Goodbye Lovely Batgirl Yvonne Craig (1937-2015)
Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 7:16PM 
[sniffle]
I've probably told you this before but when I was a child and they used to show reruns of the old Batman series on tv, I would tense up during opening credits. If the image to your left did not appear I would run outside to play. That sudden Batgirl swing with a kick (who knew that kicks made a "BONG!" sound?) meant that she would appear in the episode and even if I'd seen the episode before I would always watch again.
So yesterday when I heard the news that Yvonne Craig, one of the first celebrities I ever crushed on -- before I even understood what crushes were -- had died of cancer I couldn't even write about it. I needed time to process...
a wealth of photos available on this fan page
a fun promo shot
Elvis' Leading Lady in "Kissing Cousins"
with Sal Mineo for The Gene Krupa Story (1959)
Her most famous role
Yvonne in "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
arms akimbo... as superheroes must!
I don't even need the lyrics in that video to sing along to that song!
This next anecdote always surprises even my lifelong friends, as if it doesn't compute and they keep forgetting it. My dad had a motorcycle so I spent a lot of time on the back of his bike as a child. I instinctively knew never to tell Dad that I was pretending to be Batgirl every time. To clarify: Pretending to be Batgirl doesn't surprise my friends -tis the motorcycle part.
I loved everything about Batgirl... but particularly the way her mask included a red wig -- that'll throw 'em off the trail! Gingers forever, even if it's in wig form.
Yvonne Craig was born a midwestern girl logging time in Illionis and Ohio before moving to Texas at 13 and eventually making it to Los Angeles. She started as a ballerina, then moved into acting in both film and television. Her most famous roles were the genre parts that made great use of her terrific body. Batgirl of course but also that infamous green slave girl in Star Trek. She wrote about her career and Batgirl in particular in her memoir "From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond".
I've read that she was always lovely and genuine in person . She must have known that she made millions of little girls and little actressexual boys happy as television's first female superhero.
RIP Yvonne.
Reader Comments (10)
I'm sad about it, and I usually take these things in stride.
Yvonne Craig is dead. (Sigh). At this point, the only one who could reliably hope on seeing a new GOOD live-action Bat Family on screen before dying is Burt Ward, and that probably relies on Batman v. Superman flopping. (Which it will, because it's a $225+ million sequel to a movie that probably lost at least half it's audience and turned off the concept of a substantial number of DVD pick-ups.) Bruno Heller? Zack Snyder? WB prioritizing Wondie over the far easier to do Batgirl? This is on YOU.
I love this. Those early TV crushes are everything.
i feel guilty stomping on baby nathaniel's happy memory, but...
batgirl was the cousin oliver of gotham city
^^crazy talk
Batgirl was everything. Her wall rotated around to reveal the Batgirl makeup table and vanity mirror. No "batcave" for her—she did it glamorously. Her skintight outfit was purple. Her motorcycle was purple! I lived for her appearances on that TV show. Thanks for this worthy tribute.
I loved the show and I loved Batgirl. The whole conceit made me giddy.
PS. That pic of Sal is seriously turning me on. Sigh.
(Sigh). I leave the comments I do to spark discussion, whether people agree with me or not. That said:
par: I agree with Paul, that's kind of insane. Barbara (unlike the earlier Bette Kane concept who was ONLY introduced as a "gay deflection") DOES serve a good additional purpose, even if that additional purpose amounts to "at least somewhat undermine the wealth fascism inherent to this mythology." (All three Bat filmmakers to date were chasing an approximation of their view of what a thematically "pure" Batman is and a character who's entire purpose aside from a gay dodge amounts to "screw your thematic purity"? Well, that's how we get Barbara WILSON, Alfred's niece, as our only big budget cinematic Batgirl, as a way of wanting to seem like the most famous Batgirl, but in a way that doesn't undermine the thematic purity of the proceedings. Note: That breaking of Batman's thematic purity is kind of why someone as hard edged as John Ostrander CARED enough about her to make her Oracle.)
San FranCinema: But a modern live-action adaptation of Barbara should probably not go with that colour. It breaks down as, Barbara = Blue, Cass = Black, Steph = Purple.
There are scenes in the TV series where Craig as Batgirl is wearing a black leatherette look, and I almost prefer that to her usual blue-violet.
I was sad to hear of her passing, as is usually the case with deaths such as this-Donna Douglas was another-it came as a shock that she was almost 80. It shouldn't of course but when the person's major time of notoriety came in their youth their image remains youthful in thought.
Because of her background as a dancer she was very graceful as Batgirl and considering the level of acting required in that cartoony series she always performed professionally, never winking at the camera but playing it straight.
Also sad to see that Melody Patterson who played Wrangler Jane in F Troop passed away a few days after Yvonne. Whereas I was surprised that Yvonne was almost 80 it came as an even bigger surprise that Melody was only 66, apparently she was 16 when she started on F Troop and then did a few things before marrying James MacArthur, Dann-O from Hawaii-Five O and more or less retiring from acting.
Tough to see so many of those ladies from my childhood viewing leaving us especially all at once.