About Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney 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. She played Janice Rand on the original Star Trek television series and subsequent Star Trek films. Whitney was the original Chicken of the Sea mermaid character created in 1952. Whitney first met Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry when she was cast as the female lead "Sgt. On September 1, 1966, one week before the first episode screened on NBC, Whitney, Shatner and Nimoy were interviewed by Barbara Walters on The Today Show where they discussed the new show. In 1960, while in Los Angeles, Whitney auditioned for and was cast in the starring role of Lucy Brown in the first national tour of The Threepenny Opera, taking over the role from Bea Arthur, who had played the part in New York off-Broadway.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.