Yvonne Craig, who co-starred with Elvis Presley in two movies, passed away on Monday, August 17. She died after a long two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 78.
When I read in Graceland.com/news that Yvonne Craig had passed away, I said to my wife, “My favorite Elvis co-star just died.” Then I had to think about if she really was. Certainly Ann Margret and Shelly Fabares are up there in my list of favorites, and I absolutely loved Michele Carey, Jocelyn Lane, and Ann Helm in their roles.
So, to settle this confusion, I used the ElvisBlog “Search” box to see which actress I had written about the most. It was no contest. Yvonne Craig had been mentioned in nine posts, and pictured in seven of them. Definitely my fav.
Here are excerpts from some of those old articles.
The Elvis / Star Trek Connection – Posted August 23, 2009:
This post featured three actresses who had appeared in both Elvis movies and Star Trek TV episodes: Celeste Yarnall, Teri Garr, and Yvonne Craig. In a Star Trek episode in 1967, “Whom Gods Destroy,” Yvonne Craig played Marta, a green-skinned inmate at the Federation asylum on Elba ll. She was delusional, seductive and skilled in exotic dance. The evil Garth of Izar coerced her to carry out a plot to assassinate Captain Kirk.
Leave it to Mr. Spock to spoil all the fun. Here’s a shot off-screen with lots of fun going on.
The 2009 ElvisBlog article of course mentioned that Yvonne starred in two Elvis movies. She had a small part in It Happened at the World’s Fair and a major one in Kissin’ Cousins.
Yvonne was friendly with Elvis off-screen, too, if this picture is any indication.
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Dancing Elvis (In the Movies) – Posted March 11, 2012:
This post featured photos showing that Elvis not only sang to his female co-stars, he also danced with several lucky ones. I can’t say I remember either of these outfits in the film Kissin’ Cousins, but I like the shot.
Elvis Movie 50th Anniversary Pictorials — It Happened at the World’s Fair – Posted April 22, 2013:
After giving proper attention to Elvis’ co-star Joan O’Brien and cute five-year-old Sue-Lin, I showed six stills from my favorite Elvis movie scene – with Yvonne Craig – and it has nothing to do with the plot
Elvis shows up at the house where Yvonne Craig lives, and in no time they are doing this.
Then, she decides things are getting too hot and pulls away. Elvis chases her all over the living room like a hound dog on the scent.
Believe it or not, Elvis had time to sing a song during all that. It is said that Elvis dated Yvonne Craig during the filming of the movie. And, he must have liked her acting skills so much that he elevated her to co-star status a year later in Kissin’ Cousins.
This post also included this Italian poster for the movie. You don’t see any picture of Joan O’Brien on it, do you? Those Italians know what is important for bringing people to see Elvis movies – multiple fight shots and hot Yvonne Craig.
Random Thoughts on Encore’s Elvis Collection — Part 4 – Posted May 18, 2013:
Many films got mentioned in this post, including:
I offered a trivia question based on something I noticed on the DVD credits. “What actress was number eight in the cast credits but ended up with Elvis at the end of the movie?” The answer was Yvonne Craig. Check it out.
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Elvis Movies 50th Anniversary Pictorial: Kissin’ Cousins – Posted March 9, 2014:
I started this post off with the following comment:
“Serious reviews of Kissin’ Cousins lament that it was the start of a bad trend in Elvis movies – low-budget, quickie-filmed, light-weight fluff. Some even call it his worse movie. I don’t care. I like Kissin’ Cousins for one reason: Yvonne Craig.”
Yes, she is definitely at the top of my list. You’ve already see two photos of Yvonne Craig from this post, but here are three others.
I searched Google for a later day photo of Yvonne Craig. I found one, but I also found this:
Wow! She had a great body all right, but this must be Photoshopped. However, that didn’t keep me from immediately making it my screen-saver.
This is a photo of Yvonne Craig taken at the 2008 Screaming TikiCon convention by someone who has a blog but doesn’t want to give his name. She is holding a drawing of herself as Batgirl, a roll she had in the 1967 season of the Batman TV series. She looks very good for seventy-one years old.
This 2012 picture of her is the most recent I could find.
Good bye, Yvonne Craig. We’ll miss you.
Say hi to Elvis for us.
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