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Actress Grace Lee Whitney, Star Trek's Yeoman Janice Rand, Has Died

Posted by Soulskill on from the rest-in-peace dept.

SternisheFan 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.

62 comments

  1. God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is all

    1. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by fhage · · Score: 1

      Undo Fumble fingers mod. -Sorry.

    2. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Wow..I had no idea she was that old.

      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!!

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seeing people that I once thought of as 'hot' die of old age reminds me in no uncertain terms that my day is coming too. Once upon a time I probably would have loved to sneak peeks into her dressing room. At the end, she probably wore an old person's diaper 24/7. Not sexy at all.

    4. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What does God need with a starship yeoman?

      CAPTCHA: lackey
      Thanks for answering the question, CAPTCHA

    5. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by wcrowe · · Score: 4, 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."

      --
      Proverbs 21:19
    6. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    7. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by gilbertopb · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Information technology means all information.
    8. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that is awesome!

      my CAPTCHA is toasts

    9. Re:God bless and keep you, Yeoman Rand by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Red-shirts can hide for a while, but death always catches up to them!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    She was a minor character. Wake me up when Leonard Nimoy or DeForest Kelley dies.

    1. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Montgomery Scott. That'll be a sad day.

    2. Re:Yawn. by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Yawn. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Yawn. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, 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 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.

    5. Re:Yawn. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    6. Re:Yawn. by invid · · Score: 1

      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?

      --
      The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
    7. Re:Yawn. by sizzzzlerz · · Score: 1

      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

    8. Re:Yawn. by linearZ · · Score: 1

      She said 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?

      --
      Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
    9. Re:Yawn. by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, 50 shades of green.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And a minor character you'll always be, Anonymous Coward!

    11. Re:Yawn. by FlyHelicopters · · 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...

    12. Re:Yawn. by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    13. Re:Yawn. by k6mfw · · Score: 2

      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 has gillion dollar gear and a few folks making big bucks. Oh well, we all heard of "hollywood accounting."

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    14. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      FWIW, I thought Eomer hammered the role rather well...

    15. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) "The Search for Spock"
      2) Although it was the same actress, she wasn't playing Janice Rand in that scene but just a random Starfleet officer.
      3) Yes, I agree. The way she stands up and kind of shakes her head when she sees the damage on the Enterprise was somehow moving.

    16. Re:Yawn. by JillElf · · Score: 1

      But it was filmed in the mid-20th century. My mother was a legal secretary at the time. What passed for okay then would be lawsuits all around today.

    17. Re: Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Supposedly Patrick Stewart was so impressed by the salary he gt for TNG that he bought a new car. A Hyundai.

      Then again, he had been a theater man.

    18. Re:Yawn. by Agripa · · Score: 1

      2) Although it was the same actress, she wasn't playing Janice Rand in that scene but just a random Starfleet officer.

      The first time I saw the movie which was in a theater, *I* immediately identified her as Janice Rand.

      3) Yes, I agree. The way she stands up and kind of shakes her head when she sees the damage on the Enterprise was somehow moving.

      Since she was the same actor playing the part as if she was the same character, she was playing Janice Rand.

    19. Re:Yawn. by iluvcapra · · Score: 1

      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-work states like Georgia and Louisiana. Those are the sketchy operations.

      Also, most of the time nowadays actors get residual payments, every time a show they acted in airs, they get paid a little something. It's not much but if you act on TV for a long time it really adds up. In the late 60s though it was customary for TV actors to be contracted into a "buy-out," where they sold they residual rights, or they agreed to only take residuals from the first few runs of the show. Back then the idea that a show would make money in re-runs was unheard of and nobody considered demanding residuals. I think I read somewhere that specifically in the Star Trek case, the actors got residuals for the first one or two NBC network re-runs, but they didn't get any money from the syndicated re-runs, which is where Star Trek really made its money.

      Rental payments from Star Trek episodes literally kept Paramount in business in the 70s, they would have gone bankrupt without that show.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    20. Re:Yawn. by iluvcapra · · Score: 1

      2) Although it was the same actress, she wasn't playing Janice Rand in that scene but just a random Starfleet officer.

      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 major character in the episode.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    21. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In The Search for Spock she played woman in cafeteria because the makers would not pay for her to play whatever rank Rand was at the time. It was a nice touch by Leonard Nimoy.

