Marj Dusay

From Kansas Crown to Spock's Brain

Marj Dusay stole Spock's brain in 1968, and that made her immortal at science fiction conventions for half a century.

Before playing the alien Kara in Star Trek, she was Marjorie Ellen Pivonka Mahoney from Kansas. She won a beauty pageant in 1955, but her ambitions went beyond looking good in a crown. She wanted to act, and she knew her looks were only the way in.

She moved to Los Angeles and joined an improv group called The Session alongside Rob Reiner. That period was crucial, because she learned to react quickly and handle the rhythm of comedy before drama took over completely.

In 1967, she made her big-screen debut in Clambake, sharing the screen with Elvis Presley.

It was a modest beginning.

Dusay soon realized that television paid the bills and offered a longevity that movies in the sixties denied women once they turned thirty. She appeared in series like Bonanza and Hogan’s Heroes, but her true playing field was daytime serials.

Total Dominance of the Daytime Soap

In 1983, she took on the role of Alexandra Spaulding in Guiding Light. Replacing another actress is always a risky move in television, and she did it three times over the course of her life.

And she did it three times over the course of her life.

Her ability to play cold, wealthy, manipulative women earned her several Emmy Award nominations. She rarely shouted, because she knew a well-placed whisper cut deeper than a scream. She earned 7 nominations at the Soap Opera Digest Awards thanks to her command of body language.

During the 1990s, she moved from one soap opera to another without a break. She appeared on Santa Barbara and All My Children, where she played the villainous Vanessa Bennett. She earned salaries that exceeded those of many leading actors in independent film at the time.

But her tough-woman image on screen contrasted with her private life. Her co-stars often praised her sense of humor off camera and her technical professionalism.

She never yelled too much.

Her last appearance on Guiding Light came in 2009, just before the network canceled the show. It was a fitting ending for a woman who understood the medium better than her own writers. The series went off the air after 72 years on television, and Dusay stepped away from the front lines shortly afterward.

She died on January 28, 2020, at age 83, while sleeping at her home in Manhattan.