Denise Crosby

Denise Michelle Crosby (born November 24, 1957) is an American actress and model known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar mainly in season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Yar's daughter, the half-Romulan Commander Sela, in subsequent seasons.

She is also known for her numerous film and television roles, and for starring in and producing the film Trekkies.

Denise Michelle Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of Marilyn Scott and actor Dennis Crosby, after whom she was named.

Crosby's paternal grandfather was the famed singer and actor Bing Crosby.

Crosby was born out of wedlock, and Crosby's parents went through a highly publicized, three-year-long lawsuit her father had brought to cancel the $80 per week he was paying Crosby's mother for child support.

Crosby's mother won the lawsuit and Dennis was ordered to continue paying child support and legal fees.

The lawsuit deeply embarrassed Dennis and Bing Crosby, whom Crosby never met even though she was 19 when he died.

Crosby graduated in 1975 from Hollywood High School, followed by Cabrillo College, where she studied theater.

She dropped out of college after she was interviewed by a local paper and revealed her famous family background: "One of the drama teachers used the story to illustrate to the class that this crap is what Hollywood's all about, using people's names to get somewhere. I was very, very hurt by it. So I just checked out."

She started modeling and, in 1979, posed nude for the March issue of Playboy magazine, which she called "some kind of rebellion on my part, some way of saying screw you to the family image".

Crosby's choice of career solidified at an early age and was influenced by her grandfather Bing Crosby and her father Dennis Crosby.

Crosby's first high-profile role was as Lisa Davis on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.

She has appeared as Dr. Gretchen Kelly in three episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and as a sheriff on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. episode "No Man's Land".

One of her first film appearances was in the 1982 Nick Nolte/Eddie Murphy film 48 Hrs. This was followed by a small role in the 1982 film Trail of the Pink Panther, which she reprised in the sequel Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1985, Crosby appeared in the music videos for Chris Isaak's song "Dancin'" and Michael McDonald's song "No Lookin' Back".

In 1986, she appeared in the music video for Black Sabbath's song "No Stranger to Love".

In the same year, she played a robotics engineer, Nora Hunter, in the science-fiction movie Eliminators.

In 1987, Crosby was cast in the role of Tasha Yar for the much-publicized return of Star Trek to television in the syndicated series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

She had been chosen to play Counselor Deanna Troi before Gene Roddenberry switched the roles that Marina Sirtis and she had originally been given.

Initially one of the top-billed characters and featured prominently in episodes such as "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor", the role of Tasha gradually moved into the background as other members of the ensemble cast became a greater focus of the series.

Crosby reportedly grew disillusioned with her role because of its "Uhura-like" status: "I was struggling with not being able to do much with the character. I had all these ideas and couldn't do them. I was just stage dressing."

Ultimately, Crosby decided to leave the show.

Her character was killed by the alien creature Armus during the episode "Skin of Evil".

She had appeared in 22 episodes when she left.

In later years, Crosby approached the TNG production team with the idea of reprising her role of Tasha Yar.

This came to be in season-three's "Yesterday's Enterprise", in which an alternate timeline is created after the USS Enterprise-C, the predecessor to TNG's USS Enterprise-D, comes forward 22 years in time, just before it was to be destroyed.

Yar joined the Enterprise-C before it returned to its own time to restore the original timeline.

During the documentary Trekkies, Crosby commented that her Tasha Yar character had to die to get "the best episodes".

Crosby also guest-starred in several other TNG episodes, including "Redemption" and "Unification" as Romulan Commander Sela, the half-human, half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar, who had been taken prisoner in the past while on board the Enterprise-C.

Crosby later reprised the role in the Star Trek: Armada video game, and again in the series finale, "All Good Things...", in which Captain Picard is moving back and forth through time, and encounters Tasha during the events just prior to the pilot episode.

In the early 1990s, she played the role of the mayor in the short-lived series Key West.

She also appeared in two episodes of the cable television series Red Shoe Diaries, playing a different character in each episode.

Crosby had a small recurring role in Aaron Spelling's primetime drama, Models Inc, a spin-off from Melrose Place.

She was a guest star on the eighth season of The X-Files for two episodes, in which she plays a doctor who examined Agent Scully's baby.

In 1991, she was a guest star in "The Deadly Nightshade", a first-season The Flash episode as Dr. Rebecca Frost.

She starred in Stephen King's Pet Sematary, played the lead role in Dolly Dearest in 1991, and also appeared in Deep Impact and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.

Crosby co-produced and narrated the 1997 documentary Trekkies, followed by the 2003 sequel Trekkies 2.

In 2001, Crosby appeared in two episodes of NYPD Blue as the abrasive Lieutenant Susan Dalto.

Her other film roles included the 2002 Western horror film Legend of the Phantom Rider, and the 2005 Tobe Hooper horror film Mortuary.

In 2006, she was a guest star in "Popping Cherry", the third episode of the first season of Dexter, appearing via flashback as Dexter Morgan's first victim.

Crosby had a recurring role in Southland as Detective Dan "Sal" Salinger's wife.