Early life

Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, as the out of wedlock daughter of Marilyn Scott and actor Dennis Crosby. Her mother pursued a sensational, three-year-long lawsuit against her father, at the conclusion of which he was ordered to pay child support and legal fees. This deeply embarrassed Dennis Crosby and his famous father, the actor and singer Bing Crosby. Although Bing died when his granddaughter was 19, the two never met.

Crosby attended LeConte Junior High School, followed by Hollywood High School and Cabrillo College, where she studied theater. She dropped out of college after she was interviewed by a local paper and revealed her famous family background. "One of the drama teachers used the story to illustrate to the class that this crap is what Hollywood's all about, using people's names to get somewhere. I was very, very hurt by it. So I just checked out." She started modeling and in 1979 posed nude for Playboy magazine, which she called "some kind of rebellion on my part, some way of saying screw you to the family image."

Career

Crosby's first high-profile role was as Lisa Davis on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. She has appeared as Dr. Gretchen Kelly in three episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and as a sheriff on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. episode "No Man's Land". In the early 1990s, she played the role of the mayor in the short-lived series Key West. She also appeared in two episodes of the cable television series Red Shoe Diaries, playing a different character in each episode. Crosby had a small recurring role in Aaron Spelling's prime time drama, Models Inc, a spin-off from Melrose Place. She was a guest star on the eighth season of The X-Files for two episodes, in which she plays a doctor who took examinations of Agent Scully's baby. In 1991, she was a guest star in "The Deadly Nightshade", a first season The Flash episode as Dr. Rebecca Frost. In 2006, she was a guest star in Dexter as Dexter's first victim. Crosby had a recurring role in Southland as Detective Dan "Sal" Salinger's wife.

One of her first film appearances was in the 1982 Nick Nolte/Eddie Murphy film 48 Hrs. This was followed by a small role in the 1982 film Trail of the Pink Panther, which she reprised in the sequel Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1986, she appeared in the music video for the Black Sabbath's song "No Stranger to Love", from the album Seventh Star. In the same year she played a robotics engineer, Nora Hunter, in the science fiction movie Eliminators. She starred in Stephen King's Pet Sematary, played the lead role in Dolly Dearest in 1991, and also appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, and Deep Impact starring Elijah Wood. Her recent film roles included the 2002 western horror film Legend of the Phantom Rider, and the 2005 Tobe Hooper horror film Mortuary.

Star Trek

In 1987, Crosby was cast in the role of Tasha Yar for the much publicized return of Star Trek to television in the syndicated series Star Trek: The Next Generation. She had been chosen to play Counsellor Deanna Troi before Gene Roddenberry switched the roles that she and Marina Sirtis had originally been given. Initially one of the top-billed characters and featured prominently in episodes such as "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor", the role of Tasha gradually moved into the background as other members of the ensemble cast became a greater focus of the series. It has been reported that Crosby grew disillusioned with her role because of its "Uhura-like" status: "I was struggling with not being able to do much with the character. I had all these ideas and couldn't do them. I was just stage dressing." Ultimately, Crosby decided to leave the show. Her character was killed by the alien creature Armus during the episode "Skin of Evil." She had appeared in 22 episodes when she left.

In later years, Crosby approached the TNG production team with the idea of reprising her role of Tasha Yar. This came to be in season three's "Yesterday's Enterprise" in which an alternate timeline is created after the USS Enterprise-C, the predecessor to TNG's USS Enterprise-D, comes forward 22 years in time. Yar joined the Enterprise-C before it returned to its own time. During the documentary Trekkies, Crosby commented that her Tasha Yar character had to die in order to get "the best episodes".

Crosby also guest starred in several other TNG episodes such as "Redemption" as Romulan Commander Sela, the half-human, half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar, who had been taken prisoner in the past while on board the Enterprise-C. Crosby later reprised the role in the Star Trek: Armada video game, and again in the series finale, "All Good Things...", in which Captain Picard is moving back and forth through time, and encounters Tasha during the events just prior to the pilot episode.

