Here’s how old Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was when he died, which happened twice and in two different realities and timelines. The quintessential Star Trek character, Spock was portrayed by the late Leonard Nimoy from 1966 to 2016. Although many actors have played Spock at different ages, most notably Zachary Quinto in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies and Ethan Peck in Star Trek: Discovery, Nimoy’s Vulcan is the singular legend who embodies the best qualities of Star Trek.
The half-Vulcan/half-human Spock was born on January 6, 2230. After graduating from Starfleet Academy, he was commissioned as a Starfleet Officer, and Ensign Spock was assigned to the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike in 2250. Spock remained aboard the Enterprise for the rest of his Starfleet career, most notably serving as both First Officer and Science Officer alongside his best friend, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) from 2265 onward. Spock left Starfleet for a time to pursue the Vulcan Kolinahr discipline but he rejoined the Enterprise to meet the V’Ger threat in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Afterward, Spock was promoted to Captain and commanded the Enterprise when it was turned into a Starfleet Academy training vessel but he ceded the Captain’s chair to Admiral Kirk when their old adversary Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) stole the planet terraforming Genesis Device.
The events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan took place in 2285: Khan and his genetically-engineered followers commandeered the U.S.S. Reliant and wanted to use the Genesis Device to exact revenge on Kirk. When both starships were damaged following a pitched battle in a nebula, a suicidal Khan decided to detonate the Genesis Device to kill Kirk. With no time to don a contamination suit, Spock repaired the Enterprise‘s radioactive warp core, allowing the starship to escape the explosion and the resulting formation of the Genesis Planet. Tragically, the heroic Vulcan succumbed to radiation poisoning. Spock was 55 years old when he died, which is relatively young considering Vulcans can live up to 200 years old. Spock’s father Sarek (Mark Lenard), for example, was 203 when he died in 2368 during Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5.
However, Spock was resurrected by the effects of the Genesis Planet; his rebirth involved him aging from an infant back to his 55-year-old self by the time Kirk and the Enterprise crew reunited Spock with his katra (his Vulcan soul) in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Spock served alongside Kirk aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-A until their final mission in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where they ensured galactic peace between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Afterward, Spock left Starfleet and became a Federation ambassador. In the 24th century TNG era, Spock was secretly living on Romulus and attempting to negotiate the reunification of the Vulcan and Romulan people.
As seen in Star Trek 2009, Ambassador Spock’s tenure on Romulus is the key to the events that created the alternate Kelvin timeline and led to the ultimate fate of the Vulcan legend. When the Romulan sun went supernova in the 2380s, Spock tried to use red matter to stop it but he was sent back in time to the 23rd century. The alternate Kelvin timeline was created by the arrival of Spock’s enemy Nero (Eric Bana) in 2233 when the Romulan destroyed the U.S.S. Kelvin. Spock arrived in 2258 and aided the younger version of himself and Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) in the defeat of Nero. Trapped in the past and in an alternate timeline, Ambassador Spock decided to help repopulate Vulcan, which Nero destroyed in his rampage. In 2259, the younger Spock (Zachary Quinto) contacted him for advice on how to defeat Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness.
As a result of the real-life death of Leonard Nimoy in 2015, Ambassador Spock’s death was written into 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. The elder Spock died off-screen on New Vulcan on January 2, 2263. Ambassador Spock was 161 when he died in the Kelvin timeline, although his final death chronologically happened 12 years before his original Prime timeline death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The Federation in the Prime timeline also has no knowledge that Spock time traveled and died in an alternate reality; he was considered missing in 2387 during the Romulan supernova crisis. But, even though, Leonard Nimoy’s beloved incarnation of Spock is gone, the younger version of the Vulcan lives on with Ethan Peck portrayal in the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series set in the years before Spock met Jim Kirk.
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