Fans of the original “Star Trek” series will be saddened to learn that actress Leslie Parrish has passed away at age 90. Throughout a career that spanned from the 1950s through to the late 1970s, Parrish appeared in nearly 80 films and TV series, including such 1960s favorites as “Star Trek” and “Batman.”
The announcement was made by a family member, who told The Hollywood Reporter that she died in late 2025 in Washington state.
Erica Berdan, daughter of Parrish’s second husband, author Richard Bach, confirmed that she had passed.
‘Lil Abner’ Was Her Big Break
After a series of bit parts in movies during the mid- to late-1950s, she began booking guest star roles — initially under the name Margaret Hellen (a spin on her real name, Marjorie Hellen).
She later changed it to Leslie Parrish after her agent advised her that “no one will remember a girl with two first names.”
Her big break came in the 1959 big-screen musical “Lil Abner,” inspired by the popular comic strip. Parrish played Daisy Mae Scragg, girlfriend of the titular hunky hillbilly, which marked her first major film role.
A Frequent TV Guest Star
GettyDuring the early 1960s, Parrish was a ubiquitous screen presence on TV as the attention she received from “Lil Abner” led to numerous guest-starring roles on television.
During this period, Parrish appeared in such TV shows as “77 Sunset Strip,” “Perry Mason” and “Hawaiian Eye.”
On the big screen, she was seen opposite Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury in 1962 thriller “The Manchurian Candidate,” and opposite Kirk Douglas in 1963 comedy “For Love or Money.”
A Pair of ‘Batman’ Roles
In 1966, she made the first of three guest-starring appearances on campy superhero hit “Batman.”
In the first season, she portrayed Dawn Robbins, a spoiled movie star kidnapped by the Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and rescued by the Caped Crusader (Adam West) and the Boy Wonder (Burt Ward).
She returned for two episodes in the second season during 1967, this time as a completely different character: Emma Strunk, a.k.a. Glacia Glaze, paramour of supervillain Mr. Freeze (Eli Wallach).
A Memorable Turn on ‘Star Trek’
Also in 1967, Parrish appeared in an episode of “Star Trek,” titled “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
In the episode, she portrayed Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas, an Enterprise crew member who falls under the spell of a powerful being who claims to be the Greek god Apollo.
Throughout the rest of the 1960s, she continued to make frequent TV appearances in such series as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Big Valley,” “Family Affair,” and “Petticoat Junction,” to name just a few.
Political Activism
As THR points out, a biography on her website reveals that Parrish also had many other projects outside the realm of acting.
In the late 1960s, at the same time she was a familiar face to TV viewers, she became active in the movement opposing the Vietnam War, using her platform as a celebrity for political activism.
That included: founding an organization called STOP! (Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace); producing concerts and other events to raise money for the anti-war movement; protesting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; campaigning for Tom Bradley in his first two runs for Los Angeles mayor, in 1969 and again in 73; and helping to launch KVST-TV, a short-lived Los Angeles-based forerunner of C-SPAN during the 1970s.
A Passion for the Environment
Parrish retired from acting in the late 1970s; her final screen role was in a 1978 made-for-TV movie, “No Margin for Error.”
In 1981, Parrish married writer Richard Bach, author of the bestseller “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” She was the inspiration for his two subsequent novels, “The Bridge Across Forever” and “One.”
Prior to their divorce in 1999, the couple donated more than 168 acres of forested land and wildlife habitat to the Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary on Orcas Island’s Mount Woolard in Washington state.
“It’s a dream come true and one of the best things I’ve done in my life,” she said of her donation, per THR. “You don’t have to have children to enjoy the idea of preserving land for future generations. It’s what I’m most proud of, and it will surely, more than any other work I’ve ever done, be the accomplishment that outlasts me.”
