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Although
she would be best known as the hairless alien beauty
Ilia, Khambatta went on to rack up an impressive Hollywood
resume. Roles on television shows like MacGyver
and Lois and Clark: The
New Adventures of Superman, as well as parts
in films like Megaforce
and Nighthawks starring
Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams, set her
apart in Hollywood as not just another pretty face.
At the end of
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Captain Kirk
reports to Starfleet that Lieutenant Ilia is "missing."
Khambatta, with all her warmth, talent and style,
will also be missed. She spoke about her life,
her career, and of course, her time on Star
Trek by phone from her native India, not long
before her unexpected passing.
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you were cast as Ilia, the role originally was for the
never-made Star Trek II
television series, right? Yes.
I had signed a contract for five years with the TV series.
There were something like 600 actresses who had tested
for the role. Paramount and Gene Roddenberry sort of
gave me 10 out of 10. There were a lot of women with
hair that looked really stunning, but when you remove
the hair they somehow lose the look. Basically, they
had asked me if I would shave my head or wear a bald
cap. I said look, if you are doing a series for five
years I would want to shave my hair because I would
go bald with all the gum and glue from the bald cap.
Besides, a bald cap would have never looked real.
You
had a beautiful head of hair. It sounds like you were
just ready to shave it all off for the part.
I
didn't have a problem with it at all. If they say,
"Persis, you have to shave your head," it's just part
of my work. If I want to do the part I will do it.
I did not think it was going to look bad.
When they shaved my hair, Fred
Phillips, who was our make-up man, (director) Robert
Wise, Nichelle Nichols and everybody were all there
watching as my hair was shaved off. I later saw in
a film that they had shot of it that Fred Phillips
was crying. I
had told them to cover all the mirrors with newspaper.
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