Leonard Nimoy Comically Calmed Yvonne Craig After A Star Trek Makeup Mishap
In the "Star Trek" episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (January 3, 1969), the U.S.S. Enterprise was lured to a distant planet that hosted an advanced mental health facility built for the people who, even after being subjected to the thorough rigors of 23rd-century medicine and psychology, are still quite unhealthy. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) must match wits with one of the facility's patients, Fleet Captain Garth (Steve Ihnat), who has taken over the asylum. Among his mentally unwell servants is a woman named Marta (Yvonne Craig), an Orion dancer who attempts to stab Kirk. Craig plays the part with energy and wildness and she's a big part of why "Whom Gods Destroy" is fun to watch.
To play Marta, as seen in the photo above, Craig had to be painted almost entirely green. Her costume was a short, diaphanous tunic, so her arms, armpits, back, and legs all had to be coated in green makeup. It couldn't have been comfortable. This was in addition to having to wear a beehive wig and really elaborate eye makeup. One can see that Craig's eyebrows were painted on and that her eyelashes are false. One cannot deny that Marta was a striking character.
After the first day of shooting, however, Craig encountered a makeup quirk that she didn't expect. In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Craig was interviewed about her appearance in "Whom Gods Destroy" and said that the makeup artists got a little too zealous in their applications. Craig was enraged by what they did. She also recalled getting a hilarious piece of cold comfort from her co-star, Leonard Nimoy, that makes her giggle to this day.
Where are my eyebrows?
It seems that the makeup artists on "Star Trek," without asking beforehand, shaved off Craig's eyebrows before applying her makeup. Craig was merely laying still in the makeup chair, so it seems the makeup artists could have sandblasted her face and she wouldn't have noticed. Craig had never shaved her eyebrows before, so she didn't know if they grew back. She was so incensed that even briefly considered legal action:
"I adored Leonard Nimoy, he just had the most droll sense of humor. The first time I went into makeup I had my eyes closed, and when I got home I realized they had shaved my eyebrows. They could just as easily cover them with mortician's wax and I was furious. I said, 'If my eyebrows don't grow back, I swear to God I will sue them.'"
Mortician's wax — indeed, a substance used by morticians — was a common substance in makeup kits and could be used to coat an actor's eyebrows before applying makeup. Morticians use the wax to weigh down a corpse's eyelids for open-casket funerals so that its eyes don't open. Boris Karloff famously used mortician's wax to partially weigh down his eyelids to play Frankenstein's monster.
Craig was comforted about her eyebrows by a jocular Nimoy:
"Leonard said, 'Yvonne, I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying and I just wanted to say when I started the show I went to a dermatologist and he assured me that anyone who can grow a beard can grow their eyebrows back.' And with that he turned and left. So I'm standing there saying, 'Grow a beard?' He was so funny. He has a great sense of humor."
Craig's eyebrows grew back. She did not, however, ever grow a beard.