Nichelle Nichols, an actress who played the role of the communications chief Uhura in the original “Star Trek” franchise in the 1960s and helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television, died July 30 in Silver City, N.M. at the age of 89.
