Persis Khambatta

Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, (died 1998)

Find birthday twins Open interactive profile

Born: October 2, 1948
Died: August 18, 1998
Zodiac sign: Libra
Birth year: 1948

About Persis Khambatta

Persis Khambatta was an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder best remembered for playing Lieutenant Ilia in the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Khambatta's first appearance at the age of 13 in advertisements for the soap brand Rexona set her on her way to becoming a popular model. She first gained fame when a set of her pictures casually taken by a well-known Bombay photographer was used for a successful campaign for a popular soap brand. She entered and won the Miss India contest in 1965. At the Miss India contest, she also won the Miss Photogenic award.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Persis Khambatta was born

Persis Khambatta was born in 1948. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1948

#1 song"Twelfth Street Rag" – Pee Wee Hunt
Top movieHamlet
Top TV showTexaco Star Theater (Milton Berle)
Best-selling bookThe Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentCleveland Indians win the World Series
Top headlineState of Israel declared
Technology milestoneLong-playing vinyl record (LP) introduced
Defining fadTelevision sets in homes
Notable inventionVelcro
World population2.50 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
Sports championCleveland Indians (World Series)
Also wonBaltimore Bullets (BAA)
U.S. population146.6M

1948 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Persis Khambatta's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1948	2026
Gas	$0.26	$3.45/gal
Average home	$8,300	$435,000
Average income	$5,000	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.40	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.40	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	146.6M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.