Crosby produced and narrated the 1997 documentary Trekkies, followed by the 2003 sequel Trekkies 2. Both films star Crosby, who conducts interviews with devotees of Star Trek, more commonly known as "Trekkies."

Along with other Star Trek actors, she has also appeared as Dr. Jenna Yar (grandmother of Natasha Yar) in the fan produced series Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II.

In 2013, Crosby provided voicing for the characters of Tasha Yar and Sela in the Cryptic Studios MMORPG Star Trek Online. Crosby became the first of a new wave of several Star Trek alumni to return to the roles they originated since Leonard Nimoy's and Zachary Quinto's participation at the game's launch in 2010.

Post-Star Trek work

In January and February 2010, Crosby performed alongside Gale Harold and ex-model Claudia Mason in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at Theater in Los Angeles. The production and cast received mostly positive reviews in the Los Angeles Times stating, "Harold, ideally cast, beautifully ignites with Crosby, whose unconventional interpretation is an affecting revelation."

Crosby has a recurring role on Showtime's 2013 series Ray Donovan. In 2014, she appeared in three episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead as Mary, a member of a group of cannibals. The character first appears in the penultimate episode] of Season 4, "Us", and made her final appearance in the season five premiere, "No Sanctuary".

Crosby also played the role of widow Margie Curtis in the TV series Bones, Season 3: Episode 4 "The Secret in the Soil", aired on October 23, 2007.

