(written from a Production point of view)
Arlene Martel (14 April 1936 – 12 August 2014; age 78) was the actress from New York City, known to Star Trek fans for playing Spock's bride-to-be, T'Pring, in the I AM ERROR second season episode "Amok Time". She filmed her scenes between Wednesday 14 June 1967 and Monday 19 June 1967 at Desilu Stage 10
In 1965, Martel was among the candidates for the role of Doctor Elizabeth Dehner for the second Star Trek pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". However, the role would've required her to wear silver contact lenses, which might've damaged her sensitive eyes. Nearly two years later, she auditioned for Star Trek again, this time for the role of Sylvia in "Catspaw". Again, she didn't get cast, because the production staff (probably director Joseph Pevney or casting director Joseph D'Agosta) had seen her as the ideal actress for T'Pring in "Amok Time". Arlene Martel at StarTrek.com
Forty years after her role on Star Trek, Martel appeared as a Vulcan Priestess in the fan film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, directed by and co-starring Tim Russ. Other canon Star Trek performers who participated in this production include Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Alan Ruck, Gary Graham, Chase Masterson, J.G. Hertzler, Garrett Wang, Crystal Allen, Cirroc Lofton, Ethan Phillips, Grace Lee Whitney, and Martel's "Amok Time" co-star Lawrence Montaigne.
Career outside Star Trek
In her career prior to 1964, Martel was billed under her maiden name of Arlene Sax or Arline Sax. The latter is the name she was billed under when she appeared in a 1960 episode of The Rebel called "The Hunted" opposite Leonard Nimoy. She also used that name when she made her film debut, in the 1964 mystery The Glass Cage, which was one of her few movie roles as a leading lady. Her co-stars in this film included fellow TOS alumni John Hoyt and Elisha Cook.
She was billed as Arline Martel in the "Demon With a Glass Hand" episode of The Outer Limits, in which Abraham Sofaer also costarred, and which was written by Harlan Ellison and directed by Byron Haskin. Additionally, she has occasionally been credited as Tasha Martel, as in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica episode "The Long Patrol", in which she played Adulteress 58. This episode also featured John Colicos, James Whitmore, Jr., and Ian Abercrombie.
She had a recurring role as French Underground contact "Tiger" on the television series Hogan's Heroes from 1965 through 1967, though she later played two different characters on the show. Her first episode of Hogan's Heroes was directed by Robert Butler; her fifth episode – her first as a character other than "Tiger" – was directed by Marc Daniels.
Martel has also appeared on such shows as The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, Route 66, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mannix, and Gunsmoke, as well as such sitcoms as My Favorite Martian (starring Ray Walston), I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched. She appeared alongside David Opatoshu and Blaisdel Makee in "Terror", a Marvin Chomsky-directed episode of Mission: Impossible, during the first season that Leonard Nimoy played Paris in that series.
Martel was the female lead in the 1968 action film Angels from Hell. Her few subsequent film credits include Chatterbox (1977) and Dracula's Dog (1978), the latter of which starred Reggie Nalder, Michael Pataki, and Jan Shutan. She also had roles in three of the Columbo TV movies: The Greenhouse Jungle (1972), Double Exposure (1973), and A Friend in Deed (1974, starring Richard Kiley).
She has been married three times, and has three children. She was an animal rights activist who worked with Last Chance for Animals to prevent the selling of dogs and cats for medical research, and has recently appeared in an HBO special investigative report on this subject.
Martel passed away on 12 August 2014. [1]