Grace Lee Whitney, Yeoman Rand on Original 'Star Trek,' Dies

[bananas]

Source: NBC

Grace Lee Whitney, 85, the futuristic-clipboard-bearing Yeoman Janice Rand on the original series of "Star Trek," died this weekend in the town of Coarsegold, California, her family confirmed. No cause of death was reported.

Whitney, a recovering alcoholic, spent the last 35 years of her life helping others with addiction problems, often at women's correctional facilities or the Salvation Army, her family said. They said she was credited with having helped thousands of people successfully complete 12-step addiction programs.

<snip>

As closely identified with Yeoman Rand as she was, however, her family stressed Sunday that Whitney's preference would be to be remembered as a "successful survivor of addiction."

"Grace experienced 35 years of sobriety through continuous fellowship with others and through God and Jesus," they said.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/grace-lee-whitney-yeoman-rand-original-star-trek-dies-n353001

[SoapBox]

1. RIP Yeoman Rand!

And thank you for being part of wonderful Star Trek memories.

[Omaha Steve]

2. The crush I had on her

[Archae]

5. Me too!

[Joe Shlabotnik]

8. Yup

same here.

[malthaussen]

14. I dunno, does "raging lust" count as a "crush?"

Greatest gams in the universe. Well, at 12 I'd never heard of Cyd Charisse.

-- Mal

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Never heard of her

I may have to agree with you

[damyank913]

15. Her, Uhura, and that dancing blue lady in one of the episodes...

...combined with my raging hormones. Contrary to my uncles warnings I never did go blind. I do, however, need reading glasses.

RIP Grace. Glad to have shared this space in time with you.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Yvonne Craig -- the green Orion slave girl "Marta" ... also played Batgirl ...

she was a well-trained classical ballerina. I recently saw that episode of TOS again (without the clouding effect of adolescent hormones) and realized, hey, she actually is a practiced dancer ! She got cast as a dancer more than once in her TV career.

[hifiguy]

24. Yvonne Craig turned up all over teevee for a few years.

She was on several episodes of Dobie Gillis as different dream girls of the hapless Dobie. And she said she used dance moves in her fights as Batgirl, especially high kicksl.

[Demeter]

3. .

[47of74]

4. Another one has gone on to the final frontier

RIP Grace Lee Whitney.

[Ken Burch]

6. Not sure why the AP thought there needed to be a "cause of death"?

Is nobody allowed to just die peacefully of old age anymore?

[hfojvt]

10. I read somewhere that nobody dies of old age

there's always something else that is the cause. I had to kind of laugh at this death record of one of my distant cousins

Colt, Christopher
State: Connecticut Year: 1850
County: Hartford Roll:
Township: Unknown Townships Page: 0
Image:
Month: APR Cause of Death: OLD AGE

And his age? Age: 60 Birth State: MA

Of course, somebody got that wrong, because he was actually 70. Either way not that old, even for 1850. After all, his mom lived to be 83 and his great grandfather John Colt lived to be 82. 1668 to Jan 1751.

I saw another guy who was in his 50s in some census and listed as "superannuated" which I had to look up - it means "too old for useful work".

[Ken Burch]

7. A good life filled with great meaning. Grace Lee Whitney's life should truly be celebrated.

I wonder if she played any role in Leonard Nimoy's successful struggle for sobriety?

Even if not, she helped thousands whose names we will never now...and that is far more important.

May she live forever in "the final frontier".

[Beacool]

9. As an avid fan of the Star Trek franchise, this saddens me.

The cast of TOS is leaving us. May Ms. Whitney rest in peace.

[Sherman A1]

11. RIP

[Hugin]

12. She overcame an addiction and had a long eventful life.

A good story I didn't know... Very nice.

It's sad news she's left us.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Oh no!!!!!!!!!

Didn't realize her age but I suppose she would be along with Nimoy and Shatner. Her amazing literal "bee hive" hairstyle on the show was remarkable.

Although she did appear in the first film, I remember in STIII when she appeared (although with no speaking part), there was a collective "ahhhh" and some cheers in the audience (@ the 2:00 minute mark), where her expression upon looking at the battle-scarred Enterprise, was classic.

R.I.P.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

17. Quite the looker

:large

[NaturalHigh]

19. Yes she was.

I had some deep personal feelings for her back in the day.

[NaturalHigh]

18. By the time Star Trek The Motion Picture came around...

she had been promoted to Chief Petty Officer.

RIP Chief!

[Xithras]

21. In the TV shows, she was eventually identified as a CO with the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade

In one of the Voyager episodes, Tuvok has a flashback to his first days in Starfleet when he served on the Excelsior under Sulu. Rand was on the ship as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, which means she became a commissioned officer at some point.

If you consider the licensed Marvel comic books to be canonical, there's also a Voyager issue where the ship comes across a couple of Rand's descendants. Though Rand was long dead at that point, it's revealed through several conversations that she retired(?) after achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

[Doc Holliday]

20. She was famous long before Star Trek

as the original "Chicken of the Sea" girl.

RIP, Grace.

[Xithras]

22. Whitney's story is probably the most tragic in Star Trek history.

In a book released in the late 90's, Whitney revealed the truth behind her sudden departure from the show and the elimination of Rand from the story for many years. Whitney herself has been very public about her fight with alcoholism and addiction, and those struggles were long cited as the reason she left the show. Officially, her part was being eliminated because Rand's relationship with Kirk was too strong, and the network wanted Kirk to have flings with the guest stars. Because having Kirk "cheat" on Rand created ethical problems for the viewers, Rand was written out. This was a big deal at the time, as Rand was considered to be a central cast member, and even received higher billing than Nichelle Nichols/Uhura in the shows credits!

Unofficially, both Whitney and William Shatner have admitted that she was raped on set by a never-identified Desilu/Paramount executive, and that Desilu/Paramount basically blacklisted her a few days later in some sort of cover up attempt. Even though Roddenberry wanted to bring her back periodically as a guest star, the Desilu/Paramount executives simply wouldn't permit it. Rand didn't reappear in the Star Trek universe until the first movie was made, by which time Desilu Productions had been sold & renamed Paramount Television, and virtually all of their executive management had been replaced with management from CBS. Shatner apparently knows the identity of the rapist, but has never revealed it at Whitney's request. Now that Whitney has passed away, it will be interesting to see if William Shatner will name the people involved.