Holy depressing news, Batman. The world lost the actress behind one of TV’s most iconic female superheroes recently, as Batman’s Yvonne Craig passed away on Monday at age 78. There will never be another Batgirl quite like her.
Craig died in her home inn Pacific Palisades after a two year fight against breast cancer. She had gone through chemotherapy treatments ever since diagnosis, which played its part in weakening her immune system, so while she was still dedicated to beating the cancer, she just wasn’t physically capable of doing so. According to CNN, her family will be holding a private service on an undisclosed date, and ask that in lieu of flowers, those who wish to do so should send donations to the Angeles Clinic Foundation, a cancer research and treatment center.
Long before other female superheroes would grace screens both big and small, Craig took on the cape and cowl of Batgirl (a.k.a. Barbara Gordon) after years of professional dancing and acting in bit parts. She joined the show during the third and final season as a way to attract new viewers, and young girls everywhere for years to come found a new form of inspiration, and Craig was always publicly grateful to have had the experiences with actors like Adam West, Burgess Meredith and Ethel Merman. Check out some of her best moments in the video below.
Though Batgirl was Craig’s most noteworthy and beloved role, that doesn’t mean it was her only one. If you name a series from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, there’s a good chance she appeared in it at least once. She was in comedies like Gidget, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, My Three Sons, and My Favorite Martian. Her drama resume was even longer, as she popped up on The Six Million Dollar Man, Mannix, Mod Squad, Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, and many more. Though she was largely absent from acting for the past few decades, as she got into the prepaid phone card business, she could most recently be heard on the animated Nickelodeon series Olivia.
And if you’re a fan of the original Star Trek series, you almost definitely remember her as the sultry green alien Marta who danced her way into the episode “Whom Gods Destroy.”
We at CinemaBlend send our thought and condolences to the family and friends of Yvonne Craig in their time of mourning. Relive her costumed days through the glorious Blu-ray set that came out earlier this year.
