| Yvonne Craig |
Yvonne Craig, early '60s. |
| Born |
Yvonne Craig
May 16, 1937 (1937-05-16) (age 71)
 Taylorville, Illinois, U.S. |
| Years active |
1957-1990 |
| Spouse(s) |
Jimmy Boyd (1960-62) |
| Official website |
Yvonne Joyce Craig (born May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois) is an American actress best known as Batgirl from the 1960s TV series Batman.
Biography
Early life and career
Yvonne Craig was originally trained to be a ballet dancer and was a member of the corps de ballet of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the 1950s.[1]Gradually, she moved into acting, and in 1959, she appeared in no less than three films: The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story, and Gidget. In 1960, she appeared as a busty young coed with Bing Crosby in High Time, where she met and married singer/actor Jimmy Boyd. After their divorce in 1962, Yvonne starred in several films, including roles with Elvis Presley and Dennis Hopper, and appeared in In Like Flint (the sequel to Our Man Flint) as a Russian Ballet dancer opposite James Coburn.
Move into television
In the mid-1960s, with film roles beginning to taper off, she moved into television, notably as Marta, a green-skinned Orion slave girl in the third season Star Trek episode Whom Gods Destroy. In this episode, she is interned in an insane asylum in space. In one The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode, she helps solve the mystery of a brain-endangering poison. [1][2] In an episode of The Wild Wild West, she is an assassin. She also appeared in an episode of McHale's Navy "Pumpkin Takes Over", 1965, where Capt Binghamton's wife pays a visit to Taratupa while he in the midst of producing a show starring exotic dancer (Yvonne Craig) and Admiral Rogers mistakes the dancer for Binghamton's wife.
Batman
Most famously, in Batman, she had the role of Batgirl (and her alter ego, librarian Barbara Gordon) on the 1960s TV series. [3]
Although the Batman TV show has been criticized as "campy," many have praised Yvonne Craig's portrayal as having paved the way for many other television heroines in the years that followed. Craig appeared in the last season of the series and was often put in "perilous" situations, along with Batman and Robin.
Craig still has felt some connection to the character and complained about her fate when Barbara was paralyzed and violated by The Joker in the acclaimed story, The Killing Joke. Furthermore, Craig was not satisfied with Barbara Gordon becoming the superhacker, Oracle, leader of the Birds of Prey.
Later career
After Batman, Yvonne Craig continued to act sporadically in movies and television. Notably, she appeared in guest roles in It Takes a Thief, The Mod Squad, and Emergency! From 1969-1972, she appeared in four episodes of the comedy series Love, American Style. [4]
Craig eventually moved into private business. For a time, she was a coproducer of industrial shows, after which she worked successfully in the real estate business. She maintains her own internet website.
Craig appears in the documentary Ballets Russes.
Selected filmography
As Orion slave girl "Marta" in the Star Trek original series episode " Whom Gods Destroy".
See also
Bibliography
- Craig, Yvonne (2000). From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond. New York: Kudu Press. ISBN 0967807565.
References
External links
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