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Vale: Grace Lee Whitney

US actress Grace Lee Whitney, best known for Star Trek, has died, aged 85.

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US actress Grace Lee Whitney, best known for Star Trek, has died, aged 85.

Whitney played Janice Rand, the personal assistant to Captain Kirk (William Shatner) during the first season of Star Trek in 1966.

But she was written out, noting, “There was a scene that Shatner and I did — and I remember when it happened — that scared the producers, because they said, ‘Uh-oh, they’re getting too close. This is getting too hot.”

Producers removed her so Kirk would not look like he would be cheating when he fell in love with other females on other planets.

Whitney reprised the role in four Star Trek films and a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

She had a long list of TV credits including The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, The Real McCoys, The Outer Limits, Gunsmoke, Mike Hammer, The Untouchables, Surfside 6, 77 Sunset Strip, The Rifleman, Batman, Hawaiian Eye, Bewitched, Police Story, Mannix, The Virginian, The Big Valley, Cannon, Hart to Hart and Diagnosis Murder.

Film credits included Some Like It Hot, Irma la Douce, House of Wax, Top Banana, The Naked and the Dead.

Whitney wrote in her 1998 autobiography, that she was sexually assaulted by an executive at Desilu, the production company behind Star Trek, and suffered from drug and alcohol abuse for years before turning her life around.

2 Responses

  1. Her later life had many difficulties, including the booze but she did get past it-Hollywood was particularly hard for a young woman then (and now to a lesser degree).

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