Grace Lee Whitney

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Real-World This article has a real-world perspective! Click here for more information
Real-World This article has a real-world perspective! Click here for more information
Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney.jpg
Personal Information
Birth NameMary Ann Chase
Career
RolesFeatured actress
CharactersYeoman Janice Rand
Woman in Cafeteria
Additional images
Janice Rand, 2266.jpg
Woman in cafeteria.jpg

Grace Lee Whitney (1 April 19301 May 2015; age 85) was an American actress and entertainer best known for her portrayal of Yeoman Janice Rand in Star Trek: The Original Series. Her character was originally intended to be a major part of the series, however, she was written out after eight episodes. Whitney returned to the role for several cameo appearances in subsequent Star Trek movies, and featured in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Flashback”. She retained an active interest in Star Trek fandom, appearing in several fan films.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Born Mary Ann Chase, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she was adopted by the Whitney family who named her Grace Elaine Whitney. She became a prolific actress in the 1950s and 1960s, debuting on the Broadway stage in "Top Banana" before going on to appear in the 1954 motion picture of the same name. Whitney was cast as a member of the all-female band in the classic Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). She shared several scenes with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, including the famed "upper berth" sequence.

She worked with Jeffrey Hunter in the film The Man from Galveston (1963). Whitney guested on several well-known television series including The Twilight Zone (pre-ST), Bewitched, Batman, Cimmaron Strip, The Virginian, Mannix, and Gene Roddenberry's own Police Story, co-starring DeForest Kelley. She also appeared alongside her TOS co-star George Takei in a 1998 episode of Diagnosis: Murder.

Grace had two sons, Scott and Jon Dweck, who also appeared in Star Trek productions. She died peacefully at her home in Coarsegold, California, at the age of 85.[1]

Star Trek[edit | edit source]

Intended to appear in far more episodes than she ultimately did, Whitney's Yeoman Rand was written out of several episodes, and ultimately dropped from the series after eight episodes. The exact reason for Whitney's dismissal is uncertain; her struggle with alcohol and use of diet pills are sometimes cited as causes, while creator Gene Roddenberry's biography suggests that her departure was simply a budget cutback. In her autobiography, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, Whitney describes an incident in which she was sexually assaulted by an executive of the Star Trek production team, who is not identified by name, and she drew a link between this incident and her sacking a few days later, but afterwards states her role was going to be eliminated in any case. Her last appearance was in the background of the episode, “The Conscience of the King”, with her character replaced by Dr. Helen Noel in “Dagger of the Mind”. According to Inside Star Trek, Whitney slid deeper into alcohol addiction after being fired from the show. Speaking of her termination from the series, Whitney stated, "they wanted William Shatner to have romances in each episode with a different person, because for him to be stuck with one woman was not good for him and it wasn't good for the audience. That's what they told me, so I was written out. There were two blonde girls and one black girl. Nichelle was a more important character and couldn't be written out. Everything's political in America. One of the blondes had to go. The other one was engaged to the boss, so guess who went? I just about killed myself. I drank, that's what we do, we drink to get rid of pain. I was really mad. My God, was I bitter." Roddenberry later apologized for the dismissal and said it was the "dumbest mistake" he ever made.

Whitney enjoyed appearing in the Star Trek films that involved her. She said of her casting in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, "It gave me a feeling as if I had turned back my life ten years."[2]

Whitney began her recovery in the 1980s and has gone on to appear in many more Star Trek productions, most recently the 2007 fan film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men and the Star Trek: New Voyages episode "World Enough and Time" (2007), in which she appeared alongside George Takei, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James Cawley, Jeffery Quinn, and John Carrigan. The episode was directed by Marc Scott Zicree, written by Zicree and Michael Reaves, and stunt coordinated by Leslie Hoffman.

Whitney filmed her scenes for "The Enemy Within" on Thursday 16 June 1966, Friday 17 June 1966 and Tuesday 21 June 1966, her scenes for "The Man Trap" between Thursday 23 June 1966 and Monday 27 June 1966, her scenes for "The Naked Time" on Thursday 7 July 1966 and Friday 8 July 1966, and her scenes for "Charlie X" between Tuesday 12 July 1966 and Friday 15 July 1966, all at Desilu Stage 9.

Autobiography[edit | edit source]

Whitney's autobiography, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, was released in 1998. Along with her hiring and firing from Star Trek, the book recounts her work as the first Chicken of the Sea mermaid as well as her struggles with and eventual recovery from alcohol and substance abuse.[3]

Star Trek appearances[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ^ Staff (4 May 2015). "Star Trek Actress Grace Lee Whitney Dies at 85". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 4 May 2015. 
  2. ^ The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 55
  3. ^ Whitney, Grace Lee; Denney, Jim (July 1998). The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy. Foreword by Leonard Nimoy. Clovis, CA: Quill Driver Books. p. 36. ISBN 978-1884956034. 

External links[edit | edit source]