The name "Majel" is Native American and means Wood-dove. She was named after her mother's best friend, and soon after her birth the family moved to Cleveland. Her love of acting began there when her mother enrolled her in acting classes at the Cleveland Playhouse. Majel went to the University of Miami, FL, after graduating from Shaker Heights High School. Here she majored in radio/drama/television. Majel stayed on in Florida to start a law course, after an Uncle who was a lawyer suggested it. After flunking the six-credit course on contracts Majel abandoned the idea of becoming a lawyer.

After the Bermudian Theater conducted auditions at the University, Majel was offered "resident leading lady", and so went off to Bermuda for 10 weeks. On her return to America, she moved to New York and won a part in a play that was bound for Broadway. Unfortunately, audiences did not agree and the show closed less than a week later. Majel then joined "The Wagon Wheel", a summer stock theatre group in the Midwest, for 16 weeks.

Returning to New York afterwards, Majel won a role in Solid Gold Cadillac with a touring group. It was during her time with this group that Majel first went to Los Angeles. As soon as she went on to New York, Majel was sent back to Los Angeles to star in All For Mary with Edward Thornton. From these inauspicious beginnings, Majel went on to her first film role, in a film called Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? With Groucho Marx, Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield. Majel was not one to sit back and let her agent do the work; she sent letters of introduction to every producer in town, and followed up by going in person. She soon got a TV part, in Leave It To Beaver, in 1957.

After marrying Gene Roddenberry, and all her roles in Star Trek, Majel moved on, and started directing; she also wrote an episode of Star Trek:DS9, Episode no. 91, The Muse.

Majel is Executive Producer of Earth: Final Conflict, where she also has a role as Dr. Belman. Majel found the pilot and format for this series when going through some of Gene's old papers; Gene had named it Battleground Earth. It had been sold to Twentieth Century Fox but had fallen by the wayside and had reverted to the estate. Majel and David Kirschner, a film producer, took it to Alliance-Atlantis films and Tribune entertainment, and sold it to syndicated television. Majel was also the voice of Anna Watson, in the animated action series, Spiderman.

Gene cast Majel as Number One in 1964. Gene said that he created the role just for her, and never considered anyone else for the role. After this was rejected, Majel found a role in the revised series that she wanted, the part of the nurse. In order to prove that she could do it even though she had been in the original pilot, Majel dyed her hair blonde. This was due to the fact that once you have been rejected in a part in a pilot; you hadn't a chance of being recast. Gene walked past her twice, before turning around and saying "Majel?" Majel said that if she could fool Gene she could fool anyone. Majel got the part. She changed her name from Hudec to Barret to complete this transformation. Gene also made her the voice of the Federation Computer, a role she still plays today. Majel is also famous for her role as Lwaxana Troi, the irrepressible mother of Deanna Troi. Although Deanna Troi appears in The Next Generation, Lwaxana Troi has also appeared in Deep Space 9. She has also appeared in 2 of the Star Trek movies: Star Trek: The Motion Picture as Dr. Chapel, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where she had been promoted again, this time to Commander Chapel. The Star Trek universe took up a lot of the couple's time in the 70's and 80's, with merchandising, conventions, movies and the new series taking up a lot of their attention.

Majel first met Gene when he was at Screen Gems; Roddenberry was one of the producers that Majel went to meet in person, after sending a letter of introduction. Gene was impressed by Majel's business like approach to her career. Over a few years, Gene and Majel became friends, and gradually fell in love while Gene was going through his divorce from his first wife. Gene would take Majel for rides through the canyons on his motorcycle. They moved in together in 1968. The following year Gene went to Japan scouting locations, and realized that he missed her too much, so he called her and insisted that she fly out to join him. He married her in an unofficial Shinto-Buddhist ceremony with both of them in full Japanese costume. On December 29th, 1969, 2 days after his divorce became final, Gene and Majel were married in their home. They had a small reception for family and friends.

Gene and Majel started their life in Beverley Hills where they began a tradition of giving lavish parties. In 1973, after trying for years, Majel became pregnant with her son, Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Jr. Majel has an impish sense of fun, each Halloween she sets up marvelous surprises for "Trick-or-Treaters" visiting her home. Among other displays she has arranged to have a ghost float down her stairs, and a body in the fireplace. She has up to 40 pumpkins lining the driveway during this time of the year. She has also hammed-up a family movie of her and Gene visiting The Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico. She begins the ascent full of energy and as she climbs, exaggerates her fatigue, finally crawling to the top on her hands and knees, in true silent-movie tradition. They eventually moved to a home in Bel Air, and this period of time marked a serious deterioration in Gene's health. There were many nights when Majel stayed awake caring for him, or slept on a sofa so as to be near him if he needed help.

When talking about Gene in an interview with Biography, Majel said, "I was in love, it's just that simple, I would have followed him anywhere." Gene and Majel were married for 23 years, until Gene's death in 1991. After his death Majel said to Biography "I'm not so sure he's gone yet. There's so much that's going on, that's still happening."

Majel is an excellent cook, who prepares the food for all her dinner-parties. She delights in preparing food for crowds. She is also a keen gardener, and has a greenhouse where she lovingly tends the orchids she so adores. At present, Majel is caring for more than a hundred plants. Majel first learned to play golf with Gene, in the Rancho Santa Fe Country Club. It was always one of Gene's passions, and quickly became one of hers as well, and she still enjoys playing today.

Majel also sits on the Board of Governors for the National Space Society, and traveled to Galveston, Texas, in order to be present at the opening ceremony of the Gene Roddenberry Centre for Aerospace Medicine.

As well as all her other diverse interests, Majel is very involved in Animal Welfare, after an incident where she saw some boys tormenting a silver tabby on her way home from Paramount. She screeched to a stop and rescued the kitten that she named Glitch, and adopted into her animal family that already consisted of 2 Alsatians, a Rottweiller, and several Burmese cats. Majel has wild cats in the area caught and neutered, kittens that are caught are neutered and have homes found once they are tamed.

She is presently involved in the setting up of "The Gene Roddenberry Animal Sanctuary" a no-kill shelter for dogs and cats in the L.A. area. As well as this, Majel is currently developing other forgotten projects of Gene's. Closest to airing is "Star Ship", about the crew of a space-ship that go around repairing the devastation left after a hundred years of violent warfare.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, March, 1994 words "In his own view of himself, Gene was a storyteller. He had a story for all occasions, and as self-effacing as he was, it wasn't uncommon for him to create a convenient story to dramatize some aspect of his life or career to divert attention away from his innate shyness. . . Gene was a complex man with a penchant for life, for love, and mostly for humanity, but a man who needed to be loved in return".

Works Cited and Consulted

The Fifth House - Fan Site

Official Site

Filmography:

IFilm - Roddenberry, Majel