Bibi Besch

Bibiana Maria Köchert was born in Vienna on February 1, 1942, the younger daughter of theater actress Gusti Huber and Austrian racing driver Gotfrid Köchert, who served in the Wehrmacht. Besch had an elder sister, Christiana Barbara Köchert. Huber and her two daughters remained in Vienna during World War II before immigrating to the United States after the war. In 1946, Huber married Joseph Besch, a radio executive and former U.S. Army captain, and the daughters took his surname. Huber and Joseph Besch later had two children in the United States, Drea and Andrew, who became Bibi's half-siblings. Besch herself had a daughter, Samantha Mathis, who also became an actress.

Besch built her stage career in New York, appearing on Broadway between 1964 and 1974 in productions including The Chinese Prime Minister and Fame. Much of her early professional work in New York also came through daytime television, where she appeared on The Secret Storm in 1966, The Edge of Night in 1969, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing in 1973, and Somerset in 1974.

Her film career encompassed a wide range of roles across more than two decades. She appeared in Victory at Entebbe in 1976, The Pack in 1977, The Promise and Meteor in 1979, and The Beast Within in 1982. Her most prominent film role came that same year when she portrayed Dr. Carol Marcus, the early love interest of Admiral James T. Kirk, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Subsequent film credits included The Lonely Lady in 1983, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry in 1986, Who's That Girl and Date with an Angel in 1987, Steel Magnolias in 1989, and both Tremors and Betsy's Wedding in 1990.

On television, Besch transitioned from daytime soap operas to primetime productions, appearing in series such as Secrets of Midland Heights in 1980, Dynasty in 1984, Dallas in 1985, Falcon Crest from 1985 to 1986, and Knots Landing in 1989. She guest starred in numerous series including The Rockford Files, The Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Street Hawk, Backstairs at the White House, and It's Garry Shandling's Show. Having appeared in a 1979 episode of How the West Was Won alongside James Arness, she reunited with him in the 1981 television film McClain's Law, which served as the two-hour debut of Arness's same-named police detective series. She also appeared in the notable television film The Day After in 1983 and was a cast member of The Jeff Foxworthy Show.

Besch received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations late in her career. The first came in 1992 for her performance in Doing Time on Maple Drive, in which William McNamara and Jim Carrey played her sons. The second nomination followed in 1993 for her recurring role as the neurotic mother of Janine Turner's character on Northern Exposure. An episode of Melrose Place in which she appeared aired on September 9, 1996, two days after her death. Besch died of breast cancer at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Los Angeles on September 7, 1996, at the age of 54.