Grace Lee Whitney (born Mary Ann Chase; April 1, 1930 – May 1, 2015) was an American actress and singer.

Her entertainment career spanned over a half century in a variety of capacities in radio, on stage, in music as a singer and songwriter, in television and in movies.

In her late teens, she moved to Chicago, where she opened in nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring bands.

[4] Whitney came to play the iconic mermaid character while appearing on The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show on CBS Radio.

[5] Whitney debuted at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in Top Banana, with Phil Silvers and Kaye Ballard in 1952, playing Miss Holland.

[citation needed] Following the successful run of the show in New York, she joined the cast in Hollywood, where she recreated the role in the 1954 musical film of the same name.

She shared several scenes with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, including the "upper berth" sequence.

Whitney was credited as Tracey Phillips in the drama A Public Affair (1962), and as Texas Rose in the Western The Man from Galveston (1963).

)[10] She appeared on episodes of The Real McCoys, Wagon Train, The Islanders, Hennesey, The Roaring 20s, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, 77 Sunset Strip, Mike Hammer, Batman, The Untouchables, Hawaiian Eye, The Outer Limits, Bewitched, Mannix, Death Valley Days, The Big Valley, and The Virginian.

Both shows shared many of the same crew including associate producer Robert H. Justman and executive in charge of production Herbert F. Solow and eventual Star Trek co-star DeForest Kelley.

Roddenberry cast Whitney in Star Trek as Yeoman Janice Rand, the personal assistant to Captain James T. Kirk.

While the stars of the show were William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Whitney shared the same billing as DeForest Kelley, who played Dr. McCoy.

The official reason given for Whitney's departure from the show was that her character limited romantic possibilities for Captain Kirk.

She had been struggling with alcoholism, drugs, and promiscuity since she was a teenager (although she claimed never to have been drunk on the Star Trek set) but it was not until after she left the show that her addictions spiraled.

In a 2011 interview with StarTrek.com, Whitney recounted her battle with alcohol and drug abuse during the 1970s and the courage and strength she displayed to eventually overcome those addictions.

"[26] In Part 1 of the same 2011 interview Whitney provided some subsequent clarity and context as to her firing from the show where she said: "...Well, I had the sexual assault from someone at Desilu, which I found out later was done by a lot of producers (during that era).

[33] Coincidentally, having read the back cover of Susan Sackett's Letters to Star Trek book and discovering that one of the frequently asked questions sent into the production team was "Whatever happened to Grace Lee Whitney?

In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), she was cast as the Communications Officer of the USS Excelsior with another promotion, as Lieutenant Commander Janice Rand.

Five years later, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the franchise, she returned in the 1996 Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback", along with George Takei.

In 2009, Whitney appeared in the British Channel 4 TV film Bring Back... Star Trek with Justin Lee Collins.

Her last TV guest appearance was in a 1998 episode of Diagnosis: Murder, which reunited her with her Star Trek colleagues George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Majel Barrett.

With acting taking a back step in the mid 1970s, she performed with her band at Disneyland, bar mitvahs, private parties, political events, schools, and at Sci Fi conventions throughout the remainder of the 1970s, while raising her children.

Along with her hiring and firing from Star Trek, the book recounts her work as the first Chicken of the Sea mermaid and her struggles with and eventual recovery from alcohol and substance abuse.

What happened was that I was down on Skid Row, on 6th and Main in L.A., looking for my lower companions to get some kind of help, when I was 12-stepped down there by a man from the Midnight Mission named Clancy, who is a guru in the 12-step program.

In a 1995 issue of TV Guide Whitney provided some further insights into her recovery: I committed my life to Jesus and began to journey back.

After she divorced from her second husband in 1991, she moved to Coarsegold, California in 1993 to be close to Jonathan, also a Christian, and she "continued her fellowship work in Fresno and Madera counties.