Leonard Nimoy Had A Culturally Insensitive Role On Gunsmoke Before Star Trek
Leonard Nimoy was one of the most beloved TV actors of the 20th century, but he also admitted in interviews over the years that –- despite growing up the Jewish son of Ukrainian immigrants –- he made his career in the pre-“Star Trek” days playing Native American characters. Among other instances of “redface,” he played a Comanche warrior in the TV show “Tate,” a character named Chief Black Hawk in the film “Old Overland Trail,” and a mysterious Native who seeks justice for his murdered white friend in an episode of the wildly popular show “Gunsmoke.”
Nimoy spoke fondly about his role on “Gunsmoke” in an interview with the Archive of American Television back in 2000 (he passed away in 2015). The actor recalled having met the star of the long-running Western series, James Arness, years earlier when the two were in the same acting troupe. Nimoy eventually went into the military, but kept in touch with Arness, who one day told him he’d landed the lead role in the TV adaptation of a popular radio show –- “Gunsmoke.” Nimoy appeared several times on the show over the years, but it was his final appearance in 1966 that was most memorable to him … and most controversial today.
“A guest starring role in the Gunsmoke show was the last job I did just before I started shooting ‘Star Trek,'” Nimoy explained in the retrospective interview. “I had already done the ‘Star Trek’ pilot and I was hired for this story –- playing an Indian.” Specifically, Nimoy played a man named John Walking Fox, who got his own episode title in season 11: “The Treasure of John Walking Fox.” Nimoy once told PBS that he did the show while he was waiting to hear about whether or not “Star Trek” was going to finally get picked up after failed pilots, and complimented the episode’s “clever” script by Clyde Ware. With decades of retrospect, though, the story doesn’t sound clever so much as misguided and guilty of racial stereotyping.
