American actress Nichelle Nichols, who breathed life to the role of Lt. Uhura in the "Star Trek" television series has just suffered from a stroke in her Los Angeles home on Wednesday night.
It was her rep Zach McGinnis who announced the news on Facebook, according to Variety. "Last night while at her home in L.A., Nichelle Nichols suffered from a mild stroke," McGinnis wrote. "She is currently undergoing testing to determine how severe the stroke was. Please keep her in your thoughts."
Nichols was next scheduled to appear at New Jersey's Eternal Con on June 13 and 14 but this remains unclear now after her recent stroke.
Nichols, currently 82 years old made history when she played Lt. Uhura in the "Star Trek" television series, which ran from 1966 to 1969 as well as the "Star Trek" movies, since it was one of the first few African-American female characters on American television that was not a servant. During that time, the role was pretty groundbreaking and even the legendary Martin Luther King Jr. personally praised her for her work on the show, and urged her to remain in the show when she expressed her desire to leave.
Her character who is a mainstay at the USS Enterprise was even promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander, and many sources even say that she climbed as high up as captain.
Aside from "Star Trek," she also played the role of Nana Dawson in the ABC show called "Heroes," and lent her voice to one of the characters in the animated television series "Futurama," "Gargolyles," and "Spider-Man."
Nichols began her career by singing, and even sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before she focused her attention and skills on acting. Her first big break was in Oscar Brosn's 1961 musical called "Kicks and Co."
She then worked on a Playboy magazine satire, where she played Hazel Sharpe - a voluptuous campus queen who was being tempted by the devil and a men's magazine to appear as their cover girl. The show had a brief run, but it garnered the attention of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who was so impressed with Nichols that he invited her immediately to his Chicago Playboy Club.
Aside from acting and singing, Nichols also did some occasional modelling work. She landed the cover feature in Ebony magazine back in January 1967, and even has two other feature articles in the same publication in five years.
