Grace Lee Whitney was an actress best known for her role as Yeoman Janice Rand, personal assistant to Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) during the first season of the original Star Trek series in 1966.

Whitney appeared in only eight episodes of the television show, but reprised her role in the movie franchise, beginning with 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and followed by Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In the latter, her character was finally promoted to lieutenant. She also played Rand in a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager and two years later she joined her former co-stars George Takei, Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett for a guest appearance on the series Diagnosis Murder. She wrote about her Star Trek experiences in her 1998 memoir, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy.

Her other television appearances included roles on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Real McCoys, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, The Untouchables, 77 Sunset Strip, The Outer Limits, Cannon, Wagon Train, Bewitched, Batman, Rango, The Outsider and Hart to Hart.

She also had several small roles in films, including Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot and Irma la Douce, as well as in Top Banana, reprising her role from the Broadway production.

In 1952 she served as the inspiration for the Chicken of the Sea mermaid in ads for the canned tuna.

Whitney died May 1, 2015, in Coarsegold, California. She was 85.