Yvonne Joyce Craig
| Yvonne Craig | |
|---|---|
Craig in 1960
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| Born |
Yvonne Joyce Craig May 16, 1937 Taylorville, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 17, 2015 (aged 78) Pacific Palisades, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Breast cancer |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer |
| Years active | 1957–2011 |
| Spouse(s) |
Jimmy Boyd (1960–1962; divorced) Kenneth Aldrich (1988–2015; her death) |
| Website | www |
Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16, 1937 – August 17, 2015) was an American ballet dancer and actress best known for her role as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman, and as the green-skinned Orion slave girl Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television.
Yvonne Craig was born in Taylorville, Illinois, and was raised in Columbus, Ohio. In 1951, her family moved to the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, where she attended WH Adamson High School and then Sunset High School, from which she technically did not graduate due to the lack of "a single PE credit".
After being discovered by Alexandra Danilova, a ballerina and instructor, Craig joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as its youngest corps de ballet member. This training was helpful when she performed stunts while playing Batgirl. She left the ballet company in 1957 "over a disagreement on casting changes" and moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of continuing her dancing career but found herself cast in film roles.
One of her earliest television roles was in an episode of the TV series Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover", 1958) alongside Neil Hamilton, who played her stepfather (later Hamilton played police Commissioner James Gordon, Batgirl's father). Shortly afterwards, she appeared in three films—The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story, and Gidget (all 1959)—and also guest-starred in TV series Mr. Lucky as Beverly Mills in the episode "Little Miss Wow" (also 1959). Craig appeared with Bing Crosby in High Time (1960) and in Seven Women from Hell (1961) featured alongside Cesar Romero.
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