Yvonne Joyce Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16 1936 from 1936 to August 17, 2015) was an American dancer, actress and choreographer. She is best remembered for her role in Batman's series of the 1960s on TV Batman and Marta the Orion slave girl wearing green skin, in the Star Trek 1969 episode "Whom Gods Destruction". The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Yvonne Craig was born and was raised in Taylorville, Illinois. Her family in 1951 moved to the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, where she was a student at W. H. Adamson High School as well as Sunset High School, from which she was not able to be able to graduate due to the absence of "a single PE credit". After being discovered by Alexandra Danilova, a ballerina and teacher, Craig joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as its youngest corps de ballet participant. It was an excellent training that enabled her to do stunts as Batgirl. In 1957, she resigned from the company "over a disagreement over casting changes". She moved to Los Angeles in hopes of being able to continue her career in dance. However, she was soon cast in film roles. Her first appearance was in a TV episode of Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover") with Neil Hamilton. Hamilton later was appointed the Batgirl's police commissioner James Gordon. Shortly afterwards, she appeared in three films--The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story The Gene Krupa Story, and Gidget (all 1959)--and she also appeared 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) that starred Cesar Romero. In 1962, she appeared as an actor on the Western Laramie show "The Long Road Back". Craig also starred with Elvis Presley's roles in It was at the World's Fair (1963), and Kissin' Cousins (64). She also appeared in the science-fiction film Mars Needs Women (1966) and was in In Like Flint (1967) as the role of a Russian dancer in a ballet with James Coburn.