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Grace Lee Whitney, who played Captain Kirk’s yeoman Janice Rand on the first season of the classic show, has died aged 85.

Whitney was one of the most featured actors on the show in the pre-publicity for the series, but only featured in 8 of the first 13 before being let go. In her autobiography, she stated that she had been sexually assaulted by one of the Desilu executives, and she suffered from drug and alcohol addictions. She got help, and was assisted in reviving her career by her former colleague, Leonard Nimoy. She returned to appear in four of the feature films, as well as the special episode of Star Trek: Voyager written to mark the original series’ 30th anniversary.

She told StarTrek.com that the producers believed they had to remove Rand because it looked as if Kirk was “cheating when he falls in love with other women on other planets.”

In addition to her Star Trek work, Whitney appeared in two Billy Wilder films including Some Like It Hot. In later life, the actress appeared regularly at conventions, and passed away peacefully on May 1st in her home in Coarsegold, California.