‘Star Trek’ Icon Nichelle Nichols Cries for Help in Videotaped Fight With Son

Nichelle Nichols at the 44th Daytime Emmy Awards - Arrivals, Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, CA 04-30-17. (Credit: S. Bukley/Deposit Photos)

Amid a legal battle over conservatorship of 86-year-old actress Nichelle Nichols, a new video has surfaced showing the Star Trek icon screaming and begging for help.

The video was posted on Tuesday, May 28, by CBS46 in Atlanta. It shows Nichols with her son Kyle Johnson as she yells, “You’re trying to get rid of me!”

[Watch the video below]

Nichols is best known for playing Lt. Uhura on Star Trek in the 1960s, and was one of the first African-American women with a lead role on a television series.

In recent years, she was diagnosed with “moderate progressive dementia,” according to conservatorship documents obtained in 2018 by multiple media outlets.

Nichols’ son filed for legal guardianship over the actress and her estate, although some of her friends claim he has ill intentions.

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Gilbert Bell, who says he is Nichols’ longtime friend and manager, sent the videotape to the Atlanta TV station. It was recorded on April 23 and shows the actress looking at documents.

“I didn’t give permission to have conservatorship over me. I didn’t know what he was doing,” she says.
Johnson comes into the room and is heard telling Nichols, “Mother, we are going home.”

She responds by screaming, “Help! No! No! No! Get your hands off of me. I’m not  going home.”

According to the CBS46 report, Johnson said his mother doesn’t have a management team. Nichols lives in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. The TV station said the LAPD has gone to her home to conduct a welfare check, but police would not comment.

It should be noted that Nichols spoke to members of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists in February 2015. This reporter was in the audience and watched as the actress struggled with memory issues and had difficulty answering basic questions about her career.

Producer and actress Angelique Fawcette told Urban Hollywood 411 she’s been friends with Nichols for years, and produced the 2018 sci-fi film Unbelievable!!!!!, in which Nichols had a role.

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Fawcette said Nichols was aware that she was being recorded when the videotape was made.

“She said ‘if something happens to me, I want you to share it,’” Fawcette stated.

The tape was released just days after a case involving another elderly Hollywood figure made headlines.

Keya Morgan, a former business manager for late Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, was arrested on May  25, near Phoenix, after being charged in Los Angeles County with alleged elder abuse, false imprisonment and grand theft involving Lee, authorities said. Commercial Crimes Division detectives from the LAPD made the arrest in collaboration with Phoenix and Scottsdale police.

Producer Fawcette mentioned the Stan Lee case and said she is very concerned about Nichols’ well-being.

“I am extremely worried about her safety,” Fawcette said.