William Shatner Reveals Leonard Nimoy Wasn’t Speaking To Him Before He Died

William Shatner‘s friendship with Leonard Nimoy more or less ended five years before the Nimoy’s passing.

William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy Weren’t Talking

Shatner and Nimoy, Star Trek costars and longtime friends, had fallen out in 2010. At the time, Nimoy was upset at Shatner for filming him without his permission for a documentary, and stopped speaking with him.

“I thought he was kidding,” Shatner wrote in his new book, Leonard, about Nimoy’s anger in regard to the footage for the captains of the Starship Enterprise doc. “It was such a small thing.”

Nimoy and Shatner’s relationship had started off contentious, as there was an atmosphere of competition in the early days of Star Trek. As their successes grew, however, so did their friendship, which saw them through both professional and personal battles.

“We had some disagreements to begin with and in the end, but in between, it was a brotherhood. I loved him,” Shatner said on the Today show.

In his book, Shatner revealed that it was Nimoy who offered him support after his wife’s tragic death in 1999. Nimoy was also, according to Shatner, the first real friend he made in Hollywood, where people tend to become intensely close on projects, but drift away after they end.

“Actors’ friendships are like that. They tend to be deep and temporary. Every series, every movie or play I’ve done, they were all my good friends, and I never saw them again,” Shatner writes in his book. “Honestly until Leonard and I developed our relationship … I never had a real friend; I didn’t even know what a friend was.”

Shatner’s Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man will be released on Feb. 16.