The Convention Fans Blog

Leonard Nimoy, beloved by Star Trek fans of all stripes for his portrayal of Spock in the sci-fi cult favorite, is finally retiring from the fan convention circuit.

Some of you, like my Taller Half, will be saying, “I thought he already had retired.” Which is a reasonable assumption since Nimoy’s appearances have become more select. Understandable given the stress of travel and the exhausting experience fan conventions are for the attendees, let alone the celebrity panelists.

Now, after decades of delighting fans at Star Trek, SFF, comic book, and pop culture conventions Mr. Nimoy is finally stepping back to take a long deserved retirement.

When you think about it, Leonard Nimoy has been serving the fan community for over 45 years. I hesitate to make anyone feel their age, but that’s longer than this writer (let alone most folk reading this blog) have been alive. Yeah. Dude totally deserves some relaxation and ‘me time’.

Which makes you kind of wonder what the actor and comic book creator will do with all his new free time. I suppose whatever he’s been doing with it already, only more so. Perhaps he’ll take another run at comics. Or just kick back and catch up on his to-read pile and do some gardening.

Though, I do have this sudden crazy vision in the theater of my mind of a retired Leonard Nimoy training hamsters to speak Klingon – don’t ask where that one came from (though the image in my head is unbearable cute, and somewhat hilarious).

Catch Him If You Can

Mr. Nimoy’s last scheduled fan convention appearances will be in August and September of 2011. The convention(s) in question is the Official Star Trek Convention produced by Creation Entertainment, the company behind most of the official fan cons in America. This is a traveling event, set to occur in multiple cities across the country this year.

Leonard, however, will be at only two of them; the August 11-14 event in Las Vegas and the Chicago event scheduled for September 30-October 2 of 2011.

These two sessions of the Official Star Trek Convention are expected to sell out.

From the Creation Entertainment Press Release About Nimoy’s Retirement From Conventions:

For us at Creation it is indeed a bittersweet day as Leonard’s on-stage talks have always been a highlight for us and they remain in our memories forever. We’ll never forget his original talks on being Mr. Spock, his on-stage appearances with William Shatner, his live Alien Voices shows with John de Lancie, and later his ceremonial passing of the baton to the amazingly talented young Zachary Quinto. Through it all Leonard has been extremely gracious and caring to both us and his legions of fans. Simply stated it has been a joy to meet someone we grew up with loving on television and film and then finding out he was even nicer than we could have hoped. A growing up memory that was actually exceeded by reality: that never happens but all things are possible with the magic that has been working with Mr. Nimoy.

We invite YOU to be with us to bring down the house one last ime for the man who has been the true heart of the incredible Star Trek franchise. Both conventions are now sure to be sold out so please book early and pick up your autographs and photo ops with Mr. Nimoy! God Bless Leonard as he enjoys his overdue retirement and we continue to enjoy his films, television series, books, photography and poems for generations to come!