'Batgirl' Yvonne Craig, 78, dies after two-year battle with cancer

It's the end of an era as it was announced that Yvonne Craig, the actress who played the role of Batgirl in the 1960s TV series Batman, died at the age of 78 at her home in Pacific Palisades on August 17. The family of the TV star made the announcement on her website, revealing that she had sadly lost her two-year battle against metastasized breast cancer that ultimately spread to her liver.

"She had been in chemo almost continuously for the past two plus years since being diagnosed and that had weakened her immune system as well as her body," the announcement read. "This didn’t dampen her sense of humor or her spirit, she intended to fight and win this battle. In the end, her mind still wanted to fight but her body had given up."

Yvonne, who played her famous role on the 1960s classic Batman, died on Monday Photo: Getty Images

The dark-haired beauty dazzled audiences when she hit the screens in 1967 in one of her most famous roles. Not only did fans love her formfitting costume, but they also tuned in each week to watch Yvonne do all her own stunts and motorcycle driving.

While this became her most well-known role, the starlet also appeared alongside Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World’s Fair and Kissin’ Cousins, and even dated the music legend. She also appeared in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, and Star Trek as Marta, the green Orion slave girl who wanted to kill Captain Kirk in Star Trek.

The beauty was best known for her role as Batgirl Photo: Getty Images

"Yvonne excelled in ballet, a film career, a business life, as well as in philanthropic and charity work over the years," the family continued in the statement. "She had been able to do this with joy and much laughter and she wouldn’t have changed a thing. Well, maybe one thing and that would have been not to get cancer."

Her official obituary notes that in lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Angeles Clinic Foundation.