Majel Barrett Roddenberry, 76, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry’s widow, died of leukemia Thursday at her Los Angeles home, said Sean Rossall, a family spokesman.
Roddenberry played the dark-haired No. 1 in the “Star Trek” pilot but metamorphosed into the blond Nurse Christine Chapel in the 1966-69 show. She had smaller roles in all five of its TV successors and many of the movie incarnations.
She frequently was the voice of the ship’s computer, and about two weeks ago she completed the same role for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie “Star Trek,” Rossall said.
Born Majel Lee Hudec on Feb. 23, 1932, in Cleveland, she began taking acting classes as a child. In the late 1950s and 1960s she had bit parts in movies and roles in TV series, including “Leave It to Beaver” and “Bonanza.” She met her husband in 1964 during a guest role for a drama he produced called “The Lieutenant.” They married in Japan in 1969 after “Star Trek” was canceled.
Sam Bottoms, 53, who had small but memorable roles in the 1970s classics “Apocalypse Now” and “The Last Picture Show,” died Tuesday of brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles, wife Laura Bickford said.
In “Apocalypse Now,” Bottoms played pro-surfer-turned-soldier Lance B. Johnson, who takes to the waves amid bombs and bullets under the orders of the maniacal, surfing-mad Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall.
In his 1971 film debut, a 15-year-old Bottoms starred alongside his best-known brother, Timothy, in “The Last Picture Show,” playing a mute and mentally handicapped boy forced by friends to lose his virginity to a prostitute.
Brothers Joseph and Ben are also actors.
