Heather Young

Heather Young (born Patricia Kay Petersen; April 1, 1945) is an American former actress best known for playing stewardess Betty Ann Hamilton on the Irwin Allen science fiction series Land of the Giants (1968–1970).

Early years

Young was born in Bremerton, Washington; her mother, Charlotte Hunter Petersen, was from there. Her father, Mervin Petersen, His engineering work required frequent relocation; Young attended schools in Hyde Park, Utah; Riverton, Wyoming; Takoma Park, Maryland; and Rolla before enrolling at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. In 1967, she appeared in the Batman two-parter "The Contaminated Cowl"/"The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul" as President Johnson's secretary, — and in "Kiss Me, Kill You" on The Felony Squad as Aggie, a character whose brother was played by Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy. She also appeared as the girl with the megaphone in the Gene Kelly-directed comedy A Guide for the Married Man (1967)

After Land of the Giants was cancelled, Young appeared in the television movie In Name Only (1969) alongside Christopher Connelly, and in two episodes of the religious anthology series Insight (1969–1970), including "The Dangerous Airs of Amy Clark" again with Connelly. She appeared as LuAnn in the television pilot Oh, Nurse! (1972). Between 1972 and 1980, she did not appear in film or television but performed in stage productions, including lead roles in Annie (as Grace, opposite Harve Presnell), Camelot (as Guinevere), and Kiss Me, Kate (as Kate).

In 1980, Young returned to television in Galactica 1980, appearing in "The Night the Cylons Landed" as a theatrical performer who sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" wearing a blond Shirley Temple-style wig. The role came through her friendship with series creator Glen A. Larson; she rehearsed for a full week but developed a migraine on the day of filming and was unable to complete her close-up shots.

In the early 1980s, Young signed a contract with Paramount Pictures for a television series adaptation of Foul Play, and was set to play the role originated on screen by Goldie Hawn. After she had signed, the studio redirected her toward a different project. "Turns out, it was Bosom Buddies, with Tom Hanks," she later said. "What an idiot I was. That is a lesson I'll never forget."

After stepping away from acting, Young wrote three full-scale stage musicals, the most widely produced being an adaptation of Jane Eyre that toured community theatres in Santa Barbara, California; Los Angeles; Brigham Young University (in venues of 1,500 to 2,000 seats); and a theatre near Disneyland. Under the name Patricia York, she also recorded an album titled Quiet Before the Storm, for which she wrote several songs and worked with session musicians in Nashville, Tennessee.

Personal life

Young married David Youkstetter, at the time a business administrator at TRW, at the Salt Lake Temple on June 14, 1968; the two had met in California and had not been acquainted during their overlapping years at BYU. By 1979, the couple had settled in Sonoma County, California, where Youkstetter was working as a youth counselor and both served as youth leaders and foster parents. The couple had five children together and took in foster children for approximately fifteen years. By the late 1980s, the family had relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Young and Youkstetter divorced in the early 1990s, after which she changed her legal name to Patricia York. Youkstetter died some years later; Young said in a 2023 interview that the two had resumed living together "in the same house, the last eight years of his life."