Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Leonard Nimoy’s Most Underrated Performance

Leonard Nimoy will always be known best for Spock, but his underrated performance in the 1978 alien invasion paranoia thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of my favorites. In it, he plays celebrated pop psychologist and best-selling author Dr. David Kibner.

As the population of San Francisco (and ultimately the whole planet) is being replaced by physically indentical but personality-anemic versions of their original selves, remaining humans are distraught that something is “off” and terribly wrong with other people in their lives. A woman cries that a man looks exactly like her husband but he is not her husband. Nimoy, who ultimately falls victim to the invasion and becomes a duplicate like the rest, is fantastic as he helps people cope this odd “shift.”

Leonard Nimoy, Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams.

Leonard Nimoy

Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy consoling a wife who is convinced that her husband isn’t her husband.

A remake of the original 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about survival and the struggle to preserve one’s individuality and sense of self in a society that is being overrun by viral conformity. In addition to Nimoy in a fantastic and unsettling performance in a supporting role, it stars Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright, who should get a special award for Best Meltdown / Freak Out in this movie and in Alien (1979). It’s a fantastic movie. (And as of this writing, it’s on Netflix.)

FUN FACT: In addition to a cameo by Kevin McCarthy, the star of the original 1956 film, there is an uncredited (and creepy) appearance by Robert Duvall as a priest in his black cassock on a swing in a children’s playground.