| Majel Barrett-Roddenberry | |
|---|---|
Majel Barrett at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana in August 2006. |
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| Born | Majel Leigh Hudec February 23, 1932 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | December 18, 2008 (aged 76) Bel Air, Los Angeles, California |
| Cause of death | Leukemia |
| Resting place | To be launched into Outer space in 2012 |
| Residence | Bel Air, Los Angeles, CA |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | M. Leigh Hudec |
| Alma mater | University of Miami |
| Occupation | Actress, producer, voice actress |
| Years active | 1957–2008 |
| Known for | Christine Chapel Lwaxana Troi |
| Home town | Hollywood, CA |
| Television | Star Trek |
| Spouse | Gene Roddenberry (m. 1969–1991) [1] |
| Website | |
| www.roddenberry.com | |
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (born Majel Leigh Hudec;[1] February 23, 1932 – December 18, 2008)[1] was an American actress and producer. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series, Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for being the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the series. She was also the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.[1]
As the wife of Roddenberry and given her ongoing relationship with Star Trek – participating in some way in every series during her lifetime – she was sometimes referred to as "the First Lady of Star Trek". She and Gene Roddenberry were married in Japan on August 6, 1969, after the cancellation of the original Star Trek series.[1] They had one son together, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr., born in 1974.
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Hudec began taking acting classes as a child. She attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, then had some stage roles and came to Hollywood. Her father, William Hudec, was a Cleveland police officer. He was killed in the line of duty in 1955 while Majel was touring with an off-Broadway road company.[2] In the late 1950s and 1960s, she had bit parts in a few movies and small roles in TV series.[1] She worked at the Desilu Studios on several TV shows, including Bonanza, The Untouchables, The Lucy Show, and The Lieutenant (produced by Gene Roddenberry). She received training in comedy from Lucille Ball. In 1960, she played Gwen Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver. She was also briefly seen in the film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? in an ad parody at the beginning of the film. Barrett is the mother of Eugene Wesley "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr.[1]
In various roles, Barrett participated in every incarnation of the popular science fiction Star Trek franchise produced during her lifetime, including live-action and animated versions, television and cinema, and all of the time periods in which the various series have been set.
She first appeared in Star Trek's initial pilot, "The Cage" (1964), as the USS Enterprise's unnamed first officer, "Number One". Barrett was romantically involved with Roddenberry, whose marriage was on the verge of failing at the time, and the idea of having an otherwise unknown woman in a leading role because she was the producer's girlfriend is said to have infuriated NBC network executives who insisted that Roddenberry give the role to a man.[3] William Shatner corroborated this in Star Trek Memories, and added that female viewers at test screenings hated the character as well.[4] Shatner noted that women viewers felt she was "pushy" and "annoying" and also thought that "Number One shouldn't be trying so hard to fit in with the men."[5] Barrett often joked that Roddenberry, given the choice between keeping Mr. Spock (whom the network also hated) or the woman character, "kept the Vulcan and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think Leonard [Nimoy] would have it the other way around."[6]
Her role in subsequent episodes of Star Trek was altered to that of Nurse Christine Chapel, a frequently recurring character, known for her unrequited affection for the dispassionate Spock. Her first appearance as Chapel in film dailies prompted NBC executive Jerry Stanley to yodel "Well, well--look who's back!".[3] In an early scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, viewers are informed that she has now become Doctor Chapel, a role which she reprised briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Barrett provided several voices for Star Trek: The Animated Series, including those of Nurse Chapel and a communications officer named M'Ress, an ailuroid officer who served alongside Uhura. She would return years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation, cast as the outrageously self-assertive, iconoclastic Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi, who appeared as a recurring character in the series. Her character often vexed the captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, who spurned her amorous advances. Barrett later appeared as Ambassador Troi in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where in stark contrast, she developed a strong relationship with Constable Odo.
She provided the regular voice of the onboard computers of Federation starships for Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and most of the Star Trek movies. She reprised her role as a shipboard computer's voice in two episodes of the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise. She also lent her voice to various computer games and software related to the franchise. Barrett had also made a point of attending a major Star Trek convention each year in an effort to inspire fans and keep the franchise alive.[1]
Barrett is also one of six actors (the others being Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, George Takei, Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn) to lend their voices to the CD-ROM Star Trek: Captain's Chair, reprising her role as the voice of the ships' computers.
On December 9, 2008, less than 10 days before her death, Roddenberry Productions announced that she would be providing the voice of the ship's computer once again, this time for the 2009 motion picture relaunch of Star Trek.[1][7] Sean Rossall, a Roddenberry family spokesman, stated that she had already completed the voiceover work, approximately December 4, 2008.[1] The film is dedicated to her as well as Gene.
Barrett and her husband, Gene Roddenberry, were honored in 2002 by the Space Foundation with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award[8] for their work creating awareness of and enthusiasm for space.
| “ | My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that Star Trek fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years. It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away. | ” |
She appeared as Primus Dominic in Roddenberry's 1973 post-apocalyptic TV drama pilot, Genesis II.
Majel also appeared (credited as Majel Barrett) in Michael Crichton's 1973 sci-fi western, Westworld as a prostitute. [9]
After Roddenberry's death, Barrett took material from his archives to bring two of his ideas into production. She was executive producer of Earth: Final Conflict (in which she also played the character Dr. Julianne Belman), and Andromeda.
In a gesture of goodwill between the creators of the Star Trek franchise and of Babylon 5 (whose fans often engaged in a rivalry),[10] she appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Point of No Return", as Lady Morella, the psychic widow of the Centauri emperor, a role which foreshadowed major plot elements in the series.
Parodying her voice work as the computer for the Star Trek series, Barrett performed as a guest voice on Family Guy as the voice of Stewie Griffin's ship's computer in the episode "Emission Impossible".
The Union Pacific Railroad used her voice talent for their track-side defect detector devices, used in various locations west of the Mississippi River. When a defect is identified, the system responds with her recorded voice announcing information to the train crew over the radio.[11]
Some of Barrett's final voice over work was still in post-production, to be released in 2009 after her death, as mentioned in the credits of the 2009 movie (released on DVD) Star Trek, again as the computer's voice. An animated production called "Hamlet A.D.D." credited her as Majel Barrett Roddenberry, playing the voice over role of Queen Robot.[12]
Barrett-Roddenberry died on December 18, 2008, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, as a result of complications from leukemia. She was 76 years old.[1]
A public funeral was held on January 4, 2009, in Los Angeles, California, United States. More than 250 people attended including Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, her on-screen daughter Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton and many Trekkies.[13]
After Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, his wife had commissioned Celestis Inc., a company that specializes in "memorial spaceflights", to launch a part of his remains into space in 1997. On January 26, 2009, Celestis said that it would ship the remains of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry into space the following year. The couple's cremated remains will be sealed into specially made capsules designed to withstand space travel. A rocket-launched spacecraft will carry the capsules, along with digitized tributes from fans. The Roddenberrys' remains will then travel ever deeper into space and will never return to Earth.[14] The spacecraft is currently planned for launch in 2012.[15]