Yvonne Craig as ‘Batgirl’ on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1967.
The late Yvonne Craig, who died in 2015, had a long and successful career as a television actress but will always be remembered, by countless rabid fans, for exactly two roles. That’s the funny thing about rabid fandom — devotees of a film or show watch it endlessly, they invite its stars to conventions and they never ever forget. In 1967 and 1968, Craig appeared in 26 episodes of Batman, the campy TV series starring Adam West, as Barbara Gordon — Commissioner Gordon’s niece, who secretly fought crime alongside Batman as Batgirl. Then in 1969, Craig played the seductive, green-skinned, but ultimately doomed Orion female Marta in “Whom Gods Destroy,” the 69th episode of Star Trek. That was one character, in one episode of Star Trek but you know how Trekkies are. Thanks to Marta and Batgirl, Craig will forever loom large in the pantheon of classic cult-TV babes.