The Final Shatner/Nimoy Fued

Like a lot of fans, I'm sure, I think it's sad that Shatner & Nimoy were not on speaking terms in the last year's of Nimoy's life. Their friendship was always such a positive contrast to the often negative way Shatner was viewed by the supporting cast. It's clear the men truly loved each other in earlier years, but something went badly wrong near the end.

For his part, Shatner has repeatedly maintained that he's not fully sure why this falling out occurred, but he has also given a few clues. Supposedly he wanted Nimoy's cooperation in some filmed project (The Captains documentary, maybe?) and Leonard declined. Then Shatner and his cameraman appeared, apparently without Nimoy's consent, and tried to film him anyway?

Does anyone know more? It seems odd that Nimoy would decline the offer in the first place, seeing how many projects of that type he had appeared in over the years, with and without Shatner. It also seems uncharacteristic of Leonard, who frankly often came across as the "bigger man," to hold a grudge to the point where he wouldn't even forgive Bill when he was dying, and Bill reached out.

I guess we'll never know the full story, and I suspect Shatner knows more than he's letting on and he must have done something to really piss Leonard off, but in any event, it's tragic that whatever transpired made Leonard feel the need to give up on decades of friendship.

 

I misspelled feud. Apparently there's no way to alter thread title?

 

Even if we knew the particulars, all we could then do is opine about whether whatever Shatner did deserved his being "froze out" or not. You know what they say about opinions.

 

It is strange that these two guys who had such a long history together could have fallen out in such a bad way that Nimoy wouldn't forgive him! (Is that actually correct?) Has anyone asked Adam Nimoy about what happened?
JB

 

Let's remember that Nimoy was elderly with extreme health problems. When the body starts failing, the brain can suffer detrimental effects, including depression. This is not at all uncommon in elderly people who are in failing health.

Depression (as physical ailment in the brain) can manifest itself as anger and bitterness. The whole thing about Nimoy shunning Shatner could have been nothing more than a symptom of his illnesses. Also, we don't know how many people Nimoy shunned toward the end; maybe Shatner was just the famous one.

Glass half full: we should be happy that Bill has been blessed with the body and mind he has. DeForest Kelley and Jimmy Doohan were not so lucky, either.

 

Maybe the Shat was as fit in real life as he was in Trek's Corbomite Maneuver and various other episodes?
JB

 

I thought it was outrageous that Shatner didn't attend Nimoy's funeral. Now at least I understand that part.

 

Good point, Zap. That hadn't crossed my mind, re. the depression.

 

The fact that'd they'd become so estranged by the end was really sad. I was in Vegas in 2010 and watched the pair on stage. You could see their was a unique andgenuine friendship between them, that had, more or less lasted the decades since they worked together on Star Trek. I doubt we'll truly ever know the real reason behind the feud. To be honest there's a part of me that hopes we never do.

 

Just because they weren't on speaking terms near the end of Nimoy's life doesn't mean that it was a feud, or that Shatner did something that Nimoy considered unforgivable, or that Nimoy's mind was going. It just means that they weren't speaking.

 

Let's all be glad the fued never got so bad that they held a dual.

 

We're talking about theatrical people. If those two ever staged a duel, it would be with prop guns, make-up, and key lights.

 

I hear tell Nimoy's Buick Riviera and Shatner's Corvette both had duel exhaust.

 

Nimoy kept busy even close to the end, like the commercial he did with Quinto. He was also tweeting philosophically right before he died. That doesn't strike me as someone who was bitterly telling people off due to difficulty coping with his mortality. If anything, the reverse.

 

Styrofoam Lirpa....with traditional Star Trek fight music. 300 quatloos to the winner!

 

Or not as the case may be..?
JB

 

You mean duel.

At least you didn't misspell duel. But I'm hoping editing will become available after the 14 day/14 post period is over.

Were Shatner and Nimoy really close? According to Ellison, Shatner was in the habit of doing things like counting lines, and raising holy hell if Nimoy got more lines than he did.

 

Shatner is Shatner. If you want to be his friend you need to accept his egotism. The only thing that's changed in recent years is he's become more aware of how he rubs people the wrong way, but apparently he still does it. I saw an interview with Hank Azaria last night on Colbert where he talked about gushing over meeting The Shat at the Emmy awards and Shatner's only reply was "Hello" and then immediately turned his head away. Classic Shat.

 

That could just as easily be Shatner being shy rather than being an asshole.