(written from a Production point of view)
Patricia Smith Lasell (20 February 1930 – 2 January 2011; age 80) was the actress who played Dr. Kingsley in the Star Trek: The Next Generation second season episode "Unnatural Selection". She was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Her costume from this episode was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1]
Her first television appearance came in a 1953 episode of Kraft Television Theatre, co-starring Star Trek: The Original Series guest actor James Gregory. She later made guest appearances on such TV programs as Studio One (including one episode with Ian Wolfe and another with Skip Homeier), The Twilight Zone (in an episode co-starring Bill Mumy), My Favorite Martian (starring Ray Walston), Mission: Impossible (in an episode co-starring Leonard Nimoy, Sharon Acker, and James B. Sikking), and Quincy, M. E. (featuring Robert Ito and Garry Walberg). She also became a regular performer on The Debbie Reynolds Show and The Bob Newhart Show (the latter featuring John Fiedler).
In 1974, she made an uncredited appearance in the unsold pilot for Gene Roddenberry's proposed series, Planet Earth. The pilot also starred Majel Barrett, Ted Cassidy, and Diana Muldaur. She also had a role in Roots: The Next Generations (1979, with Bernie Casey, Percy Rodriguez, John Rubinstein, Jason Wingreen, Bruce French, Brock Peters, Paul Winfield, Logan Ramsey, Albert Hall, and Bill Quinn).
She appeared as Mrs. Almond in a deleted scene of the ER episode "Do One, Teach One, Kill One" (1995, with David Spielberg, Christine Harnos, Albert Henderson, Billy Mayo, Pablo Espinosa, and Melissa Vinicor). This scene is available on the Season 2 DVD collection of ER.
Smith also had a few feature films to her credit, most notably The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Save the Tiger (1973, with Biff Elliot), and Mad City (1997, with David Clennon). Smith died on 2 January 2011 at the age of 80. [2]
Other Trek connections[]
Additional film and TV projects in which Smith appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
- Dr. Kildare episode "What's Different About Today?" (1964, with Kim Darby)
- The F.B.I. episode "The Giant Killer" (1965, with Stephen Brooks, Paul Comi, Lee Meriwether, and Bill Zuckert)
- The Fugitive episode "Coralee" (1966, with Antoinette Bower)
- The Invaders episode "The Innocent" (1967, with Paul Carr and William Smithers)
- The first episode of Hawaii Five-O entitled "Full Fathom Five" (1968, with Phillip Pine)
- The F.B.I. episode "The Nightmare" (1968, with Lee Meriwether and William Windom)
- The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969 feature film, with Nehemiah Persoff)
- Barnaby Jones episode "Blind Terror" (1973, with Lee Meriwether, Vince Howard, and Ian Abercrombie)
- Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973 feature film, with Don Keefer and Bill Quinn)
- I Love You, Goodbye (1974 TV movie, with Madge Sinclair)
- A Case of Rape (1974 TV movie, with William Daniels, Ronny Cox, Cliff Potts, Alex Henteloff, Charles Macaulay, Victor Izay, and Davis Roberts)
- Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974 TV movie, with Paul Sorvino and Marcy Lafferty)
- The Streets of San Francisco episode "River of Fear" (1975, with Paul Fix)
- Cannon episode "The Reformer" (1976, with Lawrence Pressman)
- A Woman Called Moses (1978 TV movie, with Robert Hooks and James B. Sikking)
- Barnaby Jones episode "Homecoming for a Dead Man" (1979, with William Smithers)
- The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980 TV movie, with Clive Revill, Warren Munson, and Don Keefer)
- Who Will Love My Children? (1983 TV movie, with Hallie Todd and Don Keefer)
- Making of a Male Model (1983 TV movie, with Joan Collins, Robert DoQui, and Robert Walker)
- Highway to Heaven episode "A Child of God" (1985, with William Windom)
- Who Is Julia? (1986 TV movie, with Jonathan Banks, Bert Remsen, Bruce French, and Ed McCready)