10 TV Shows Star Trek Actors Want You To Forget
1. Star Trek The Original Series - Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney appeared in the first season of the Original Series as the captain's Yeoman, Janice Rand. She was obviously being set up to be a main, albeit supporting, character on the bridge of the Enterprise. Then, quite suddenly she was gone from the ship and no one discussed the reason why.
The truth is one of those sinister tales from Hollywood. The actor had been sexually assaulted by a producer on the show, whom she refused to name in her autobiography, where she outlined the crime, which led to her dismissal from Star Trek,
This was followed by a dark period of her life, sinking into alcohol dependency and unemployment. In something of a silver lining to the story, DeForest Kelley discovered her on the unemployment line and encouraged her to begin attended conventions in the seventies, as the fans had been asking about her. This led to her appearing in four of the films in the franchise, along with an episode of Voyager.
While this success helped to turn her life around, her son recalled that she was far more interested in being a survivor of addiction than in being an actor from Star Trek.