# Yeoman Rand has died
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 4, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229 "2015-05-04T11:44:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/1 "2015-05-04T11:44:27Z")
[Yeoman Rand has died.](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/grace-lee-whitney-dead-star-793031)
Early Star Trek fan here. Used to just imagine what the Captain and the Yeoman did to occupy themselves during those long space flights! Loved her outfits.
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### Author:  [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/2 "2015-05-04T13:11:43Z")
Possibly the most amazing hairstyle ever to grace a science fiction set, and it must have been a lot of work to keep in order. I rather liked Rand as a character and it was a shame Whitney left the show after only half a season.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/3 "2015-05-04T13:12:47Z")
That had to be a wig, right?
Apparently Whitney had some serious personal issues, and I hope she overcame them.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/4 "2015-05-04T13:32:44Z")
I thought she did very well in her few episodes.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/5 "2015-05-04T14:48:25Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#):
>
> I rather liked Rand as a character and it was a shame Whitney left the show after only half a season.
Was it just half a season? I felt like she was there the whole first season. In my mind, she requested a transfer when that nebbishy Chekov guy came aboard.
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### Author:  [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/6 "2015-05-04T15:29:10Z")
I never would have guessed she was almost a year older than Shatner.
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### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/7 "2015-05-04T15:54:24Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> Was it just half a season? I felt like she was there the whole first season. In my mind, she requested a transfer when that nebbishy Chekov guy came aboard.
She was only in eight episodes, and was then released from her contract (read: fired). Reasons given for her being let go vary, from simple budget cuts, to limited story possibilities, to her drug and alcohol problems making her unreliable, to her being sexually assaulted by an unnamed producer, which apparently happened only days before she was fired.
Whatever the true story behind her release from Star Trek, her struggles with substance abuse are well documented and rather heartbreaking. She was able to get clean eventually, and made a bit of a comeback in later years at conventions, and appearing as Janice Rand in some of the movies.
I’m sad to learn of her passing. Yeoman Rand was one of the few regular women characters on original Star Trek, and it’s a shame she wasn’t treated with more dignity.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/8 "2015-05-04T15:59:27Z")
And another piece of my childhood passes. RIP GLW - your legs fueled any number of young men’s dreams.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/9 "2015-05-04T16:56:34Z")
I was just mentioning her to the SO a few weeks ago.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/10 "2015-05-04T19:14:06Z")
(heavy sigh)
I wonder if we’ll ever know the whole truth about her departure from the show.
I was never quite ‘comfortable’ with her role on the show. Not sure what she did.
OK just what the heck is a “yeomen”?
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/11 "2015-05-04T19:22:51Z")
R.I.P.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/12 "2015-05-04T19:23:21Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#):
>
> I never would have guessed she was almost a year older than Shatner.
Well, Shatner was only 35 at the series outset. 36 is hardly hagdom, even in 1967.
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> I wonder if we’ll ever know the whole truth about her departure from the show.
I’d suspect the Great Bird of the Galaxy’s extensible claws had something to do with it. Old-school casting-couch f\*ck-em-all type, he was.
> [@](#):
>
> I was never quite ‘comfortable’ with her role on the show. Not sure what she did.
“I suggest you ask your mothers what a ‘captain’s woman’ is.” - Gene L. Coon, to three young women who petitioned him for the nice Captain Kirk to have a ‘Captain’s Woman’ as in the mirror-mirror episode.
A yeoman in the navy is a petty officer.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/13 "2015-05-04T19:25:42Z")
Grace Lee Whitney, RIP, we’ll miss you.
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### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/14 "2015-05-04T19:40:56Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> OK just what the heck is a “yeomen”?
As I understand it (disclaimer: I am not now, nor ever have been, in the military), “yeoman” is what’s called a “rating,” rather than a rank. Something like a job title. Yeomen do administrative and clerical work.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/15 "2015-05-04T19:58:09Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> “I suggest you ask your mothers what a ‘captain’s woman’ is.” - Gene L. Coon.
Surely that was Bjo Trimble, who answered much of _ **TOS** _’s fan mail? :dubious:
> [@](#):
>
> A yeoman in the navy is a petty officer.
A yeoman is a navy clerical worker. In other words, Rand was the Captain’s private secretary.
RIP, Grace.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/16 "2015-05-04T20:05:33Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Well, Shatner was only 35 at the series outset. 36 is hardly hagdom, even in 1967.
Was Yeoman Rand supposed to come across as a young hottie? To me, she always looked like somone who was approaching middle age; not old, but not particularly young either.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/17 "2015-05-04T20:10:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> I’d suspect the Great Bird of the Galaxy’s extensible claws had something to do with it. Old-school casting-couch f\*ck-em-all type, he was.
_gasp_
Not Nurse Chapel, too!
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/18 "2015-05-04T20:19:54Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> … I’d suspect the Great Bird of the Galaxy’s extensible claws had something to do with it. Old-school casting-couch f\*ck-em-all type, he was. …
Yeah, Roddenberry was rather notorious for the casting-couch stuff. (The proof is right there on the screen: of the original series female guest stars, maybe two could actually act.)
Whatever the facts of Whitney’s dismissal, the fact that she lived to be 85 has to cast at least _some_ doubt on the ‘too drugged/drunk to be employable’ story. Sure, people do get clean, but then again, not all stay that way. It’s quite possible that she was never an addict at all, but that the story was circulated to cover up someone else’s bad behavior.
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### Author:  [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/19 "2015-05-04T20:31:23Z")
One of the saddest episodes in all Star Trek history …
Actually, scratch that, IMHO, it was one of the saddest episodes in all of TV history.
Again, it’s just my opinion, but I always believed the reason why that beautiful girl was fired was due to a conflict between the asshole Shatner and his massive ego.
There were only a few hints about the story. I figured most people were afraid to talk. But there’s no real way to know the truth unless and until someone spills it.
But don’t you think it was always very strange the way that no one ever had anything nice to say about Billy? Oh sure, not too many people said anything bad. But there was a remarkable shortage of anyone with something good to say about him.
Moreover, didn’t it seem odd that someone with such a mssive amount of experience (in his mind) seemed to be offered such a small amount of work? little employment? I always got the impression that people in the business just didn’t want to work with him.
Am I mistaken or didn’t many of his employers, in one way or another, turn out to be Bill Shatner?
I could be mistaken, for sure, but I always got the impression that he was just a massive prick and was partly responsible for the firing of Ms. Rand - primarily because she was getting too much attention from the public to suit him.
I think that also had something to do with the reason why Leonard Nimoy (in particular) but also the entire rest of the cast never had anything nice to say about Bill Shatner.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yeoman-rand-has-died/719229/20 "2015-05-04T20:41:19Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> Yeah, Roddenberry was rather notorious for the casting-couch stuff. (The proof is right there on the screen: of the original series female guest stars, maybe two could actually act.)
What explains the males, then?
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