TV's Batgirl Yvonne Craig Dead at 78

Yvonne Craig, who played the sexy, crime-fighting Batgirl in the 1960s TV hit Batman, has died. She was 78. Craig died Monday at her Los Angeles home from complications from breast cancer, her family says. She began her career as a ballet dancer, the youngest member of The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with which she toured for three years. Then she was discovered by Hollywood, appearing in a 1958 episode of Perry Mason and in the 1959 feature The Young Land. After that, she won dozens of roles in TV shows, as well as co-starred in two 1960s Elvis Presley films, It Happened at the World's Fair and Kissin' Cousins.

But she was best known as Batgirl (and her alter ego, librarian Barbara Gordon) in the 1967-68 season of ABC's Batman. Another memorable TV role, from an episode of the original Star Trek: the green Orion Slave Girl who wanted to kill Captain Kirk. Her many other TV appearances included Dobie Gillis, 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mod Squad, Love, American Style, Kojak, and The Six Million Dollar Man. In later years, Craig pursued various business ventures, but also did voiceover work, including the role of Grandma in the recent Nickelodeon cartoon series Olivia. (More television stories.)