Yvonne Joyce Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16 1937 - August 17 15th, 2015) was an American dancer and actress most well-known for her performance as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman and as the green-skinned Orion slave girl Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for the screen. Yvonne Craig was born in Taylorville, Illinois, and was raised in Columbus, Ohio. In 1951 , her family relocated from Illinois to Dallas. In Dallas, she attended W. H. Adamson High School in Dallas as well as Sunset High School. However she was not able to get a degree because she did not have "one PE credit". Craig joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as the most junior ballerina in the company after being discovered by Alexandra Danilova who is a dancer and teacher. While she was performing as Batgirl in the film, her training proved to be very helpful. She left the ballet company in 1957 "over disagreements over casting decisions" and moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of continuing her dancing career, but found herself cast in films. One of her first television appearances was in the episode from the TV series Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover", 1958) alongside Neil Hamilton, who played her stepfather (later Hamilton played Police Commissioner James Gordon, Batgirl's father). The actress was featured in three films following the show, The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story and Gidget (all 1959). She also guest-starred on the TV series Mr. Lucky, as Beverly Mills, in the episode "Little Miss Wow" also in 1959. Craig was a part of Bing Crosby in High Time (1960) as well as in Seven Women from Hell (1961) featured alongside Cesar Romero. In 1962, she was a guest star in the television show Western Laramie in the episode "The Long Road Back".Craig was in roles alongside Elvis Presley in two films The other was It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin Cousins (1964). She also appeared in the science-fiction film Mars Needs Women (1966) and was in In Like Flint (1967) as a Russian ballet dancer alongside James Coburn.