Beyond Batgirl: An Appreciation of Yvonne Craig
Shock is still settling in as word of Yvonne Craig’s passing is being processed. Craig was an iconic actress, best known for her work as Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, on the TV series Batman, and the main focus in remembrances pouring out the world over are on her work with this character.
But she was more than just Barbara. Craig herself deserves special consideration for her work in a large number of projects, displaying considerable range and depth that allowed her to be considered one of the better actresses of her time.
While many of her other roles would also build off of her earlier ballet experience, which led to her becoming a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo company, she showed more breadth than simply being a dancer who used an acting gig as a chance to perform. She brought considerable craft to quite a few roles, even if she did draw a lot of gigs where she was required to rely on her dance experiences. Typecasting being what it is, well…
The fact that not every role called on her training the way her fights in Batman drew on her ballet skills is testament as to her ability. We can look back on some highlights of her work to appreciate her contributions to some of the well-remembered films and television shows of the time, and how her appearances made some of these even more fondly remembered:
The Young Land
Columbia Pictures, 1959
Craig’s first notable acting role was part of a continuation, in that producer Patrick Ford (John Ford’s son) cast her for the female lead opposite John Wayne’s son Patrick, who as sheriff has to bring Dennis Hopper to justice in pre-statehood California. Ironically, this was a fitting way to introduce herself to the world at large, beginning her career alongside Wayne the younger and Hopper early in theirs; while not as fondly recalled today, we all had to start somewhere.
It Happened at the World’s Fair
MGM, 1963
After a number of television appearances, including six times as six different characters on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Craig got not one but two chances of a romantic pairing with Elvis Presley on screen. The first time, she loses out on his affection to Joan O’Brien…
Kissin’ Cousins
MGM, 1964
…but manages to win out the next time, probably aided by the fact that there were two Elvises (Elvi?) this time around; also, in this one, she’s the one with the gun. The fact that Craig got major roles in successive movies opposite Elvis is testament to how much Elvis and his people thought of her and her talent, and how well she made a connection with the King onscreen.
My Favorite Martian: “Keep Me From the Church on Time”
CBS, 1965
Before Batman, there was Uncle Martin. Her first notable genre role came when one of Uncle Martin’s wacky inventions, a “futeroid camera,” showed his host Tim getting hitched to a woman 24 hours from now; if this seems too out there because you’re not familiar with the show, just follow along; it’s easier that way. Craig manages to play well off of Bill Bixby and, had it not been for the contrivance of the plot, could have made an interesting regular for the show as it rolled through its last season.
The Wild Wild West: “The Night of the Grand Emir”
CBS, 1966
Craig’s role on this series, the ultimate progenitor of the “Steampunk” movement, was a guest star in the role of “Ecstasy La Joie,” an assassin tasked with killing the Grand Emir of the Ottoman Empire on his visit to Washington during President Grant’s Administration. The layers she brings to the character as both foil and fascination for Robert Conrad’s Jim West made for one of her more memorable performances.
One Spy Too Many
MGM, 1966
One of the eight stories from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. re-released to theaters, all of Craig’s scenes were additionally shot to add both length and a certain amount of spice to the original story (the two-part “The Alexander the Greater Affair”). The fact that after flirting with Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo throughout the film, we find out that she’s Maude Waverly, niece to his boss, makes her appearance an even bigger tease than anything she displays on screen.
In Like Flint
20th Century Fox, 1967
The second Derek Flint film finds Craig in a role that hews closely to her background, as Natasha, a member of the Bolshoi Ballet who tries to seduce and turn James Coburn’s Flint on behalf of the evil matriarchy Fabulous Face. No, this was not a cinematic gem, but she gamely holds up her own in the time she has on screen.
Mars Needs Women
American International (TV syndication), 1967
A film so bad, American International bypassed releasing it to theaters and went straight for late-night TV, which should tell you something about the quality. Craig gets off easy here by playing a scientist who got her Nobel in “space genetics,” compared with costars among the titular women, who were a homecoming queen, a stewardess, and a stripper. The plan is foiled when her intended mate and the leader of the expedition Dop (Tommy Kirk during the downward trajectory of his career) gets feelings for her, and the Martians leave Earth without their targets. In the end, Mars gets depopulated, and we got a cult film that so inspired musicians that it gave us Frank Zappa’s “Manx Needs Woman” and Rob Zombie’s “Mars Needs Women.” Craig is two for two with this role in taking what little she has to work with and making better of it that it deserved.
Star Trek: “Whom Gods Destroy”
NBC, 1969
Some of Craig’s obits delve briefly into this role as well, as a bipolar Orion slave girl Marta serving at the side of Garth of Izar at an insane asylum; when your entire body is painted green and you then have to seduce Captain Kirk, yeah, people will remember that. Craig’s Marta was given plenty to bring to the show, including a recitation of Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet (which the character claims she wrote that morning), none of which saves her from an ignoble end before Kirk and Spock bring order to Elba II.
Land of the Giants: “Wild Journey”
ABC, 1970
With Batgirl now a few years behind her, this would be her one of her last times on screen in a prominent role; here, she makes the most of it as time-traveling alien Berna. She’s haughty, condescending, and prone to making life hell for the pilots of the Spindrift; she’s also the “good cop” compared to her partner Thorg, played by Bruce Dern.
The next decade would see the roles getting smaller for Craig, as walk-ons on Starsky & Hutch and The Six Million Dollar Man came to define her career; Craig would transition out of these into real estate and pioneering the prepaid phone card business, showing us that as always, she was more than just a single role, in life as well as on screen.
She will be dearly missed.
