Leonard Nimoy/Early career

Nimoy began his Hollywood career with small roles in the 1951 films Queen for a Day and Paramount Pictures' Rhubarb. Nimoy then played the title role in the boxing drama Kid Monk Baroni and played the Martian invader Narab in the science fiction serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (later edited and released as a feature, Satan's Satellites), both released in 1952. In 1954, he made an uncredited appearance in the classic science fiction film Them!, as did Richard Bellis, Lawrence Dobkin, and William Schallert. Four years later, he had a supporting role in another science fiction film, The Brain Eaters.
In the mid-1950s, Nimoy began appearing in various television guest shots, with his first being a 1954 episode of Dragnet. (He would make a second appearance on this series four years later, with his co-star Celia Lovsky.) Between 1958 and 1960 alone, Nimoy was seen on such classic television shows as Sea Hunt, Wagon Train (working with future Trek co-stars Roy Jenson, Susan Oliver, and Phillip Pine, as well as Nehemiah Persoff), The Tall Man (two episodes, including one with Marianna Hill and Charles Seel, with a story credit by D.C. Fontana), Outlaws (in an episode with Alfred Ryder), The Rebel (with Arlene Martel), and Bonanza (in an episode written by Gene L. Coon). 
Nimoy's subsequent TV credits include a 1961 episode of Rawhide and a 1963 episode of with Arthur Batanides, a 1961 episode of with Dean Stockwell (and concocted by Sam Rolfe), a 1962 episode of Laramie with Michael Forest, and a 1962 episode of Sam Benedict with Paul Carr and Joanne Linville, as well as numerous episodes of the classic western series Gunsmoke, including one in 1963 with Bill Zuckert and another in 1966 with Richard Webb. He was also seen in a 1962 episode of , which, like Star Trek, was produced by Desilu before it became part of Paramount. In 1964, he appeared in two episodes of the classic sci-fi anthology series, 
 – "The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" with Joseph Ruskin, Barry Russo, Rudy Solari, Robert Fortier and Willard Sage; and "I, Robot" with Peter Brocco, Marianna Hill, and John Hoyt. He also co-starred with Sally Kellerman in a 1966 episode of A Man Called Shenandoah.
His feature film credits during the 1960s consisted of a supporting role in the 1963 drama The Balcony (with Peter Brocco), an uncredited appearance in the acclaimed thriller Seven Days in May, and a role alongside Michael Forest and Robert Ellenstein in the 1966 drama Deathwatch (featuring music by Gerald Fried). Nimoy also produced the latter film.
Nimoy first worked with his future Trek co-star DeForest Kelley (Doctor Leonard McCoy) in a 1959 episode of 26 Men entitled "Trail of Revenge." Prior to Star Trek, he again worked with Kelley in a 1963 episode of The Virginian. Nimoy also appeared in two 1965 episodes of The Virginian, working with Michael Ansara, Hal Baylor, Richard Beymer, Rex Holman, Sherry Jackson, and Ken Lynch. 
In 1964, Nimoy and his soon-to-be Star Trek co-star William Shatner worked together for the first time. This occasion occurs in the Joseph Sargent-directed episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. entitled "The Project Strigas Affair." In this episode, Nimoy and Shatner are on opposite sides, with Nimoy playing the right-hand-man of a diplomat attempting to initiate a war between the United States and the Soviet Union and Shatner playing the reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit who must help foil the diplomat's plot. In one climatic scene Nimoy pulls a gun on Shatner. Nimoy and Shatner began working together on Star Trek just two years later.