Did You Know?: The Salt Vampire was played by a stuntwoman

Star Trek’s Salt Vampire remains iconic and disturbing all these years later.

Star Trek introduced one of the most terrifying aliens in the history of the franchise in just their fifth episode of its entire existence. We’re talking in the seven decades that Star Trek has existed, the fifth episode of a franchise with nearly 600 episodes introduced the most terrifying alien ever, The Salt Vampire.

The Salt Vampire is an alien that if you’ve seen, you won’t soon forget it. If you haven’t seen it, you may not know what we’re talking about, and aren’t you lucky? The alien drained the salt from its victims and looked as gruesome as possible for what the 1960s could produce. Turns out their tight budget made the creature creators of the series really up their game because that’s one alien that stuck with people.

It’s an iconic creature, but what many may not know is that it was a woman playing the alien.

Salt Vampire actress helped break ground during Star Trek

While you may shake your head and wonder why a female stunt worker is such a big deal in 2022, keep in mind that in the 1960s, there weren’t many at all. In fact, one of the few that were spoken about from that time period was Jeannie Epper.

That’s why the whole situation is interesting because, despite her notoriety, it wasn’t Epper who played the Salt Vampire, Sandra Gimpel did. She had appeared in the original pilot of the original series, the Cage, and would go on to work the original Lost in Space series as a stunt double.

So with so few stuntwomen in the game at the time, why did Gimpel get the role of the Salt Vampire? According to an interview with Star Trek.com, it came down to them knowing she was short.

"They called me. They wanted somebody small, and they knew that I could do costume work, because I’d already worked for them. So they called and I went in and they fit me for the costume."

The whole interview is great, and you can tell that Gimpel was very happy with her time on Star Trek, even if she only lasted two episodes. Read the rest of the interview, because Gimpel is a pretty impressive person and her stories are very fun to read.