Majel Barrett was born as Majel Leigh Hudec in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932. She was the daughter of a police officer, and she initially pursued a career in law by becoming a legal clerk and going to law school in Miami. However, she failed out of contracts law and she then decided to move to New York to try acting.
She landed parts in a couple of stage plays but eventually found the acting competition to be too tough in New York, leading to a move to California in the 1950s. She earned several stage, film, and television parts over the next few years, and eventually became signed by Lucille Ball's production company Desilu after attending an acting class by that organization. Around this same time, she met Gene Roddenberry and became very close friends with him, and then his mistress and eventually his wife.
During this time, Gene was developing the pilot for Star Trek, and he wrote a role Number One just for Barrett. NBC rejected the pilot and specifically objected to the characters of Spock and Number One, so when Gene did a second pilot for the show, he decided to compromise by removing the Number One character and combine her character traits into a modified Spock. Barrett later joked that Gene "kept the Vulcan and married the woman because he didn't think Leonard Nimoy would have it the other way around."
Gene still found a spot for Barrett though in TOS, having her play Nurse Christine Chapel with a blonde wig as a disguise. She was credited as Majel Barrett for this role rather than her birth name so as to keep this a secret from NBC, who didn't want her on the show. When Lucille Ball found out about this deception and their affair, as Gene was married to someone else at that time, she tried to fire them both, but she was talked out of it. And so, Majel Barrett went on to become the First Lady of Star Trek.
QUOTE (Nurse Chapel from TOS)
In addition to playing Number One and Nurse Chapel, Barrett also provided the computer's voice in several episodes of TOS. This computer voice role would be repeated in every Star Trek television series through Enterprise, and several of the movies as well. Her presence in all forms of Star Trek and her 20 year marriage to Gene gave her the moniker The First Lady of Star Trek.
She also lent her voice to many characters in the Animated Series, playing almost as many roles in this show as James Doohan. Her only regular character beyond Chapel was M'Ress (insert M'Ress QUOTE). Later, she played the bombastic betazoid Lwaxana Troi in episodes of TNG and DS9, the mother of Deanna Troi.
QUOTE (Lwaxana Troi from TNG)
Barrett's roles outside Trek were numerous, but she is definitely best known for her Trek roles.
After Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, Barrett carried on his legacy by continuing to operate the catalog company Lincoln Enterprises they formed together and by using his notes from his papers to develop two more science fiction TV series called Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda. She passed away in 2008 from Leukemia, being survived by her son with Gene, Rod Roddenberry.
Majel Barrett, thanks to her relationship with Gene Roddenberry and her working drive, added more to this franchise than perhaps any other actor or actress. Her imprint on Star Trek will always persist, and we will always think of her voice when reflecting on these series.
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