Personal life

Crosby was married to Geoffrey Edwards (son of director Blake Edwards) from 1983 to 1990. She has appeared in number of Blake Edwards's films, including 10, Skin Deep, Trail of the Pink Panther, and Curse of the Pink Panther. Crosby married Ken Sylk in 1995, their son, August William Sylk, was born in 1998.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	10	Party Guest	Uncredited role
1982	Trail of the Pink Panther	Denise, Bruno's Moll
1982	48 Hrs.	Sally
1983	Curse of the Pink Panther	Denise
1983	The Man Who Loved Women	Enid
1985	Desert Hearts	Pat
1986	Eliminators	Nora Hunter
1988	Greasy Lake	Bad Girl #2	Direct-to-video
1988	Arizona Heat	Jill Andrews
1988	Miracle Mile	Landa
1989	Skin Deep	Angie
1989	Pet Sematary	Rachel Creed
1989	Tennessee Waltz	Sally Lomas
1991	High Strung	Melanie
1991	Dolly Dearest	Marilyn Wade
1993	Mafia Docks	Bella Blu	Italian title: Il ritmo del silenzio
1994	Mutant Species	Carol-Anne
1994	Max	Jayne Blake
1994	Relative Fear	Connie Madison
1995	Dream Man	Barbara	Direct-to-video
1997	Executive Power	Christine Rolands	Direct-to-video
1997	Jackie Brown	Public Defender	Uncredited role
1998	Deep Impact	Vicky Hotchner
1998	Divorce: A Contemporary Western	Kay
2002	Legend of the Phantom Rider	Sarah Jenkins
2003	The Bus Stops Here	Chatty Woman at Bus Stop	Short film
2005	Mortuary	Leslie Doyle
2007	Ripple Effect	Ronald's Wife	Uncredited role
2007	Born	Catherine
2012	Birth Mother	Detective Johnson	Short film
2015	Don't Wake Mummy	Unknown
2016	Raven's Watch	Jeanne	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Days of Our Lives	Lisa Davis	Unknown episodes
1983	Cocaine: One Man's Seduction	Teller	Television film
1985	My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn	Diana Dyrenforth	Television film
1985	Stark	Kim Parker	Television film
1985	Malice in Wonderland	Carole Lombard	Television film
1986	The Family Martinez	Rachael McCann	Television film
1986	L.A. Law	Joan Turtletaub	Episode: "Gibbon Take"
1987	Ohara	Rachel Winters	Episode: "Laura"
1987-94	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Lieutenant Tasha Yar / Sela	31 episodes
1989	Mancuso, F.B.I.	Toni Simmons	Episode: "I Cover the Waterfront"
1991	WIOU	Unknown role	Episode: "Labored Relations"
1991	Hunter	Pam Sutton	Episode: "All That Glitters"
1991	The Flash	Dr. Rebecca Frost	Episode: "The Deadly Nightshade"
1991	Dark Justice	Christina Forbes	Episode: "Forbes for the Defense"
1992	Jack's Place	Lindsay	Episode: "Everything Old is New Again"
1992-94	Red Shoe Diaries	Officer Lynn "Mona" McCabe / The Psychiatrist	Episodes: "You Have The Right to Remain Silent", "The Psychiatrist"
1993	Civil Wars	Gwen Leary	Episode: "Captain Kangaroo Court"
1993	Key West	Chaucy Caldwell	13 episodes
1993	Johnny Bago	Dr. Candace David	Episode: "Hail the Conquering Marrow"
1993	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	Sheriff Jenny Taylor	Episode: "No Man's Land"
1994	Models Inc.	Ursula Edwards	Episode: "Good Girls Finish Last"
1994-95	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Dr. Gretchen Kelly	3 episodes
1995-96	Diagnosis: Murder	Didi Harris / Cynthia Holling	3 episodes
1996	Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman	Isabelle Maynard	Episode: "Fear Itself"
1997	Baywatch	Emily Morgan	Episode: "Rendezvous"
1998	Spy Game	Chrysalis	Episode: "Go, Girl"
1998	Pumpkin Man	Laurel Hollway	Television short film
1998	Chance of a Lifetime	Katie	Television film
1999	The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads	Mrs. Muller	Television film
2000	Snoops	Evelyn Houtch	Episode: "The Stolen Diskette"
2000	Family Law	Doris Collins	Episode: "For Love"
2001	The Drew Carey Show	Officer Hayes	Episode: "The Warsaw Closes"
2001	NYPD Blue	Lieutenant Susan Dalto	Episodes: "Thumb Enchanted Evening", "Flight of Fancy"
2001	The X-Files	Dr. Mary Speake	Episodes: "Empedocles", "Essence"
2001	Judging Amy	Mrs. Nasretian	Episode: "Look Closer"
2002	JAG	Mrs. Dietz	Episode: "Capital Crime"
2002	The Division	Alison Tisdale	Episode: "This Thing Called Love"
2002	The Agency	Detective Reidy	Episode: "Sleeping Dogs Lie"
2003	Threat Matrix	Gillian Sadler	Episode: "Cold Cash"
2004	Crossing Jordan	Carla Moran	Episode: "Fire from the Sky"
2005	Eyes	Justine Canning	Episode: "Shots"
2006	Dexter	Nurse Mary	Episode: "Popping Cherry"
2007	Bones	Margie Curtis	Episode: "The Secret in the Soil"
2008	Mad Men	Gertie	Episodes: "For Those Who Think Young", "The Benefactor"
2008	Prison Break	Doctor	Episode: "Going Under"
2009	Star Trek: New Voyages	Dr. Jenna Yar	Episode: "Blood and Fire: Part 2"
2009-10	Southland	Susan Salinger	3 episodes
2011	Law & Order: LA	Diana Burt	Episode: "Big Rock Mesa"
2013	Invasion Roswell	Linda	Television film
2013-15	Ray Donovan	Deb	12 episodes
2014	The Walking Dead	Mary	3 episodes
2015	Scandal	Janet Holland	Episode: "Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance"
2016	The Magicians	Genji	Episode: "Mendings, Major and Minor"
2016	Castle	Dr Marion Baker	Episode: "Death Wish"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Star Trek: Armada	Sela	Voice role
2010	Star Trek Online	Lieutenant Tasha Yar / Sela	Voice role Uncredited role

[ Source: Wikipedia ]