Yvonne Craig, TV's Batgirl, is dead at 78. Watch her best Batgirl moments.

Yvonne Craig, TV&#039;s Batgirl, is dead at 78

(Image credit: George De Sota/Liaison)

"I hear from women that I was their role model," actress Yvonne Craig told CNN earlier this year. A common accolade, she said: "'When I was a little girl, I realized that girls could kick butt just like guys.'" Craig, most famous for playing Batgirl on the 1960s Batman TV show, died on Monday from breast cancer that had spread to her liver, her family announced late Tuesday. She was 78.

Along with her iconic role fighting villains alongside Adam West's Batman, Craig had parts in several other '60s and '70s TV shows, including Star Trek, Dobie Gillis, My Three Sons, Perry Mason, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, and Fantasy Island. She also starred with Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World's Fair and Kissin' Cousins. She started her career as a ballet dancer, and ended as a real estate broker, businesswoman, and advocate for free mammograms.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.