In 2013, Nichelle Nichols sat in front of a camera with one of her best friends and told her story. In these videos, a series of videos each around twenty five minutes in length, Nichols talks about her life at length, but a pretty dramatic thing happens in the very beginning of the first one, when recounting an exchange, she had with her son, Kyle Johnson, some time previous to the taping.
“ ‘Kyle, when you pay my bills, you will be able to tell me what to do. You don’t pay my bills.”
And he says, “Well, if you didn’t travel so much,” or something like that. “You shouldn’t be.”
I said, “You cannot tell me what I can and cannot be as a human being, any more than you can tell a woman what she can and cannot be or do, or a man which mountain he can climb. All my ventures in my life have been mountains that I enjoy climbing. I think he still, still really doesn’t understand.”
The admission, told in trust to a confidant, is telling, namely because of all the things that we now know about Nichelle Nichols, her legacy, and her life as it now stands. It has been known for a while now within the fan community that Nichols, who is widely known for having played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in Star Trek, has not been well. She suffered a stroke in 2015 and since then has been plagued with rumors and speculation about her mental health. Currently, it is believed, as has been reported by TMZ that Nichols suffers from a form of Dementia. This is confirmed by court documents filed by Nichols’s doctor on Aug 8. TMZ states that, “the doctor says there’s no apparent impairment for things like long-term memory, orientation of her body, comprehension, verbal communication, concentration, recognition of familiar people, as well as ability to reason logically and plan actions.” This information is also corroborated by Angelique Fawcette, Nichol’s friend and the person who interviewed her in the above-mentioned tape in 2013.
Fawcette told me via email and on her GoFundMe page for Nichols that, “she does not remember everything. She may ask you the same question quite a few times or she may ask you where is she going, quite a few times because she simply doesn’t remember. But, she knows “who” she is, she knows specifically when she is home, she knows when she is “not” going out on trips or to conventions, she knows when she is stuck in the house alone with nothing to do. She feels like something is wrong without her scheduled trips. Nichelle is still in a mentally conscious state of being even with Dementia. Please refer to a good example of someone who had memory loss, Alzheimer’s, Glen Campbell, who was a performer but who still loved and was able to perform even with such a diagnosis.”
This is also something I’ve been told by several fans at two different conventions she’s attended this year. She’s very attentive in conversation, she clearly understands where she’s at, what she’s doing, and who she is, she may just get details wrong, like your name. The question then becomes, what’s next? Many fans have assumed that her appearance at Star Trek Las Vegas this year was her last convention, and with good reason. In May, four fiduciary conservators were assigned to her estate. Her son and Angelique Fawcette had accused Nichols’s manager of having stolen almost $300,000 dollars from Nichols in 2015 and had deeded himself one of her two Beverly Hills properties. As a result, until a medical diagnosis it was determined that a conservatorship was needed to prevent people from stealing her assets. Unfortunately, according to Fawcette, there may not be much left to steal.
“But yes,” Fawcette said, “there are many leery people around her right now who just care about her material things and do not care about her. They will likely make a statement on her behalf, that she will know nothing about, and say that she said it, I’ve seen them do this in the past. They have announced she has dementia and cannot work but she somehow makes “statements”… it’s just sad what is occurring. I wish they were honest and we wouldn’t be here. But I have enough to prove what NN wants.”
Fawcette’s belief, and Nichol’s belief in 2013, is that she may be forced to stop working. Fawcette told me, “she is a viable human being who deserves to work when she pleases and that she can make an income by attending conventions. Also, given that her hard-earned money is now gone and her Manager is being accused of taking it, there are others who are purposefully disregarding her wishes, saying she has no money, (cannot make money) so welp, let’s forget about her, place her in a rest home, sell her home and then no one has to be bothered with her. Well, that is not what she wants, she states it in her own words on the videos she had us make for her.”
In 2013, Nichols said that she makes more money going to conventions than doing anything else in her life. This is true. When making the original series, the cast never got money for residuals, a now commonplace practice where people involved in making the show get a certain amount of money based on repeat viewings of the show in syndication, home video releases, etc. This came into practice a few years after Star Trek ended it’s run. In addition to that, Nichols faced pay discrimination due to her gender and race while working on the franchise, a thing that Leonard Nimoy fought to correct during the filming of the original series.
Fawcette paints a bleak picture of what may happen next. This is from her GoFundMe page for Nichols, “Approximately 5 years ago Nichelle had an extreme health scare in which she was hospitalized and then when she was released from the hospital she was placed in a rest home facility. I remember the very first day she was in the rest home and my husband Steven Fawcette and I went to visit her, and there my friend sat on a bed which was in actuality a cot, with urine under it that was not hers. I was appalled and remember immediately notifying the nurse that the floor needed to be cleaned in her room. Nichelle was moved into the hallway while they cleaned, and Steve and I sat with her, tears fell down Nichelle’s face as she asked us, “why am I here, why am I not home, please get me out of here”. We explained with great love and sadness that we were not blood relatives and that we could not take her home … she continued to cry and we sat with her until closing, we visited her each day she was there with the exception of maybe one day, eventually she got better but she was still very upset and hurt over being there at all.” It’s this idea that clearly drive’s Fawcette’s decision to get involved. According to her, Nichols has been a friend and mentor for years, Nichols gave away Fawcette at her wedding, and is in Fawcette’s film, Unbelieveable!!!!!. She has set up a GoFundMe for the purposes of raising funds for Nichols, funds designed to make sure Nichols doesn’t lose her home, an that she can live the rest of her years in dignity.
All my ventures in my life have been mountains that I enjoy climbing.
-Nichelle Nichols
Nichols stated in 2013 the most compelling reason for anyone to go to a Star Trek convention, “It’s very exciting because for every era that comes along with Star Trek, it’s a new era and yet Star Trek is a hit. So it makes it for me, a strong and powerful presence in my life. I go out to speak at Star Trek conventions and the people, the fans, are so appreciative and they all have questions. Some of them have the same questions but most of them, even if it’s the same kind of questions, there’s a newness in it.”
Nichols has a court date on Aug 16 to determine whether a permanent conservatorship will be established over her estate. We will continue to update.
What is currently happening with Nichols seems to also mimic some of the controversy around Stan Lee. Accusations have been swirling around Lee with regards to potential elder abuse and fights with his daughter about his estate. This, however, garnered a huge reaction in the media because of the deep impact Stan Lee’s creations at Marvel Comics have had on American Culture. Between Nichols and Lee, as those people who have helped define fandom for many generations, what happens as they age? Do fans have a say, or a responsibility, in making sure that these icons live the rest of their lives in dignity? Or is that right exclusively for their family?
Moreover, Nichols situation more closely follows the situations of millions of Americans, the rapidly approaching elder care crisis.
If you would like to support Angelique Fawcette’s GoFundMe for Nichelle Nichols, the link can be found here.
We reached out to Nichols for a statement, but received no response.
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