Yvonne Joyce Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig, May 16 1937 until August 17, 2015. She was an American actor and ballet dancer best known for her roles as Batgirl on the 1960s ' television show Batman and Marta, the Orion slave girl Marta as seen in Star Trek's episode "Whom Gods Deceive" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Yvonne Craig was raised in Columbus and was born in Taylorville in Illinois. In 1951, her family relocated 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 where she failed to complete her studies due to the absence of "a single PE credit". After being spotted by Alexandra Danilova, a ballerina and teacher, Craig joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as the youngest corps de ballet member. It was a great training that enabled her to do stunts in the role of Batgirl. She left the ballet troupe in the year 1957 "over an argument over casting changes" and moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of pursuing her dance career, but found herself cast in film roles. One of her first TV performances was on the episode of the TV series Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover", 1958) along with Neil Hamilton, who played her stepfather (later Hamilton played Police Commissioner James Gordon, Batgirl's father). She was in three films shortly after, The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story and Gidget (all 1959). Craig also appeared in the TV series Mr. Lucky, as Beverly Mills, in the episode "Little Miss Wow" which was also a 1959. Craig was in the film with Bing Crosby (1960), and Seven Women from Hell (1961), which featured Cesar Romero. In 1962, she was an actor on Western Laramie's show "The Long Road Back". Craig also starred with Elvis Presley's character in It happened at the World's Fair (1963), and Kissin' Cousins (64). She also appeared in the science fiction film Mars Needs Women (1966) and also appeared in In Like Flint (1967) as a Russian ballet dancer opposite James Coburn.