Yvonne Craig

Short Biography

Born in Taylorville, Illinois, on May 16, 1937, Yvonne Craig began her professional career as a dancer. Upon leaving a prestigious ballet company in 1957 due to a disagreement, Craig went to Hollywood to pursue work as a dancer but instead took an acting job in the 1957 release Eighteen and Anxious, her first film. In 1960, Craig married actor Jimmy Boyd, whom she met while filming High Time.Craig's acting career kicked into high gear at about the time she and Boyd divorced in 1962. She appeared in two Elvis Presley films, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964), and even dated Presley for a brief period. She also starred in the cult favorites Ski Party (1965; with Frankie Avalon and Deborah Walley) and Mars Needs Women (1966; with Tommy Kirk).In the late 1960s, Craig began to phase out her acting career, choosing instead to sell real estate, a venture which was successful for her. Her film and television appearances proved to be sporadic since then, although she appeared in How to Frame a Figg (1971) and Diggin' Up Business (1990) and made appearances on the series Emergency! and Starsky and Hutch. Craig passed away on August 17, 2015, from cancer. She is survived by her husband, Kenneth, a sister, and two nephews.