Goodbye to a great. Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney has died at the age of 85, according to the Associated Press.
The longtime performer, who played Star Trek‘s Yeoman Janice Rand on Star Trek: The Original Series, passed away “of natural causes,” the AP reports, on Friday, May 1, at her home in Coarsegold, Calif. The star’s death was confirmed by the official Star Trek website, which celebrated Whitney’s contribution to the beloved series, as well as her hard-fought, and ultimately successful, battle with sobriety.
Whitney’s son Jonathan Dweck highlighted his mother’s struggle with addiction, telling the AP that the actress would have wanted to be remembered as a survivor. The late star touched on her drug problems in a 1998 memoir, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy. She eventually recovered after the dark period in her life, going on to speak publicly in support of addicts seeking recovery.
Whitney appeared on the first season of Star Trek as an assistant to Captain Kirk (William Shatner), before returning to the franchise in the late 1970s for multiple feature films including Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Her filmography also includes roles in 77 Sunset Strip, Irma la Douce, and the 1959 Marilyn Monroe classic Some Like It Hot.
The Star Trek alum’s death comes just two months after the passing of her good friend and former costar Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy, who wrote the forward to Whitney’s book, died this past February at the age of 83.
Whitney is survived by her two sons Jonathan and Scott. She was remembered on Twitter in the early hours of Monday, May 4, by costar Shatner, who wrote, “Condolences to the family of Grace. She was a constant shining smile over the years every time our paths crossed.”
