Leonard Nimoy Appeared On A Hit Historical Drama The Same Year Star Trek Premiered

For Leonard Nimoy, 1966 was a big year. Obviously, he made his debut as Spock in "Star Trek" when the sci-fi series premiered on NBC that September – but Nimoy had also been busy earlier in the year, kicking it off with a guest appearance on the historical adventure show "Daniel Boone."

A highly fictionalized telling of the titular pioneer and frontiersman's life and times, "Daniel Boone" premiered on NBC in September 1964. Fess Parker played Boone, and episodes followed him as he travelled across America, often accompanied by his wife Rebecca (Patricia Blair), son Israel (Darby Hinton), and, in the first two seasons, his daughter Jemima (Veronica Cartwright).

In his pre-"Trek" days, Nimoy was already a prolific television actor, with credits in Westerns like "Wagon Train" and "Broken Arrow," as well as other shows such as "The Twilight Zone." In the "Daniel Boone" episode "Seminole Territory," he played Oontah, the son of the Seminole chief. When a traveling magician (Channing Pollock) uses his illusions to trick the Seminoles into doing his bidding, it's up to Boone and his half-Cherokee buddy Mingo (Ed Ames) to restore peace to Florida.

"Daniel Boone" wasn't Leonard Nimoy's first time playing an Native American character — far from it. One of his early roles was Chief Black Hawk in the 1953 film "Old Overland Trail." "That role came along at a time when I was really trying to break in," Nimoy said in a 1995 newspaper interview (via Cowboys & Indians). He made plenty of small-screen appearances playing a Native after that, including on Westerns like "Tombstone Territory," "Tate," "Rawhide," and "Death Valley Days." Nimoy was also one of many future "Star Trek" actors to appear in the Western "Bonanza," though he wasn't playing a Native character that time around.

In April 1966, after his "Daniel Boone" episode but before "Star Trek" premiered, Nimoy appeared in an episode of the long-running Western "Gunsmoke." In an interview with PBS, he recalled shooting the episode, "Treasure of John Walking Fox," after he'd already learned that "Star Trek" was to be picked up for a full series — meaning he was, in his words, "really feeling good."

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal many years later, Nimoy drew a connection between his "time playing Indians" on Westerns and his "Star Trek" role. "Naturally, when I got into science fiction, I had to play an alien," he said. Unlike Spock, who is one of the most iconic characters in science fiction, Nimoy's Western roles have aged pretty poorly. The actor, a Jewish man who was born in Boston, wore redface for several of these performances, part of a racist Hollywood tradition that continued well after Nimoy's era.