Legendary actor Leonard Nimoy passed away Friday at the age of 83, and while many are quick to remember him as the iconic Mr. Spock from Star Trek, there was once a time when Nimoy very clearly stated, "I am not Spock."
In a throwback video from 1994, Nimoy discussed what he dubbed as his "controversial" memoir I Am Not Spock during an interview with E! News, recalling the backstory behind his book and explaining the young boy who inspired the whole thing.
"In the mid-'70s I wrote a book called I Am Not Spock. It's an interesting thing what happened with that book," he told us. "There was an incident that took place at a San Francisco Airport one day. I was walking to the airport on my way to get a plane, and a lady recognized me, she had a little boy with her—he must have been 6, 7, 8 years old—and she marched him over and stood him right in front of me and said, 'Johnny, look! Look who's standing here. It's your favorite person.'"
Nimoy went on to explain that the young boy kept staring at him but had no recognition, and didn't understand what his mom was referring to.
"So the question was who was right and who was wrong? Was Johnny missing it, or was she wrong? I think she was wrong," he continued. "Spock was not standing there, and Johnny agreed with me, because he's looking for Spock and didn't find him."
Clearly, had the actor been dressed up in full makeup and costume, things may have been different, and he acknowledged that, but the entire interaction sparked something in his mind. "I found that really fascinating," he told E! News at the time, and explained that he decided to write a chapter in his book based on that idea.
He added, "I chose to title the book based on that chapter because I thought it would be intriguing, but it turned out not to be intriguing but controversial...This title seemed to suggest to people that I was not interested in being Spock, that I was rejecting Spock, which was not the case."
Nimoy later followed with a second autobiography titled I Am Spock, and maybe he was, but he was also many other things—an artist, an actor, a dad, a husband, a grandfather and a great grandfather (among other things), who apparently loved to spoil his family.
Watch another flashback video of Nimoy below as we continue to remember the fallen star.