Actress Grace Lee Whitney, Star Trek's Yeoman Janice Rand, Has Died 62
A reader writes: Grace Lee Whitney, the actress who played Yeoman Janice Rand on "Star Trek: The Original Series," reportedly died Friday in her home in Coarsegold, California. No cause of death has been reported. She was 85. The versatile actress and vocalist was born Mary Ann Chase in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930. She was adopted by the Whitney family, and as a teenager, began her career in entertainment as a singer and dancer. She eventually became interested in acting and in 1966, clinched a role as Yeoman Janice Rand, a personal assistant to William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk in the first season of the original "Star Trek" TV series.
God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand (Score:5, Insightful)
That is all
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Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to think she was pretty hot back on the old Star Trek days....
Well, sounds like she had a full life....say hello to Leonard, Deforest and James for us all!!
Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed. I recall what St. Nikolai Velimirovic said about death:
"Think of yourself as though you were dead, I say to myself, and you will not feel the coming of death. Blunt the barb of death during life, and when it comes it will not have the means to sting. Think of yourself every morning as a newborn miracle, and you will not feel old age. Do not wait for death to come, because death has indeed already come and has not left you. Its teeth are continually in your flesh. Whatever was living before your birth and whatever will survive your death--that even now is alive within you."
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What does God need with a starship yeoman?
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What does God need with a starship yeoman?
Well, she was the former yeoman to Captain James. T. Kirk, so that's gotta look pretty good on her resume.
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She did a good work, and she did other moviers, but his character at Start Trek becomes unique too. A great merit.
Wish she rest in piece with the stars.
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Red-shirts can hide for a while, but death always catches up to them!
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Informative)
She may have been a minor character, but I remember the first time I watched Return Of Spock, and there was her cameo in Space Dock as the wounded Enterprise limped in. It was pretty emotional scene, and it was nice to see one of the second tier actors again. I thought it was pretty damned nice of Nimoy to bring her back for that cameo.
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Informative)
I thought it was pretty damned nice of Nimoy to bring her back for that cameo.
Nimoy was pretty dammed nice all around...
For Star Trek 6, he pushed the studio to give DeForest a big raise to $1 millon as thanks for all that he had done. DeForest had never been paid much and was actually rather poor, driving an old beat up car and living in a small home without much savings.
If you look into it, Nimoy has a history of looking out for other people. A real nice person. Hopefully he was beamed right up, where it is we all go...
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I can't believe Kelley was screwed around like that. For chrissakes, he was the only actor in The Motion Picture who appeared to have any motion, and he was absolutely critical to TOS's success. In fact, one of the big problems I have with the fandom TOS continuations is that they haven't found a strong Dr. McCoy, and it feels like a jelly filled doughnut without the jelly.
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I can't believe Kelley was screwed around like that.
I wonder if that's SOP by the studios. Pay actors, crew, whoever starving wages unless the particular person is in such demand is when studios will cave in and pay a livable wage. I was talking with a dancer who was approached by Dancing With The Stars production team, she turned it down because they offered something pitiful like $200 (yes, that is one "2" and two "zeros"). Though she does well competing Open Pro and coaching, she isn't that rich to abandoned that for a TV show. Fer christsakes, the stage
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Film crew here.
If you work for a major studio like Paramount, in California, everyone's supposed to be in a union so they can't get away with paying people a pittance, you're generally guaranteed a living wage, even a very good one, if you can keep working all year (and if you can keep it consistent enough you'll get health and pension). The people you hear cheating at this aren't usually big studios, but little fly-by-night operations making TV movies in the valley, and production companies in right-to-wo
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FWIW, I thought Eomer hammered the role rather well...
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The first time I saw the movie which was in a theater, *I* immediately identified her as Janice Rand.
Since she was the same actor playing the part as if she was the same character, she was playing Janice Rand.
