Nancy Kovack (born 11 March 1935; age 89) is an actress who played Nona in the Star Trek: The Original Series second season episode "A Private Little War". She filmed her scenes between Tuesday 3 October 1967 and Thursday 5 October 1967 on location at the Bell Ranch and at Desilu Stage 10.
Born in Flint, Michigan as Nancy Diane Kovach, she attended the University of Michigan at the age of fifteen and graduated at nineteen. During her teens, she worked as a disc jockey and participated in a large number of beauty contests, winning eight titles by the age of twenty. She worked as a successful model and began her professional television career as one of Jackie Gleason's Glea Girls on The Jackie Gleason Show during the 1950s.
This was followed by an extensive list of TV guest appearances on such programs as Perry Mason, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (working alongside fellow Original Series guest stars Frank Gorshin and Richard Hale), 12 O'Clock High (starring Robert Lansing and Bert Remsen, in an episode also guest-starring Gary Lockwood), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (co-starring with the likes of Paul Carr, John Hoyt, Arch Whiting, and Original Series star James Doohan), I Dream of Jeannie, Batman, I Spy, Family Affair (starring Brian Keith), Get Smart, and Hawaii Five-O (in an episode with David Opatoshu). She was also seen in two episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – one in 1964 with Abraham Sofaer, Bill Quinn, Liam Sullivan and Yvonne Craig, directed by James Goldstone and another episode in 1966 with Ricardo Montalban and John Winston, directed by Joseph Sargent – and was seen in multiple episodes of Bewitched.
In 1969, Kovack was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance on an episode of Mannix entitled "The Girl Who Came in with the Tide", in which she guest-starred in the title role. Kovack went on to make two more appearances on Mannix, first in 1972 (with Barry Russo and John Colicos) and again in 1973 in a Stephen Kandel-penned episode which also starred Liam Sullivan and Jack Donner .
Kovack has also starred in a number of feature films, making her debut in Strangers When We Meet (1966). Her most notable film role is that of the Medea in Jason and the Argonauts (1966). Kovack's other film credits include The Wild Westerners (1966), Diary of a Madman (1963, co-starring Original Series alum Ian Wolfe), the Three Stooges' The Outlaws Is Coming (1965, with Henry Gibson and Rex Holman), The Silencers (1966, co-starring Roger C. Carmel and James Gregory), and Elvis Presley's Frankie and Johnny (1966). Her last film to date was Marooned (1969, co-starring Original Series guest actress Mariette Hartley).
Kovack married renowned music conductor Zubin Mehta in 1969, after which she began to focus more on married life than on acting. However, she did continue making occasional appearances on television throughout the 1970s – including becoming a regular in Ellery Queen (credited as Nancy Mehta), along with Monte Markham and Gail Strickland – before she retired in late 1975. She and her husband currently live in Germany.
Other Trek connections[]
Additional film and television projects in which Kovack appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
- Burke's Law (1963, with Bill Erwin)
- Kraft Suspense Theatre episode "The Name of the Game" (1963, with Barry Atwater and Steve Ihnat)
- Burke's Law (1964, with Nehemiah Persoff)
- Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater episode "Parties to the Crime" (1964, with Jeffrey Hunter, Sally Kellerman, and Jason Wingreen)
- Sylvia (1965 film, with Majel Barrett)
- The F.B.I. (1966, with Stephen Brooks, Jason Evers, Julie Parrish, and Bert Remsen)
- Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966 film, with David Opatoshu)
- Enter Laughing (1967 film, with David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, and Peter Brocco)
- The F.B.I. (1968, with James B. Sikking)
- It Takes a Thief episode "One Night on Soledade" (1968, with Logan Ramsey, Madlyn Rhue, and Malachi Throne)
- The Name of the Game episode "Swingers Only" (1969, with Peter Duryea, Robert Lansing and Ed Peck)
- It Takes a Thief episode "38-23-26" (1969, with Malachi Throne)
- The Invisible Man episode "The Klae Dynasty" (1975, with George Murdock)
- Bronk episode "Long Time Dying" (1976, with Ken Lynch)
External links[]
- Nancy Kovack at the Internet Movie Database
- Nancy Kovack at Wikipedia
- Nancy Kovack at TriviaTribute.com
- Nancy Kovack at X (formerly Twitter) (fan account)