10 Things That Wouldn't Exist Without Leonard Nimoy

3. Vulcan Nerve Pinch

Nimoy's lasting relationship with the Spock was often an uneasy one, his first memoir bearing the title I Am Not Spock, being principally made up of a €œconversation€ between the actor and the character that made him famous. Apparently Nimoy had something of an identity crisis thanks to his time on Star Trek, finding it hard to shake Spock's mannerisms and thought patterns after playing him for fourteen hours a day, five days in a row. It's easy to see how he might have sunk a little too far into the character. Nimoy was, after all, an avid follower of the method acting school, electing to provide a great deal of back story and history to the character of his own accord. That included creating some of his most iconic traits. Including the famous Vulcan nerve pinch, that little shoulder grab that can apparently incapacitate seemingly anyone. Nimoy himself came up with it as a more elegant alternative to a script that called for him to clobber a brainwashed Kirk about the head to knock him out €“ not something he thought the refined Spock would do.