Thomas Alva Nichols

Thomas Nichols, 58, dreamer

Long ago, Nichols confided to his older sister Nichelle that he was awaiting a rendezvous with a comet. Ironically, as Star Trek's Lt. Uhura, it was Nichelle who played the communications officer torn between earthbound domesticity and a career on the starship Enterprise. On Larry King Live, she said that until their mother died in 1992, "we hadn't heard from [my brother] in 20 years."