Yvonne Joyce Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16, 1936 - August 17 15th, 2015), was an American actress, ballet dancer and choreographer. Her most famous work is for her roles in Batman's 1960s TV series Batman as well as Marta the Orion slave girl sporting green skin, from Star Trek's 1969 episode "Whom Gods Destruction". The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer in female superheroes for television." Yvonne Craig was born and raised in Taylorville, Illinois. Her family relocated to Dallas in 1951. She was a student at W. H. Adamson High School, Sunset High School, and later W. H. Adamson High School. Unfortunately, she was not able to graduate as she had not received "one credits for PE". Craig was accepted into Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the role of the youngest dancer in the corps de ballerina, after being noticed by Alexandra Danilova who is a dancer and teacher. This training was helpful when she was performing stunts acting as Batgirl. The ballet company she was with ended in the year 1957 "over a disagreement on casting changes" and relocated to Los Angeles in the hopes of pursuing her dance career, but found herself playing films. She was first seen in an TV episode of Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover") with Neil Hamilton. Hamilton later became Batgirl's Police Commissioner James Gordon. Then, she appeared in three films - The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story The Gene Krupa Story, and Gidget (all 1959)--and as a guest in the TV series Mr. Lucky as Beverly Mills in the episode "Little Miss Wow" (also 1959). Craig was in the film with Bing Crosby (1960), and Seven Women from Hell (1961), which featured Cesar Romero. In 1962, she was guest on Western Laramie's show "The Long Road Back". Craig also starred with Elvis Presley's character in It Was at the World's Fair (1963), and Kissin Cousins (64). She also starred as a Russian dancer alongside James Coburn in Mars Needs Women (1966).