He’s Part Nimoy, Part Spock Actor Comes To Terms With His Vulcan Heritage From ‘Star Trek’ World

Leonard Nimoy hears voices.

And he likes it that way.

More accurately, the actor/writer/ director/producer hears one particular voice: the voice of Spock, the logical, pointy-eared Vulcan of “Star Trek” fame.

“It is sort of like the left side of my brain talking to the right,” says Nimoy.

For years, Nimoy has had an ambivalent relationship with the character who catapulted him to stardom.

His 1975 book, “I Am Not Spock,” sparked an outcry from fans who thought he was repudiating Spock.

Not so, he says in a phone interview from Beverly Hills, Calif.

“I always felt gratified about the identification because to me it meant … I had accomplished what an actor is supposed to do, which is make an audience believe that you are this character you are portraying.

“There were other aspects of it that were irritating because naturally you don’t want to lose your own identity. I didn’t want to be totally swallowed up in this thing.”

Now, coming full circle, Nimoy has written, “I Am Spock” (Hyperion, $24.99).

“I guess what has happened in the last 20 years,” he says, “is that I have had enough satisfaction that my identity was intact and that Spock and I could exist side by side or even intertwined in the same body. I consider this book now as a sort of coming to terms with the whole issue in a comfortable kind of way.

“I also think it is interesting from a psychological standpoint. I really do believe there are these two characters existing here.

“I hear these voices. I do have these snatches of conversation from time to time.

“I think I could pass a sanity test,” he says with a chuckle. “At the same time, I do have this extraordinary experience with this other character.”

Nimoy’s career encompasses much more than Spock, but he acknowledges that Spock opened those doors. His credits including directing several Trek films, “Three Men and a Baby” and “The Good Mother,” touring in a one-man show as Vincent Van Gogh, and acting in various TV shows, including “A Woman Called Golda.”

Right now, he’s executive producer for “Deadly Games,” a less than critically acclaimed UPN show about virtual reality characters who escape into the real world.

He’s also involved with a new Tekno Comix comic book called Primortals.

Yet, at age 64, work isn’t what drives him anymore, he says.

“I’m passionate about my life more than anything else actually,” he says. “It used to be the work.”

While there’s more he wants to do professionally, “my obsession now is with enjoying the life that I have with my wife (Susan) and kids and grandchildren.” He and his wife have a home at Lake Tahoe where he has a boat, his first.

“We get out on the lake and enjoy the serenity of it,” he says. “We read a lot. We listen to music a lot. We take walks a lot. We cook together.

“Just companionship and appreciation of life are very important to me right now.”

Also important to him is a closer relationship with his son, Adam. The two were estranged for years.

Nimoy says his son wanted little to do with him or his bigger-than-life reputation. But a few years ago, his son, unhappy as an entertainment lawyer, reached out. Adam wanted to pursue a career as a director.

Their growing closeness culminated earlier this year in Adam directing and Nimoy starring in a remake of “I, Robot” on the “Outer Limits” TV show.

Of the reconciliation, Nimoy says, “That’s big stuff.”

Clearly it is, because he repeats it twice more in a voice rich with emotion: “That’s big stuff. That’s big stuff.”

He had some trepidation about having his son direct him.

“You put yourself in this situation where, if it doesn’t go well, it can be a very painful process, both professionally and personally,” he says. “But it worked out extraordinarily well. It’s been a kind of bonding that was difficult before when we were more at odds with each other and he was so unhappy in the work that he was in. We have a great relationship now.”

Currently Nimoy is developing an idea for a novel.

And will he ever be involved with “Star Trek” again?

Trekkers can hope. There’s nothing definite, he says, but if Paramount comes calling with an idea, “I would certainly listen. I haven’t closed the door.”