Star Trek Turns 50: William Shatner Pays Tribute To Leonard Nimoy

In the latest episode of Larry King Now, the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, opens up to Larry King about his friendship with his Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy, and why they drifted apart before Nimoy recently passed away.

In time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary, the Hollywood icon was at a loss when King pressed him for answers on their supposed rift towards the end of Nimoy's life.

"At the very end, something happened and I don't know what it is," Shatner answered. "I have no idea. I don't know what it is, but he stopped talking to me." Perhaps, Shatner supposed, it was due to his illness, but he couldn't say for sure. "My vision of it is I ignored that and maintained my love for him, which I had for many years."

Shatner still is very fond of his late friend and continues to remember as a great artist. "He was very serious, but he had a great sense of humor." He tells King that Leonard Nimoy's creative sensibilities were so vast and varied: "He wrote books, he wrote poetry, he sang, he loved music. I saw a piece of film, Larry, which he did 'To be or not to be' in yiddish, and it was melodious and strange and interesting in a sort of Germanic thing. But it was fluid and he spoke it beautifully."

The Star Trek icon also explained the nature of friendship in Hollywood, a theme he explored in his most recent memoir, "Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man." The book, he divulges, is "a memoir of a friendship and why men have so much trouble making friends and keeping friends." Show business, Shatner believes, is tough place to maintain those strong bonds you form when actors work together for certain period of time: "...actors, given a show, they're best friends forever until the show's over."

"That's the nature of friendships [in this] business," Shatner concludes. "But Leonard and I were thrown into each other's company."

You can check out the Larry King Now clip below -- and be sure to tune in to Ora.TV for the full interview.