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| Birth Name(s) : Grace Lee Whitney |
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Full Grace Lee Whitney Biography
Grace Lee Whitney (born April 1, 1930) is an American actress and entertainer, also known as 'Ruth Whitney' and 'Lee Whitney'. She is most famous for playing the role of Janice Rand in a number of Star Trek television series and films.
Whitney was born Mary Ann Chase in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She started her entertainment career as a "girl singer" on Detroit's WJR radio at the age of fourteen. In her late teens, she moved to Chicago and started to open in nightclubs for the likes of Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring Bands.
Whitney debuted on Broadway in Top Banana with Phil Silvers and Kaye Ballard where she played 'Miss Holland'. Following the successful run of the show, she joined the cast in Hollywood where she recreated the role in the 1954 movie of the same name. While in Los Angeles, Whitney auditioned and was cast in the starring role of 'Lucy Brown' in the national tour of The Threepenny Opera, taking over the role from Bea Arthur who had played the part on Broadway.
Whitney was cast as a member of the all-female band in Billy Wilder's classic comedy Some Like It Hot, released in 1959. She shared several scenes with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, including the famed "upper berth" sequence. In her memoir, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, she maintains that as one of the only girls in the band with a speaking role, Wilder had hired her specifically for the role of 'Rosella'. Various credit sources list the name of another actress for that role, even though she is directly addressed by the name Rosella in two different scenes in the film; the first by band leader 'Sweet Sue' (Joan Shawlee), and the second by a fellow band member.
Whitney has made more than a hundred television appearances since her television debut in Cowboy G-Men in 1953. She had guest starring roles in such westerns as Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, Wagon Train and Zane Grey Theatre, as well as other shows including 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and The Untouchables.
She had notable roles in Bewitched (as 'Babs Livingston') and Batman (as 'Neila') starring opposite comic actor Victor Buono. She also appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits entitled "Controlled Experiment" with Carroll O'Connor and Barry Morse. This episode was shot as a pilot for a proposed series starring O’Connor and Morse as two Martians sent to Earth to examine human life and experiences. CBS instead opted for the series My Favorite Martian with Ray Walston and Bill Bixby.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry cast Whitney in the role of 'Yeoman Janice Rand', the personal assistant to Captain James T. Kirk in 1966. She appeared in the first thirteen episodes; then was released from contract. She had reported while still under contract, that she was raped by an executive associated with series, and, later, in a public interview, she reported that Leonard Nimoy had been her main source of support during that time. She was not given a reason for her termination from the series. She reprised her role as Janice Rand, who had received a promotion to Chief Petty Officer (CPO), in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). She appeared again in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), with another promotion, as Lieutenant (jg) Janice Rand.
Ten years later, to celebrate the thirtieth year of the franchise, she returned to Star Trek in 1996 in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback" along with George Takei.
She has filmed roles in two internet Star Trek episodes: Star Trek: New Voyages and Star Trek: Of Gods and Men (reprising her role as Janice Rand in both). Star Trek: New Voyages premiered on August 24, 2007. Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is scheduled to debut in late 2007.
Whitney’s autobiography is entitled The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy and was released in 1998 (ISBN 1-884956-05-X). The book delves into her hiring and firing from Star Trek and her fight and eventual victory over alcohol and drug use, particularly marijuana. |
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