Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy Was Part Of General Hospital's Very First Season
"General Hospital" has seen many actors come and go during the past 63 years, but one would boldly go where no man had gone before. In the show's very first season, Leonard Nimoy appeared in a brief, uncredited role as a drug pusher named Bernie Smith. He appeared on ABC's daytime soap opera less than five years before playing Mr. Spock on the original "Star Trek."
In the 17th episode, Smith shows up at the house of Peggy Mercer (K.T. Stevens) with drugs for Roy Lansing (Robert Clarke), a struggling writer. Mercer and Lansing were dating, and Smith's attempted delivery made her realize she was with an addict.
Like many characters Nimoy has played, Smith was a contrast to the familiar Vulcan he portrayed on Gene Roddenberry's science fiction series. A pill-pushing criminal in Port Charles, New York was vastly different from a science officer on the USS Enterprise.
If it weren't for a stack of old paystubs, Nimoy's role may have been forgotten
Bernie Smith would never be seen or mentioned on the show again, and it's unknown if Nimoy ever publicly discussed his short time playing him. Any knowledge of his brief appearance may have been lost if not for author Gary Warner and a California warehouse. It was there that Warner was conducting research for his 1995 publication "General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook." While digging through some old paystubs, he found one with the actor's name on it.
"I looked at [the payroll] and said, 'Leonard Nimoy? Leonard Nimoy!' " Warner told the LA Times in 1995. "This is like gold."
For his role, Nimoy was reportedly paid $145.Warner would later view the episode from an archive at UCLA, but the audio for the episode was on a separate reel that was apparently lost.