Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner
William Shatner missed Leonard Nimoy’s funeral on Sunday due to a prior commitment, instead hosting a makeshift memorial for his friend and co-star on Twitter.
Shatner announced on Saturday that he would be missing Nimoy’s funeral. The news came as a shock to fans, after all, Shatner and Nimoy reached fame together as Captain Kirk and Spock on the original Star Trek series, and have remained close ever since. Nimoy died on Friday at the age of 83, and on Saturday night, Shatner was set to attend the International Red Cross Ball in Florida, where he was being honored. Shatner announced to fans that he planned on keeping his charitable commitment, and was unable to find a flight that could get him back to California in time for Nimoy’s funeral.
“I feel really awful. Here I am doing charity work and one of my dearest friends is being buried,” Shatner wrote.
Shatner also revealed that his daughters, Melanie and Lisabeth would be attending Nimoy’s funeral in his stead. Shatner later tweeted that Nimoy was “an amazing uncle to my daughters.”
Fans and media outlets, suspicious of his claims that he could not find a flight to get him to California in time for Nimoy’s funeral service, questioned Shatner’s excuse. Shatner to defend himself online, saying, “I chose to honor a commitment I made months ago to appear at a charitable fundraiser. A lot of money was raised. So here I am; tell me off.”
Due to his inability to make it to the funeral, Shatner held a sort of online memorial for Nimoy on Twitter with a live-chat with fans on Sunday. He answered questions about Nimoy and spoke about their relationship, using the hashtag ‘#LeonardNimoy.’
During the Fan Q&A, Shatner revealed that Nimoy took his role as Spock very seriously, and Shatner enjoyed trying to get him to break character on set. “He took the role of Spock very seriously and I would try and get him to crack a smile while in his persona. It was hard to do,” Shatner wrote.
Shatner is still fighting with media figures that questioned his excuse for not attending Nimoy’s funeral, most notably with the New York Daily News and WOR 710’s Todd Schnitt, who sparked a Twitter war with Shatner when he questioned Shatner’s inability to commandeer a private jet to take him to Nimoy’s funeral after the Red Cross Ball.
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