You've got it down to basically around 10 actors that we don't have a birth date for and we're not sure if they're still alive. That's a ton of progress in a couple of weeks. And I long ago resigned myself to the fact that some of these actors are so far off the grid that we're never going to find out when they were born and we'll never know when or if they've already passed.
The funny thing is if I was on the original Star Trek as an actor with a speaking part no matter how small and I was still alive I would be telling my kids and my grandkids and my nieces and nephews that I was on the original Star Trek. I guess that's my perspective as a huge fan of the show maybe it meant little or nothing to somebody who acted for a year or two back in the 60s.
Same here. But then again, John Winston seemed to indicate his appearances meant very little to him.
As for what I've found, most that I have births but no deaths I'm assuming are still alive, or at least only recently passed and that data hasn3 ttickled down yet into the information catacombs yet.
I have a few others on the back burner i need a bit more evidence to confirm verification, but a lot also simply have too common of names. I did find the birthdates of the other, other twins from "I, Mudd", Starr and Tamara Wilson, born 13 Dec 1947, but I can't find much info beyond the late 60s for one, and mid-70s for the other.
Which, with these two, and the aforementioned Thornton sisters, brings me to wonder which were the the ones, exactly, who had the bobcat and have never been fully ID'd aside from a couple vague references.
The Making of Star Trek, pp. 349-50:
"It is easy to get the impression that every casting decision is carefully thought out in advance. Nothing could be further from the truth. There have been occasions when a casting decision was the result of pure chance. This was certainly the case with the episode entitled "I, Mudd."
"It was an unusual casting problem in that a number of identical twins were needed for extras, as well as for the leading ladies. Joe D'Agosta soon found out Hollywood is unbelievably short on girl twins who are beautiful, have great figures, and can act. He simply couldn't find twin girls who were right for the part. The situation began to get desperate. Then one evening, on his way home, he was driving down Sunset Boulevard and by chance saw two lovely young twin girls walking along the sidewalk. He immediately stopped the car, jumped out, and accosted them, saying "Can you act? Have you ever acted?" Apparently he was really in a dither, and he hadn't even introduced himself. The girls thought he was trying to put something over on them.
"Joe finally convinced the girls he was indeed a casting director from Desilu Studios, and if they would please, please appear the following day, they would get an interview for a part in a television show. When the girls came in. Joe brought them into a meeting with Dorothy Fontana, Gene Coon, and Bob Justman. They were lovely girls, about seventeen or eighteen years old, with great figures. They were both wearing low-cut dresses, with the skirt ending at about the hip, and they had a bobcat with them.
"A real wild bobcat.
"It was their pet and was about six weeks old at the time. Bob Justman was apparently somewhat flustered at the sight of these lovely young ladies in micro-mini skirts and tinkling peace bells, and not knowing where to fasten his eyes, he began staring at the bobcat. Bob made small talk, and since the bobcat was the thing he had been staring at, he talked about bobcats. (He also nearly had a finger gnawed off by the affectionate animal.) He told the girls that when bobcats get bigger, if they're not spayed, they kill dogs. One of the girls said very innocently, "Well, how do you know when they are old enough?" Bob replied, "When they start killing dogs."
"(Bob says he doesn't remember that . . . probably because he was dazed at the time.)
'From the Notes of "Charlie Star Trek"',
Starlog #112, November 1986, p. 72:
"Most Unusual Request. During the pro- duction of "I, Mudd," a number of sets of twins were used. I was summoned to the dressing room of a female pair of twins by the wardrobe girl, Andrea Weaver, who told me that they were going to leave the set to go home for an emergency. When I arrived, I learned the emergency's nature: their pet bobcat had escaped! They were bent on leav- ing immediately, but I talked through the situation with them. We agreed that they would stay, but I would keep in touch through calls to a neighbor of theirs. It worked. They stayed. They stayed. I never found out what happened to the bobcat, though."
I also feel like there is a third reference somewhere that escapes me, something like someone pointed out to the casting director that the girls may have been of ill repute...or I could be very wrong.
Either way, neither appeared to have previously acted. The Thornton sisters were 21, the Wilson sisters were 19. The description seems to fit that of the Thornton sisters, as well as the lifestyle they lived for the next several years, vs. the Wilson sisters who months later joined the military. It's all a bit subjective, but a curious thing to ponder, nonetheless.
