“I hear from women that I was their role model”, Craig said in an interview.
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Not only was Craig one of the first-ever female-superheroes, she was also a dancer who did her own stunts – holy daredevil, Batgirl! In One Spy Too Many, she played the niece of UNCLE chief Mr Waverly, flirting with Napoleon Solo, and in One of Our Spies Is Missing she was the espionage agency’s secretary.
“They had taken off the shock absorbers to put on the bat wings”, she recalled of the Batgirl Cycle. It’s not easy to upstage William Shatner by quoting Shakespeare while wearing green body paint, but she did it.
But she was best known as Batgirl (and her alter ego, librarian Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter) in the 1967-68 season of ABC’s “Batman“.
Her signature plot move was to come in late and save the hapless Batman and Robin, who nonetheless went on to get all the credit.
“Most of the joy in my current life can be traced back in some way to seeing Yvonne Craig be incredible as Batgirl, my first real life hero”, said Gil Simone, a former writer of the Batgirl comics.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
Over a span of years she appeared as a guest star in many television series, including The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Giants, Mod Squad, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Love American Style, Emergency, and Courtship of Eddie’s Father just to name a few and worked opposite Bing Crosby, Sal Mineo, Don Knotts, George Hamilton, Dwayne Hickman, Dennis Hopper as well as Elvis Presley and James Coburn.
Ms Craig later pursued various business ventures, but also did voiceover work, including the role of Grandma in the recent Nickelodeon cartoon series Olivia. She also lent her support to a campaign for free mammograms for women who couldn’t afford them.
Her death was announced on her official website.
Yvonne Craig is survived by her husband, Kenneth Aldrich, her sister Meridel Carson and nephews Christopher and Todd Carson.
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The family will hold a private service but hasn’t set a date.