    22. Re:Yawn. by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  3. Beam her up Scotty. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Beam up her corpse.

  4. The Undiscovered Country by Chas · · Score: 2

    Warp speed ahead.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:The Undiscovered Country by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no point.

      she'll be back with leonard nimoy. in the expansion..

  5. only 8 episodes, but 4 of the movies by peter303 · · Score: 1

    She had a falling out with an Unamed Executive in the TV series. I felt she was in more episodes.

  6. Dressed for success? by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 2

    I see in a quick search for Yeoman Janice Rand that the good yeoman was a redshirt. So, how could she possibly have lasted this long...?

    In any event, thanks for the memories, Grace.

    1. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because The Original Series had a habit of killing off Redshirts, not Redskirts.

    2. Re:Dressed for success? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Wasn't Scotty a red shirt too?

    3. Re:Dressed for success? by mrlinux11 · · Score: 1

      She did not beam down anywhere :)

    4. Re:Dressed for success? by invid · · Score: 1

      Wasn't Scotty a red shirt too?

      Scotty was killed in an episode, but then brought back to life.

      --
      The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
    5. Re:Dressed for success? by invid · · Score: 1

      She beamed down to the Lord of the Flies planet and almost died.

      --
      The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
    6. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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.

    7. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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.

    8. Re:Dressed for success? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Scotty wasn't just a red shirt - he was THE red shirt. The one that everyone who failed to live up to his level got offed / eaten alive / transporter accident / phasered one time too many / crushed by a rock ... and in the unreleased episodes, killed themselves when they thought their phaser was a blow drier, stepped into to turbo lift without checking to see if it was there, didn't realize that not all planets had earth-normal atmosphere, froze to death when they forgot the difference between 20C and 20K, at the food in the cafeteria ... (that will get you every time, no matter where you are in the universe).

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    9. Re:Dressed for success? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      You got it! And I agree, they should have kept her around, rather than Kirk doing a parody of the swaggering captain of yore.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    10. Re:Dressed for success? by mrbester · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    11. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      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.

      Yeoman Janice Rand was the sexiest female character in any of the Star Trek series. After she left Star Trek: The Original Series Captain James Tiberius Kirk became a womaniser because secretly his heart had been broken.

      I always wanted James T. Kirk as my father.

    12. Re:Dressed for success? by sg_oneill · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    13. Re:Dressed for success? by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      If "she was never in any real danger" from Kirk, I guess all STDs must have been eradicated by then.

    14. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That Sounds Logical

    15. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeoman Janice Rand was the sexiest female character in any of the Star Trek series.

      Maybe the sexiest recurring character in the ToS... Personally, my picks ahead of her would be: Vash, Robin Leffler, and Sonia Gomez (stng); B'elanna Torres (Voyager); Erzi Dax (ds9); Hoshi (enterprise);

      Of course if include non-recurring characters in the ToS (even if we restrict it to starfleet uniforms), at best, she would rank her middle of the pack...

    16. Re:Dressed for success? by hey! · · Score: 1

      Haven't you ever heard of male privilege? Dulce et decorum est pro nauarchus mori.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    17. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really enjoyed the romantic tension between Kirk and Rand. It was relatively subtle and sweet.

      I dunno. Better rewatch some of the episodes esp. Miri, The Enemy Within, Charley X...
      It wasn't that sweet (and sometimes not too subtle)

    18. Re:Dressed for success? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I heard The Damned song..

  7. The obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She's dead, Jim. Vaya con dios, Yeoman.

  8. hot by p51d007 · · Score: 0

    Well, since those shows are almost 50 years old, and she passed away at age 85, that would put her in the late 20's to early 30's when those shows were made.

    1. Re:hot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, since those shows are almost 50 years old, and she passed away at age 85, that would put her in the late 20's to early 30's when those
      shows were made.

      Star Trek premiered in 1966, 49 years ago. 85-49=36.

      That's neither late 20s or early 30s,

      You'd think that here of all places people could do basic arithmetic.

  9. I see what I did there! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see what I did there!

  10. What else was she in? by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 1

    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.

    ...laura.

  11. Sad to hear. by DNAgent · · Score: 1

    I, like Kirk, always had a crush on Janice Rand. It's sad to see her go.