“Star Trek” icon Nichelle Nichols passed away at a rental property in Silver City, N.M., on Sunday, July 31. She was 89.
Her death was announced Sunday in a statement by Gilbert Bell, her talent manager and business partner of 15 years.
Nichols is best known for her role as communications officer Uhura on the Starship Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” TV series.
Nichols’ final years were filled with misery. She fought publicly with her son, Kyle Johnson, for selling her home and refusing to allow friends to visit her.
Nichols and Johnson are pictured above at the 18th annual Official Star Trek Convention at the Rio Hotel & Casino on July 31, 2019 in Las Vegas.
Nichols’s longtime friend, Angelique Fawcette, and Nichols’ manager, Bell, criticized Johnson for what they claimed was mismanagement of his mother’s conservatorship.
Nichols suffered from dementia, and Johnson was appointed conservator of his mother and her estate in 2019.
Johnson told The Los Angeles Times in an email that the proceeds from the sale of her home were added to his mother’s conservatorship account, and that she lived with him at a “modest” rental property in New Mexico.
“We have moved here, and we’re going to remain here,” he said, explaining their rental home is “a little more modest than being in Los Angeles, but meeting our needs.”
“This is a very special woman,” Bell said of his longtime friend. Fawcette added, “I will always keep my promise to fight for Nichelle.”
