Products in this story are independently selected and featured editorially. If you make a purchase using these links we may earn commission.

The actor reflects on painful moments from his life, including a false cancer diagnosis and the end of his friendship with his Star Trek costar

William Shatner Doesn't Know Why Leonard Nimoy Stopped Talking to Him: 'What Could I Have Done?'

In his new memoir, William Shatner opens up about painful moments from his past, including a false cancer diagnosis and his sadness over the end of his friendship with Star Trek costar Leonard Nimoy.

The 87-year-old actor, writer, director and producer writes in Live Long And... What I Learned Along the Way, out Tuesday, that his life changed in 2016 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer — only to later learn that it was a false-positive, according to Parade. The scare made Shatner even more determined to embrace every day as a gift.

Get push notifications with news, features and more.

“I want readers to know how quickly life is over and how important it is to live every moment,” he told Parade.

Shatner also reflects on his immigrant family’s struggle with poverty, his difficulty to connect with the women in his life, and the passion that continues to drive his Hollywood career.

“I have always felt,” writes Shatner in his latest memoir, according to the book’s description, “[that] like the great comedian George Burns, who lived to 100, I couldn’t die as long as I was booked.”

Image zoom William Shatner Mark Cranitch/Newspix/REX/Shutterstock

While Shatner has had a long career (he’s also appeared in Boston Legal and, more recently, in Priceline commercials) he is best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the classic TV show Star Trek.

Despite the series’ success, Shatner struggled to maintain positive relationships with the rest of the cast.

Shatner writes that he’s still surprised that a number of his Star Trek costars disliked him, and continue to avoid him, according to The Daily News. Thankfully, he had Leonard Nimoy, who played the beloved character Spock. According to the book, Shatner considered Nimoy his best friend.

But even that didn’t last.

Image zoom William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy CBS/Photofest

The actor writes that Nimoy eventually stopped talking to him, and he still doesn’t know why. In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shatner explained that his only clue as to why the friendship ended may have been related to Nimoy’s refusal to participate in a film he was making.

“I thought [Leonard] was joking at first and treated it as a joke because he sometimes would pretend and say, ‘No, I’m not going to do that’ and then say, ‘yes,’ so that’s what I thought he did,” Shatner said. “But that time he really meant, no. … I just don’t know, and it is sad and it is permanent. I don’t know why he stopped talking to me.”

In his memoir, Shatner explains that he didn’t attend Nimoy’s funeral in 2015 because he felt unwelcome, according to The Daily News.

Shatner still hasn’t been able to shake his confusion and sadness over the end of the friendship.

“Until the day I die, I will still wonder what caused that rift,” Shatner writes, per The Daily News. “After all the years we had spent together, after the bond we had forged, what could I have done that was so irreparable that he couldn’t even talk to me about it?”