User blog:ARTaylor/Majel Barrett-Roddenberry's 87 Birthday

Today marks the eighty-seventh anniversary of the birth of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. The actress was born Majel Leigh Hudec on this day in 1932. She appeared in a number of series before she appeared in The Lieutenant where she met writer Gene Roddenberry, eventually becoming his mistress. When he began working on a science fiction series titled Star Trek, Gene cast Majel as the first officer. The initial pilot was not successful but the studio enjoyed the concept. Gene was allowed to create a second pilot with a number of concessions, one being that the first officer could not be a woman. Gene's second pilot became a success and Majel was recast as Nurse Christine Chapel as well as the computer voice. Following the conclusion of the series, Majel and Gene married. Gene continued working on Star Trek with Majel by his side. She appeared in several of the theatrical films, got a recurring role as Lwaxana Troi on the follow-up series The Next Generation, and continued playing the computer voice on every film and series up until her death. Marvel fans would remember her as Anna Watson on Spider-Man. Majel continued Gene's science fiction vision after his death in 1991. She passed away on December 18th, 2008 following a battle with leukemia at the age of seventy-six.