1956 - How Leonard Nimoy faced death at gunpoint

When Leonard Nimoy worked as an actor in his twenties he needed to earn extra money to support a family and drove a cab at Santa Monica Boulevard and Westwood Boulevard. It must have happened in 1955 or 1956 when a young man was settling into the back seat of the taxi. He first wanted Leonard to drive him to Santa Monica. It was already late at night and usually students did not take taxis. When the taxi was on its way, the young man asked for how long Leonard was already driving. By the odd behaviour of the young man and this question now Leonard suspected a robbery. It was. The young man held a gun at his head and demanded money.

Telling him that he needed money, too, about the baby (July) and his financial situation he said: "You are making a mistake," while trying top keep his voice indifferent. He talked about the ethics he'd been taught as a child and about his hard knocks and what he is going through himself. Suddenly the young man cried: "Stop! And let me out." Leonard pulled to the curb and the young man left the car. "I only drove a cab for a few months," Leonard recalls now, "but even in that time I found out you can learn a lot about people that way."