STAR TREK and Twilight Zone icon Antoinette Bower has died aged 93.
The German-born British actress, who starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in Prom Night and played seductive alien Sylvia in Star Trek, died on April 30.
Antoinette Bower has died aged 93 Credit: Getty
The German-born British actress starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in Prom Night Credit: Getty
Bower passed away at an Eagle Rock senior retirement home in Los Angeles, her friend Carlotta Glackin told The Hollywood Reporter.
She became a sci-fi favourite after playing Eve Norda in The Twilight Zone episode “Probe 7, Over and Out” – a woman stranded on a distant planet with astronaut Adam Cook.
The Rod Serling-penned episode aired in November 1963, before Bower stunned Star Trek fans as villainous catlike alien Sylvia in “Catspaw” four years later.
On screen, she terrified audiences as Leslie Nielsen’s wife and Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother in the 1980 slasher hit Prom Night.
She also starred in Superbeast (1972) and The Evil That Men Do (1984), where she was kidnapped by Charles Bronson.
Bower later won praise for her role as Fox Devlin in Canadian drama Neon Rider, appearing for three seasons from 1989 to 1992.
Born Antoinette Alexandra Jane Bower on September 30, 1932, in Baden-Baden, Germany, she was the daughter of a German mother and English father.
Before fame, she worked for the UN’s International Refugee Organization, helping people left homeless after the Second World War.
She moved to Canada in 1953, joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where she wrote scripts, conducted live interviews and began acting.
Her Hollywood career exploded after an uncredited role in Marlon Brando’s Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), followed by appearances in Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, Columbo, Kojak and Murder, She Wrote.
Bower left acting after Neon Rider but later created a documentary on Canadian chuckwagon racing, shooting, directing, editing and narrating it herself.
The talented star also studied carpentry at Santa Monica College, built furniture at home and became a valued Home Depot employee.
Glackin said Bower was still receiving fan mail from loyal Star Trek followers, with William Shatner sending condolences after her death.
She married pop artist James Gill in 1963, but the pair later divorced.
Bower was predeceased by her half-brother Roger, with a life celebration planned for September 26 in Pasadena.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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