Laurel Goodwin, “Girls! Girl! Girl!’ Actress, dead at 79

Laurel Goodwin, an actress who appeared in Girls! Girl! Girl!” and the rejected “Star Trek” pilot died on February 25 at the age of 79 The star’s sister, Maureen Scott, confirmed her death in an obituary but did not disclose the cause of death.

Goodwin was born on August 11, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas and made her big screen debut in the 1962 musical comedy Girls! Girl! Girl!” opposite Elvis Presley. In fact, it was during a steamy dance scene with the then-starlet that the King of Rock and Roll famously burst an erection in front of the camera.

The actress was also the last surviving member of the original pilot for Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek entitled The Cage, in which she portrayed Yeoman JM Colt alongside Captain Pike by Jeffrey Hunter and Captain Spock by Leonard Nimoy.

“I said, ‘Oh, no. Star Trek is it,” Goodwin recalled in a 2016 interview for StarTrek.com. “I have to do ‘Star Trek’. It’s great, it’s going to be wonderful.”

Unfortunately, the first episode, completed in 1965, was eventually scrapped after negotiations with Hunter failed. However, excerpts from The Cage were featured in the 1966 Star Trek episode The Menagerie. Meanwhile, the pilot was released in full on VHS in 1986.

After her “Star Trek” stint fell apart, the actress appeared on TV shows ranging from “Get Smart” to “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Mannix.”

Goodwin also appeared in a variety of hit movies of the ’60s, including the Jackie Gleason comedy Papa’s Delicate Condition (1963) and the westerns Stage to Thunder Rock (1964), Law of the Lawless (1964) and The Glory Guys (1965).

The actor retired from acting in 1971 to pursue nursing.

Goodwin also produced the Burt Reynolds-Loni Anderson action comedy Stroker Ace (1983) with her husband Walter Wood, with whom she had a 43-year relationship until his death in 2010.

Goodwin is survived by her sister, Scott, who lives in Bellingham, Washington, “and a host of friends and relatives around the world,” according to the obituary.