Leonard Nimoy’s 5 Best Movie & TV Roles Outside Of Star Trek, Ranked

It’s hard not to love Leonard Nimoy. The gifted actor, writer, director, and photographer was not just the absolute perfect person to bring Spock to life on “Star Trek,” but he was also, by all accounts, a genuinely wonderful human being. Nimoy always brought a sense of kindness and respect to those he met, and feedback from fans would indicate that he was always a genuine soul, right up until the day he passed.

Although fans will likely debate this fact until the sun burns out, Spock is what elevated “Star Trek” beyond “good” into “great,” and his character laid the groundwork for how “Trek” stories should be told in every iteration moving forward. His character was the embodiment of how logic and emotion are at the core of just about every conflict a being could face, making him both an outsider to the humans he worked alongside … yet, given his emotional honesty and social awkwardness, perhaps the most “human” of them all.

But Nimoy was so much more than just Spock, and it’s been long overdue for /Film to pay tribute to his best roles beyond “Star Trek.” Here are his five best roles beyond Spock.

“Star Trek” somewhat pigeonholed Nimoy in the realm of science fiction, but one of his earliest roles following the end of “The Original Series” was on the CBS television show “Mission: Impossible.” Yes, the series that would later inspire the film franchise led by Tom Cruise. Nimoy appeared as “The Great” Paris, a master of disguise, actor, and sometimes magician who was a member of the Impossible Missions Force. The character was introduced in season 4 as a replacement for Martin Landau’s character, Rollin Hand. Nimoy’s presence was an injection of fun and flair, as Paris donned flamboyant, brightly patterned shirts that put him in stark contrast to the serious suits of the rest of the team. There’s a bit of Paris’ DNA in Nimoy’s performance in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” as well.

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” recently paid homage to the character with the introduction of Pom Klementieff’s Paris, a deadly antagonist who ends up fighting Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). She’s bold, deadly, and constantly wearing flashy outfits. The characters are related by name and aesthetics only, however, as this Paris is much more of a baddie than Nimoy’s stylish spy.

When Nimoy first joined the show, “Mission: Impossible” had, up to that point, been a pretty serious series. Paris was fun, funny, and as a master of disguise, constantly transforming into different identities. Nimoy is visibly having a ball of a time playing him, and the role truly showcases his strengths as a character actor.

Leonard Nimoy did a fair bit of voice acting throughout his career, with memorable roles including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in “The Pagemaster,” Sentinel Prime in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” and Kashekim Nedakh in “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.” He had a profound, sonorous voice capable of soothing the audience in emotionally charged moments or threatening with an authoritative bellow. This provided him with a wide range of characters to voice, but Master Xehanort in the “Kingdom Hearts” video game franchise is arguably his greatest. The character serves as the Big Bad of the Dark Seeker saga, appearing directly as the main antagonist of “Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep,” and Rank I of the real Organization XIII in “Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance” and “Kingdom Hearts III.” Nimoy voiced the character until his death, after which he was replaced by a fellow genre legend, Rutger Hauer.

Nimoy was a hero to all as Spock, but Xehanort gave him the space to be ruthless. His commanding timbre made a feast of the dialogue, and I’m sure younger generations immediately ran to look up what a “feckless neophyte” meant the second his character barked it out. There’s an argument to be made that Nimoy’s Xehanort is one of the greatest Disney villains ever crafted, and his performance is undoubtedly central to the character’s effectiveness.

While we’re talking about Nimoy’s voice, it feels shameful not to highlight what a prolific and powerful narrator he was. Despite what many may think, the art of narration is not for everyone — even for many prolific and talented actors. 

Nimoy, however, is no ordinary actor. His voice has guided audiences through IMAX documentary specials like “Titanica,” the premiere documentary “The Harryhausen Chronicles” in honor of special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, all 145 episodes of the mystery show “In Search Of,” 91 episodes of “Ancient Mysteries,” and so much more.

His thoughtful delivery would suck the audience into whatever the subject was at hand, expertly shifting between a sound of genuine curiosity and one of expertise. His work as a narrator is arguably his most underappreciated, and the fact that “In Search Of” is not readily available on streaming is a true shame. In fact, when the show was revived in 2018, Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movies, took over as narrator in a bit of poetic beauty. While Robert Stack and Rod Serling are the two usual go-to’s when thinking of excellent narrators for genre projects, Nimoy is right up there with them.

At the end of 2008, J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci unleashed “Fringe” onto the world: a truly fantastic (and criminally underrated) sci-fi series that combined elements of the procedural drama with parallel worlds, body horror, timeline chaos, and science-gone-awry. Not only are all of the bizarre and unexplainable mysteries of the world real — but the FBI is fully aware of it and has a special task force known as the Fringe Division to keep things in order. As Hoai-Tran Bui wrote for us in an impassioned plea for folks to check it out, “Fringe” is “this weirdo, pulp sci-fi show with occasional bursts of violence and occasional nuggets of wisdom. It’s a procedural that transformed into something weirder, and while it may not necessarily be airtight, it’s still darn good sci-fi TV.”

In his final acting role (outside of appearances as himself, Spock, or in voiceovers) Nimoy appeared in 11 episodes of “Fringe” as Dr. William Bell, scientist and former partner of one of the series leads, Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). Bell was a groundbreaking figure in the field of fringe science, dabbling in alternate realities, advanced technology, telepathic communication, and transportation devices. Bell also used the alias “Dr. Paris,” a nod to his character in the original “Mission: Impossible” series. Bell initially appears as an anti-hero of sorts, but as the show went on, he evolved into a full-blown villain. Bell was a complicated, dastardly, fantastic role for Nimoy, and a perfect way to cap his acting legacy.

Holocaust denialism is a very serious subject, and as of 2024, it’s estimated that there are still roughly 250,000 survivors of the Holocaust still with us. Unfortunately, as more survivors pass on, it gets easier and easier for conspiracy theorists and straight-up antisemitic weirdos to pretend that the Holocaust never happened. Even worse, Holocaust denialism is not a new thing. In the 1980s, a man named Mel Mermelstein made history when he was challenged by the antisemitic hate group called the Institute for Historical Review to “prove” that gas chambers were actually used at Auschwitz. As the sole survivor of his family’s extermination, Mermelstein puts himself, his business, and his family at risk to prove in court what happened at Auschwitz, and won.

In 1991, Nimoy starred as Mermelstein in “Never Forget,” a made-for-TV movie about the case. Much of the film plays out beyond the courtroom drama often attributed to adaptations of this case and, given the limited budget, “Never Forget” often struggles with a lack of production value. But where the film falters, Nimoy more than makes up for it. 

The passion Nimoy has for this story and the real man in question is palpable, and watching him act opposite of Dabney Coleman as Memelstein’s lawyer William John Cox (playing against type, no less) is nothing short of brilliant. Spock was a character who had expert control of his emotions, and that restraint is well on display in “Never Forget,” especially in a scene where Holocaust deniers laugh directly in Mermelstein’s face in the middle of an interview about his experiences at Auschwitz. But “Never Forget” also provides an outlet for Nimoy’s emotions to become justifiably and understandably explosive, serving as his greatest performance outside of “Star Trek.”