‘Star Trek,’ ‘Splash’ Actor Dead at 70
Star Trek actor Jill Jacobson passed away at 70 last weekend, her longtime friend and publicist Daniel Harary confirmed to Variety on Sunday. She died Dec. 8 in Los Angeles after a battle with “a long illness.”
Jacobson was a Texas native who, after graduating from Austin’s state university, moved west to pursue acting. It was a successful venture, with Jacobson serving as a fixture in films and television throughout her 47-year career. She came out of the gate strong, starring in the entertaining grindhouse curio Nurse Sherri. Jacobson played the eponymous healthcare worker, who's possessed by an evil spirit which renders her unquenchably murderous and amorous in equal measure. She had smaller roles in the booze-runner action-comedy Bad Georgia Road (1977) as well as Ron Howard’s classic comedy Splash (1984)
On television, Jacobson appeared as a one-off guest star on episodes of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; but she was arguably best known for her role on the ‘80s nighttime soap Falcon Crest. She played Erin Jones on 22 episodes of the popular melodrama. Jacobson also starred in the short-lived TV reboot The New Gidget; and appeared on five episodes of Days of Our Lives.
Later in her career, Jacobson sustained herself mostly with single-episode arcs on popular shows like Murphy Brown; Who’s the Boss; Arli$$; The Ghost Whisperer; and Castle. Jacobson’s most recent role was in a 2020 episode of the series Etheria, playing a bartender; however, she’s set to appear in a small role in Robert McAtee’s film Merrily, due out next year.
In between acting jobs, Jacobson devoted much of her time volunteering with the American Cancer Society, for which she acted as a spokesperson.