'Star Trek' actress Celeste Yarnall dies after battle with ovarian cancer
Celeste Yarnall, a film and TV access who rose to fame in the ’60s and ’70s, died Sunday at her home in Westlake Village, Calif., after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer. She was 74.
Yarnall is beloved by Star Trek fans for playing Chekov’s love interest, Martha Landon, in a 1967 episode called “The Apple.” Her one-time appearance was enough to make a lasting impression, as she was a beloved figure on the convention circuit.
Yarnall’s husband of nine years, British artist Nazim Nazim, confirmed news of her passing to the Hollywood Reporter. “She was magnificent in everything she did,” he said. “She was my beloved queen.”
Rick and Ozzie Nelson discovered Yarnall when she walked past their studio offices on the way to an audition. Her first acting credit came from an episode on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1962.
Elvis Presley buffs will remember Yarnall from the 1968 film Live a Little, Love a Little. She played Ellen, a girl Presley tries to woo at a party who says things won’t work out between them because he’s a Sagittarius. He ends up singing “A Little Less Conversation” to Ellen in one of the movie’s most memorable scenes. That same year, she played jungle goddess Eve, the long-lost granddaughter of Christopher Lee’s character, in the cult classic Eve.
Other credits include appearances on the TV shows Bewitched, Land of the Giants, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., as well as in the films The Nutty Professor, Beast of Blood, and The Velvet Vampire, among others.
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