For the historical record: NYT. LAT. WP. A/V Club. Lawrence.
Other people have pointed this out, too, but he went beyond Spock. He replaced Martin Landau in the original “Mission: Impossible”, and is described as being one of the more memorable “Columbo” villains.
And here’s a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore I ran across while searching for “M:I” episode openings featuring Nimoy:
Kids, ask your parents about Y2K.
One more for the road: