Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney passes away at 85

Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney has passed away due to natural causes in her home in Coarsegold, California.

She was 85.

The American veteran actress plated Captain Kirk's assistant Yeoman Janice Rand on the original science fiction series for first eight episodes before being stroked out, but she made a comeback for the movie franchise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and many more, Stuff.co.nz reported.

In 1998 she revealed in her autobiography The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy that she became an alcoholic and struggled with her addiction for many years after her acting career came to an end.

Whitney started recovering after regaining her career with the help of Leonard Nimoy (who played Mr Spock on Star Trek) and spent the last few decades of her life helping others with addiction.