Grace Lee Whitney obit

'Star Trek' actress Grace Lee Whitney dies at 85

She was not on the list.

Grace Lee Whitney, who played Captain Kirk's assistant on the original "Star Trek" series, has died. She was 85.

Whitney died of natural causes Friday in her home in the Central California town of Coarsegold, about 50 miles north of Fresno, her son Jonathan Dweck said on Sunday.

Whitney played Yeoman Janice Rand in the first eight episodes before being written out of the series. In her 1998 autobiography "The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy," she wrote that her acting career largely came to an end and she became an alcoholic.

She wrote that she struggled with her addiction for many years before getting treatment and regaining her career with the help of Leonard Nimoy, who starred as Spock in the series.

She returned for the movie franchise, reprising her role in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country."

Dweck said his mother would have liked to be remembered more as a successful survivor of addiction than for her "Star Trek" fame. She dedicated the last 35 years of her life helping people with addiction problems, some of whom she met at "Star Trek" conventions, he said.

"Over time, she became appreciative of her short time on `Star Trek' because she developed meaningful relationships with the fans, Leonard Nimoy and other cast members," Dweck said.

Whitney debuted on Broadway in Top Banana, with Phil Silvers and Kaye Ballard, playing Miss Holland. Following the successful run of the show, she joined the cast in Hollywood, where she recreated the role in the 1954 movie of the same name. While in Los Angeles, Whitney auditioned for and was cast in the starring role of Lucy Brown in the national tour of The Threepenny Opera, taking over the role from Bea Arthur, who had played the part in New York off-Broadway.

Whitney made more than a hundred television appearances following her television dramatic debut in Cowboy G-Men in 1953. She appeared on episodes of The Real McCoys, Wagon Train, The Islanders, Hennesey, The Roaring 20s, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, 77 Sunset Strip, Bewitched, Mike Hammer, Batman, The Untouchables, and Hawaiian Eye.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Whitney was a frequent semi-regular on between 80 and 100 live television shows including You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx in 1953, The Red Skelton Show, The Jimmy Durante Show and The Ernie Kovacs Show, largely appearing in gag sketches. From 1957 to 1958, she appeared as a "Vanna-type adornment" on the popular daytime show Queen for a Day.

Other appearances included an episode of The Outer Limits, "Controlled Experiment", co-starring Barry Morse and Carroll O'Connor, Mannix, Death Valley Days, The Big Valley, and The Virginian. In 1962, she appeared in the episode of The Rifleman entitled "The Tin Horn". In 1964, she played a character Babs Livingston on Bewitched in the episode "It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog".

Whitney was cast as a member of the all-female band in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). She shared several scenes with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, including the famed "upper berth" sequence. She had uncredited roles in House of Wax (1953), Top Banana (1954), The Naked and the Dead (1958), and Pocketful of Miracles (1961). Whitney was credited as Tracey Phillips in the drama A Public Affair (1962), and as Texas Rose in the western The Man from Galveston (1963). Billy Wilder then gave her the featured role of "Kiki the Cossack" in Irma la Douce (1963).

Besides Jonathan, she was survived by her other son, Scott Dweck.

Filmography

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1954      Top Banana        Miss Holland      Uncredited

1958      The Naked and the Dead               Girl in Dream Sequence                Uncredited

1959      Some Like It Hot               Rosella Uncredited

1961      Pocketful of Miracles      Queenie's 'Broad' in Black Dress                Uncredited

1962      A Public Affair    Tracey Phillips  

1963      The Virginian      Nina       Episode "Echo of Another Day"

1963      Critic's Choice    Minor role          

1963      The Man from Galveston              Texas Rose          TV Series, 1 episode

1963      Irma la Douce    Kiki the Cossack               

1964      Controlled Experiment   Carla Duveen     Only comedy episode of The Outer Limits             

1966      Star Trek              Yeoman Janice Rand       TV Series, 8 episodes

1979      Star Trek: The Motion Picture    

1984      Star Trek III: The Search for Spock             Woman in Cafeteria       

1986      Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Lt. Commander Janice Rand        

1991      Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1996      Star Trek: Voyager           TV Series, 1 episode

2007      Star Trek: New Voyages                web series, 1 episode

2007      Star Trek: Of Gods and Men         (final film role)