the world.
Nichols is also part of what is cited as the first interracial kiss on scripted U.S. television when she kissed William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk on the Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.”
Following the cancellation of Star Trek: The Original Series in 1969, Nichols would continue on as Uhura in Star Trek: The Animated Series and six Star Trek films.
After Nichols stopped playing her, the role of Nyota Uhura lived on with Zoe Saldana playing her in the Kelvin timeline films and Celia Rose Gooding becoming a younger version of her in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Besides Star Trek, Nichols recieved her first Daytime Emmy nomination for her work on The Young and the Restless and also appeared in an episode of Futurama, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, Snow Dogs, Heroes, The Blacks, and more.
She also worked closely with NASA to help recruit minorities and females to the agency.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.