It took puberty to get me to really appreciate the late Yvonne Craig. Growing up on "Batman," as a pre-teen, I resented her third season intrusion into a crimefighting team that seemed to me to be doing okay on its own. I mean, what's the deal with this CHICK pulling Batman's cahones out of the fire on a weekly basis? I hadn't met Wesley Crusher yet, but that's another story.
I'm thankful that I've never outgrown the Adam West "Batman." The little boy who eagerly sat in front of the television to see how the Dynamic Duo would escape being turned into postage stamps or human Slurpees developed into an adult who enjoys watching the choreography of the elaborate fight sequences, the aging movie stars having a ball playing the rogues' gallery, and recognizing the faces popping out of windows during a Batclimb that I never registered as a kid.
It was in those fight sequences that you can't take your eyes off of Batgirl. She leaps with elan from setpiece to setpiece, dispatching the bad guys with a perfectly timed ballerina kick, grinning from ear to ear. It's infectious! And she always disappears, before Bats has "time to thank her." It also adds to the delightful cluelessness of the over-earnest Commissioner Gordon, who never realizes that her secret identity is his very own daughter.
It saddens me to see Yvonne hidden behind the Batgirl mask even on her own IMDB entry, because she was EVERYWHERE on television and movies in the 60s. So here's a rundown of some of Yvonne's highlights on other programs and films, all available for your persual on DVD or streaming video.
She plays a spoiled brat socialite in an episode of the forgotten Blake Edwards series "Mr. Lucky" (DVD), entitled "Little Miss Wow." Her disappearance throws Lucky and Adamo (John Vivyan, Ross Martin) into a heap of trouble, and it's all they can do not to spank her.
Yvonne recurred on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (DVD) as a variety of vixens to tempt our hero.
Her big break in the movies came in 1963, more than holding her own opposite the King himself, Elvis Presley in "It Happened at the World's Fair," followed in the next year by "Kissin' Cousins."
Craig could play not only beauty, but brainy as well, as evidenced on her "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," (DVD, Hulu) where she plays an old flame of Lee Crane's (David Hedison) in "Turn Back the Clock."
She appeared opposite another Presley sidekick, Bill Bixby, in the final season of "My Favorite Martian" as a waitress that almost gets Bixby to the alter in "Keep Me From the Church on Time" (DVD). Here, her penchant for comedy is on ample display. Another notable guest in the episode is Noam Pitlik, a character actor who would go on to great acclaim as a director, helming many classic episodes of "Barney Miller."
In a role that might have made James Bond blush, Yvonne tries to assassinate a sultan in the "Wild Wild West" episode, "Night of the Grand Emir." She plays a seductress named ... wait for it ... Ecstasy La Joie (DVD). This is the first of many television appearances that really makes use of her talents as a dancer.
She seduces James Coburn in 1967's film "In Like Flint" as Natasha, the ballerina.
Then Batgirl came a-calling. Yvonne Craig produced an eight minute pilot film, viewable on YouTube, which never panned out to a series, but she was added to "Batman" in the final season in a last-ditch effort to save the show. While the maneuver failed, it was hardly due to the addition of Batgirl, but more to an obvious decline in budgetary allowances.
Somewhere around the waning days of "Batman," she essayed her SECOND most famous television role, that of the ill-fated Orion slave girl Marta in the "Star Trek" episode "Whom Gods Destroy." While this is NOT one of "Trek"s finest hours, I confess that it's a guilty pleasure of mine, largely due to Craig and her scenery-chewing co-star Steve Ihnat. And yes, again she dances, alluringly, to which Spock wryly comments that it's reminiscent of the dances done by Vulcan children who are, admittedly, less limber.
Through the 70s, Yvonne's exotic good looks and acting chops were adequate for shows like "Mannix," "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "Emergency!" But towards the end of the decade, she dropped out of show business, and like her Caped co-star Burt Ward, worked in real estate.
Show business never really left her, however, and in later years, she voiced "Grandma" in the Nickelodeon cartoon "Olivia."
In all, you'll find 86 credits to Yvonne Craig's filmography on IMDB, and the ones above are just the ones I can personally vouch for. For those of you who don't know her as Batgirl, when you see her, you'll probably be thinking "oh ... THAT girl!" As the Batgirl theme lyrics go, "where did you come from, where do you go?" Where have you gone indeed! Thanks for the memories, Yvonne Craig.