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I dunno, most of the continuities identify that particular lieutenant commander as Janice Rand, and we see Grace Lee Whitney as Rand in Star Trek I, identified by name as Rand, and again in Star Trek VI as Excelsior's comm officer, not identified there, but later in that Voyager episode where Tuvok remembers his service on Excelsior and LtCm Janice Rand is identified as the officer and is a
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I get the impression they were trying to make her a more major character... However she had some personal issues that got in the way.
Re:Yawn. (Score:4, Informative)
I get the impression they were trying to make her a more major character... However she had some personal issues that got in the way.
She said [wikipedia.org] that she was not given a more prominent role, and was eventually removed from the series, because the producers wanted Kirk to have romantic relationships with different women in each episode, to make the show more interesting. So she was written out.
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She said [wikipedia.org] that she was not given a more prominent role, and was eventually removed from the series, because the producers wanted Kirk to have romantic relationships with different women in each episode, to make the show more interesting. So she was written out.
By "different", did they mean green?
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
Well, 50 shades of green.
Re:Yawn. (Score:4, Interesting)
On her IMDB page, she says they wanted to do more with her character, but then realized they had a black girl and two blonds. "One of the blondes have to go. The other one was engaged to the boss, so guess who went?"
I was surprised when I saw she was only in 8 of the episodes from the first season. Seemed like she handed Kirk the clipboard more often than that.
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On her IMDB page, she says they wanted to do more with her character, but then realized they had a black girl and two blonds. "One of the blondes have to go. The other one was engaged to the boss, so guess who went?"
To be fair to Roddenberry, Majel was already demoted from first officer (brunette) to nurse, to keep Spock on the show.
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I get the impression they were trying to make her a more major character... However she had some personal issues that got in the way.
They were going to play off the sexual tension between her and Kirk and have this simmering but never acted upon kind of thing between them. I wonder if she had remained in the series would Kirk have become the space-slut he's famous for?
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The captain having an affair with a subordinate, let alone a co-worker, my-oh-my. I'd bet what is a really bad idea in the 21st century would still be a bad idea in the 23rd
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The Undiscovered Country (Score:3)
Warp speed ahead.
only 8 episodes, but 4 of the movies (Score:2)
Dressed for success? (Score:3)
I see in a quick search for Yeoman Janice Rand [google.com] that the good yeoman was a redshirt [wikipedia.org]. So, how could she possibly have lasted this long...?
In any event, thanks for the memories, Grace.
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Wasn't Scotty a red shirt too?
Scotty was killed in an episode, but then brought back to life.
Re:Dressed for success? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Miri, I believe was the name of the episode.
I really enjoyed the romantic tension between Kirk and Rand. It was relatively subtle and sweet. Wish the producers had kept that going rather than send Kirk to boldy screw every woman he encountered.
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I'm not even actually a Trekkie, but I'm a pedant, and you're wrong. She beamed down to the planet in "Miri" (the episode with the "grups"), and the kids even kidnapped her. She got infected with the nasty disease and developed those lesions. She was wearing red, but survived the episode.
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She had the Protection of Kirk by being his favourite yeoman, so although she was a minor character who wore red she was never in any real danger.
Re:Dressed for success? (Score:4, Informative)
Fat load of good it did her. She got sexually assaulted by a drunk studio exec (And refused to ever name him. She didnt want to cause trouble and only revealed what happened later on). However Nimoy was aware of what happened and becamse a staunch defender of her. So whilst Kirks good graces where of doubtful providence, Spock was certainly on her side.
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That Sounds Logical
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If "she was never in any real danger" from Kirk, I guess all STDs must have been eradicated by then.
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Haven't you ever heard of male privilege? Dulce et decorum est pro nauarchus mori.
What else was she in? (Score:2)
It's always fun to look up what else people have been in. One that caught my eye was Ms Whitney as an uncredited band member in the still brilliantly goofy Some Like It Hot [imdb.com].
...laura.
Sad to hear. (Score:1)
I, like Kirk, always had a crush on Janice Rand. It's sad to see her go.