4) Mission: Impossible (1969-71)
It didn’t take long for Leonard Nimoy to find regular TV work after Star Trek was abruptly cancelled in the spring of 1969. Going for something decidedly more Earth-bound, the actor nevertheless found himself in another fantastical position, being recruited to join the Impossible Missions Force in the original TV version of Mission: Impossible.
Nimoy replaced Martin Landau, who departed the series at the end of season three, but Nimoy’s function on the team was the same. He played The Great Paris, a magician and master of disguise. It was a role that called upon all of Nimoy’s acting talents, as one week Paris would have to play a Hispanic police officer, and in the next he would appear as Japanese kabuki actor.
Nimoy was featured on two seasons of the show, and after three years of Mr. Spock he relished the opportunity to play something a little bit grittier than the Enterprise’s First Officer.
“I don’t think people, particularly young people, want the old-fashioned, constructed type of hero any more,” he said in an interview with Movie World magazine at the time. “They want their people whole—with every flaw and inadequacy shown.”
My, how times have changed.
