is saddened to report the passing of acclaimed Australian actress and Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star Wendy Hughes. She played Captain Picard's love interest, Lt. Commander Nella Daren, in the sixth-season hour "Lessons," which aired in 1993. Her TNG episode was just one credit in a long and successful career that spanned from the stage to television to features, and included My Brilliant Career, Careful, He Might Hear You and State Coroner, as well as The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and, in 2012, a Sydney Theater Company production of Pygmalion that cast her as Mrs. Higgins.

Hughes succumbed to cancer on Saturday afternoon in Sydney, with actor Bryan Brown breaking the news to the audience at a Sydney Theatre Company Travelling North show and leading the audience to honor her with a standing ovation. The actress was 61 years old and leaves behind a daughter, Charlotte, and a son, Jay. StarTrek.com offers our condolences to Hughes' family, friends, colleagues and fans.