Grace Lee Whitney, 85, the futuristic-clipboard-bearing Yeoman Janice Rand on the original series of “Star Trek,” died this weekend in the town of Coarsegold, California, her family confirmed. No cause of death was reported. Whitney, a recovering alcoholic, spent the last 35 years of her life helping others with addiction problems, often at women’s correctional facilities or the Salvation Army, her family said.
LOS ANGELES — Grace Lee Whitney, who played Captain Kirk’s assistant on the original “Star Trek” series, has died. She was 85. Whitney died of natural causes Friday in her home in the Central California town of Coarsegold, about 50 miles north of Fresno, her son Jonathan Dweck said on Sunday. Whitney played Yeoman Janice Rand in the first eight episodes before being written out of the series. In her 1998 autobiography “The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy,” she wrote that her acting career largely came to an end and she became an alcoholic.
