Two Legends Passed On

I was going to do this whole big catch-up post of all the stuff I didn’t get to with the Christmas postings. Didn’t work out (stupid cold), but I at least wanted to mark the passing of two legends.

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the wife of Gene Roddenberry, passed away from leukemia on Thursday the 18th. She’s mostly known for playing the computer voice for all but the “prequel” Star Trek series (even the “New Voyages” fan series), as well as Nurse Chapel, “Number One” in the original pilot, and the outspoken Lwaxana Troi of  The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Ignored is her part as M’Ress on the animated Star Trek series, because no history of the series ever mentions the cartoon. However, her IMDB profile list many more acting roles outside of Trek, and her non-acting roles with it.  A funeral is planned for January 4th.

Also lost to the world was singer/actress Eartha Kitt. Her biggest claims to fame for my generation are the last Catwoman on the 60’s Batman series and the Christmas song “Santa Baby”.  Off screen and stage, Eartha could give Lwaxana a few lessons in outspokeness. Eartha was damn sexy and knew it. She spoke out against the Vietnam War at a luncheon hosted by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, which took some guts reguardless what you think of that opinion. She’s also done some voice work, most recently as Yzma in Disney’s “Emperor’s New Groove” and the series version, “Emperor’s New School”, as well as Vexas, Queen of the robotic threat known as the Cluster on Nickelodeon’s “My Life as a Teenage Robot”. That’s not even half of her career. The sad part is that she died on Christmas Day.

Two lost legends, but their body of work will make them immortal.