Yvonne Joyce Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16 1936 - August 17 15th, 2015), was an American dancer, dancer, and choreographer. She is best remembered for her role in the 1960s Batman TV show Batman as well as Marta the Orion slave girl wearing green skin, in the Star Trek 1969 episode "Whom Gods Destruction". The Huffington Post referred to her as "a pioneer of female superheroes" on the television. Yvonne Craig was born and was raised in Taylorville, Illinois. Her family moved to Dallas in 1951. She attended W. H. Adamson High School, Sunset High School and then W. H. Adamson High School. It was unfortunate that she didn't graduate because she didn't have "one credits for PE". Craig was discovered by Alexandra Danilova (a ballerina and teacher) and was accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and became its youngest member of the corps de ballet. This was a great training for her when she performed stunts while performing as Batgirl. In 1957, she quit the ballet troupe due to disputes over casting changes. She later moved to Los Angeles with the hope of pursuing her dance career. However, she soon found herself appearing in film roles. One of her earliest television appearances was in the episode from the TV series Perry Mason ("The Case of the Lazy Lover", 1958) with Neil Hamilton, who played her stepfather (later Hamilton played Police Commissioner James Gordon, Batgirl's father). In the following years, she was in three films--The Young Land, 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 played alongside Bing Crosby (1960), and Seven Women from Hell (1961), which featured Cesar Romero. In 1962, she appeared on the Western Laramie in the episode "The Long Road Back".Craig was in roles alongside Elvis Presley in two films which included It Happened At the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin Cousins (1964). In the year 1966, she played in Mars Needs Women. In 1967, she appeared as an Russian ballet dancer in In Like Flint.