You’ve probably heard the sad news that Yvonne Craig – the actress who played Batgirl in the third and final season of the 1960s Batman TV series – recently passed away after a two-year battle with breast cancer; she was 78.
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Batgirl, who was secretly the daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon and whose purple and yellow outfit contrasted with Batman’s starker look, was known for jumping into the fray along with Batman and Robin, delivering a few pows and zaps of her own to villains.
However to many she will always be remembered as Batgirl, having inspired generations of young girls by showing them that they could be heroes too.
Craig was a trained dancer who had studied at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and toured for three years.
Then came her role as Batgirl.
Her Batgirl was seen as such a feminist role model that Craig even appeared in a public service announcement with Batman and Robin to fight for equal pay for women, way back in 1973.
“They were doing a movie with John Wayne’s son Patrick, and they were looking for a leading lady”.
She was also cast as a femme fatale trying to seduce the jazz drummer of the title in the biopic The Gene Krupa Story (1960), a student befriending Bing Crosby’s restaurateur in the musical comedy High Time (1960) and a prisoner of war suffering a miscarriage in a Japanese camp in Seven Women from Hell (1961).
She also starred in two movies opposite Elvis Presley, “It Happened at the World’s Fair” and “Kissin’ Cousins“.
Craig died on Monday at her home in Pacific Palisades, California, surrounded by her family.
Her guest appearances on TV include “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, “Fantasy Island“, “The Mod Squad” and “The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis”. She was married twice, and leaves behind a husband Kenneth Aldrich.
Associated Press In this image released by Warner Bros.
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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“.
