Born 1944, a native of Long Beach, California, Celeste Yarnall made her film debut in The Nutty Professor (1963) and, after appearing at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, was spotted by producer Harry Alan Towers, who scouted her to appear as the central character in his film Eve. She also appeared as a “Scream Queen” who is terrorized by a headless monster in the horror film Beast of Blood (1971).
Yarnall was known for her role as Yeoman Martha Landon in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Apple” (1967), a character she would return to in the fan-made film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men (2006). She was cast in a small role opposite Elvis Presley in Live a Little, Love a Little (1968).
After attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1968, the National Association of Theatre Owners named her “Most Promising New Star” for 1968, and the Foreign Press Corps named her “Most Photogenic Beauty of the Yea””
In 1971, Yarnall starred as the titular vampire in Stephanie Rothman’s low-budget film The Velvet Vampire, of which Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader said, “Given the genre (horror) and the budget (extremely low), it may seem perverse to say that Stephanie Rothman’s 1971 film is among the best women’s films ever made, but so it is.”
Yarnall died in Westlake Village, California in 2018, aged 74, from ovarian cancer, which she had been diagnosed with in 2014. Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of young Celeste Yarnall in the 1960s and 1970s.
