For the past two years, Yvonne Craig had been battling breast cancer. Shortly before Christmas, it reached her liver, and even with surgeries to remove the tumors, her cancer spread. She died on Monday at her home in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by family.
According to her website, her “number one wish” …
… is that her family, friends and fans would know how much she loved them and always treasured her time with them.
Not only was Craig the Batgirl to Adam West’s Batman on the 1960s TV series, she was Marta, the green Orion Slave Girl in the third season of Star Trek. Along with appearances on many television shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mod Squad, she starred opposite Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World’s Fair and Kissin’ Cousins.
Gail Simone, who has been writing Barbara Gordon/Batgirl for more than a decade starting with DC’s Birds of Prey, tweeted about Craig’s passing.
Most of the joy in my current life can be traced back in some way to seeing Yvonne Craig be amazing as Batgirl, my first real life hero.
— Gail Simone 💙💛 (@GailSimone) August 19, 2015
Before her acting career, Craig was an accomplished ballerina with The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. After her acting career, she was a real estate broker, an author (From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond), and did voice over work for the Olivia cartoon on Nickelodeon.
She is survived by her husband, Kenneth Aldrich, her sister Meridel Carson, and nephews Christopher and Todd Carson.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Angeles Clinic Foundation.
(Via Variety)
