Star Trek Lt. Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols has dementia and facing Conservatorship battle

[Sonic Boom of the South]

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Nichelle Nichols: Conservatorship battle of 'Star Trek' star

Inside the heartbreaking conservatorship battle of a ‘Star Trek’ legend

Nichelle Nichols won legions of fans and made history as an original “Star Trek” cast member, but friends and family say she needs help. How best to assist the actor, who has dementia, is the subject of protracted legal dispute.
(Stat The Artist, aka Teddy Phillips)

BY MAKEDA EASTER | LOS ANGELES TIMES EXCLUSIVE

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Tucked away at the end of a secluded cul-de-sac, Nichelle Nichols’ Woodland Hills home was a testament to her boundary-breaking career spanning more than 70 years. Nichols lined walls and shelves with photos of herself as Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” series, memorabilia from her legions of fans and documentation of her contributions to NASA’s recruitment of women and people of color in the 1970s.

The home was Nichols’ pride and joy, say those close to the star. She purchased it in 1982 for $12,000 and meticulously planned its details, from her plush, oversize furniture to the garden where she planted roses to the neighboring property she purchased in 1994 to use as a guesthouse and workspace for projects.

Questions around the fate of Nichols’ home — who lives in it and what happens to it — have been central to an ongoing, years-long legal battle over the finances and care of the beloved TV star, who friends and family say is financially drained and struggling with dementia.

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

A three-way fight over Nichols’ fate involves her only child, Kyle Johnson, who is also her conservator; her former manager Gilbert Bell; and a concerned friend, Angelique Fawcette.

Nichelle Nichols in her role as Lt. Uhura in “Star Trek” projects from 1966 to 1982.
(CBS )
In 2018, Johnson filed a petition for conservatorship, arguing that his mother’s dementia made her susceptible to exploitation. In 2019, Bell filed a lawsuit against Johnson, alleging attempts to remove him from Nichols’ guest home, where he has lived since 2010, and “aggressive and combative behavior.”

Bell says that while living in close proximity to Nichols, he helped to restore her career and financial well-being. According to Johnson, who filed a countersuit against Bell in 2020, Nichols’ home was the place where her former manager “exerted his undue influence and took control over Ms. Nichols’ assets and personal affairs,” misappropriating the star’s income as her health deteriorated and memory faded.

Fawcette, a producer and actress who met Nichols in 2012, entered the legal fight opposing Johnson’s conservatorship petition. Fawcette pushed for visitation rights to spend time with her friend, and she argued for Nichols to stay in Woodland Hills — a scenario that has looked increasingly improbable.

At 88, Nichols no longer occupies the house. Last year, Johnson moved her to New Mexico, where he and his wife live. Johnson declined The Times’ requests to speak with Nichols directly.

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

° ° °

Born in Robbins, Ill., Grace Nichols was renamed Nichelle as a teenager moving into the world of professional entertainment. She sang and danced through the Chicago club circuit in the 1940s and 1950s, and after her brief marriage to fellow dancer Foster Johnson and the birth of son Kyle, she moved to L.A. to focus on film and television.

In 1959, Nichols had a small role in the Samuel Goldwyn production of “Porgy and Bess,” which brought her together with some of the most successful Black stars of the day, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Dorothy Dandridge. Nichols met “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry in 1963 after being cast in an episode of his TV series “The Lieutenant,” and in 1966 she made her debut as communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura in “Star Trek.”

Frustrated with the lack of depth in her role, Nichols considered leaving “Star Trek” during the first season. A chance encounter with Martin Luther King Jr., a Trekker, changed her mind. He told her she was a trailblazer — a Black woman on TV in a nonstereotypical role. Although the original “Star Trek” series was short-lived, running three years until 1969, Nichols became an icon, appearing in the many manifestations of the “Star Trek” franchise, including the animated show and a string of feature films.

In 1970, Nichols attended her first “Star Trek” convention, and at a 1975 event, NASA representative Jesco von Puttkamer sparked her relationship with the space agency. In 1977, NASA hired Nichols to help recruit astronauts for its space shuttle program.

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Over four months, she appeared in TV public service announcements and traveled the country to speak at universities and professional science organizations to encourage women and people of color to apply. NASA credited Nichols for helping to attract astronauts including Sally Ride and Frederick Gregory.

With a NASA doctor standing by, Nichelle Nichols walks on a treadmill in 1977 as part of her work recruiting women and people of color to the space program.
(PhotoQuest / Getty Images)

The space shuttle orbiter OV-101, dubbed Enterprise, unveiled in 1976 in Palmdale with, from left, NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher and “Star Trek” actors DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichols and Leonard Nimoy, series creator Gene Roddenberry and actor Walter Koenig.
(Space Frontiers / Getty Images)

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

But for many years, conventions provided Nichols’ primary connection to the public. In her 1994 autobiography, she writes, “Star Trek” conventions “are unlike any other fan gathering, perhaps because a Trekker is unlike any other fan in the world. One would be hard-pressed to find such a large group of intelligent, sensitive, aware people.”

And fans loved Nichols, says Adam Malin, co-founder of Creation Entertainment, which has staged traveling fan conventions since 1971. Malin considers her “the ultimate ambassador for what we hope the future could be.”

The fan gatherings were a major source of income for Nichols, who commanded top dollar for her signature and photos. She drew lines that would last all day long, says Chase Masterson, a “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” actor who appeared with Nichols at conventions.

But by the time Bell began working with Nichols — in 2009, according to court documents — the convention appearances had dried up, and Nichols was struggling financially, says Bell, 82.

The two had met earlier that year, hitting it off over lunch at P.F. Chang’s. Bell became Nichols’ manager, helping her book conventions, other appearances, films and TV projects.

After he sold his home in Studio City, Bell says, Nichols encouraged him to move into her guesthouse for free in 2010. (He began paying rent, $300 a month, after two years of living in the guesthouse.) Bell recalls her saying, “We’re only across the driveway from each other, and we’ll be able to develop these projects much faster.”


Under his guidance, Nichols began to recover financially, going from one or two convention bookings a year to at least three a month, Bell says. Nichols could earn $10,000 to $15,000 for attending a small convention and $40,000 to $50,000 participating in major conventions, he says.

While Bell was her manager, her annual income reached several hundred thousand dollars, he claimed, although her son Johnson disputes that number and characterizes Bell’s accounting records as “extremely deficient.”

In January 2013, Nichols collapsed in her living room and was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with pancreatitis — attributed to alcohol, Johnson says. Johnson, 70, says he and other family members noticed an increase in her drinking over the years. Bell attributes Nichols’ struggles with convention bookings at the time to alcohol.

 

[Dwolf]

Taking advantage of elderly, dude is a grade A piece of shyt
That almost hit the goal

 

[NZA]

im wondering how can a son let this get this bad?

 

[Silver Surfer]

Not reading all that, but what allegedly has his son done?

 

[BXKingPin82]

Thats fukked up. Smh