Betsy Palmer
Encyclopedia
Betsy Palmer is an American
actress
, best known as a regular panelist on the game show
I've Got a Secret
, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees
in the notorious slasher film
Friday the 13th.
, the daughter of Marie (née
Love), who headed the Chicago Business College, and Vincent R. Hrunek, an industrial chemist who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia
. She graduated from DePaul University
. Palmer married Dr. Vincent J. Merendino on May 8, 1954; the couple had one daughter, Missy (b. 1962). They divorced in 1971.
Palmer got her first acting job in 1951 when she joined the cast of a 15 minute long, daily soap opera, Miss Susan
, which was produced in Philadelphia. She was "discovered" for this role while enjoying a party in the apartment of actor Frank Sutton
(Sgt. Carter of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
). She had been in New York City less than one week.
She would later become a familiar face on television as a long-running regular panelist on the quiz show I've Got a Secret. She joined the show's original run, replacing Faye Emerson
in 1958 and remaining until the show's finale in 1967. She did not subsequently reprise her role in any of the various revivals of the show.
Palmer appeared as Kitty Carter in The Long Gray Line
(1955), starring Tyrone Power
and Maureen O'Hara
. She also played nurse Lt. Ann Girard (the main female character) in the all-star cast of the classic film Mister Roberts (1955), which starred Henry Fonda
, Jack Lemmon
, and James Cagney
. She also played Carol Lee Phillips in the film Queen Bee
(1956), which starred Joan Crawford
. Palmer starred alongside Fonda again as well as Anthony Perkins
in the Paramount production of The Tin Star
(1957), a Western that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay
. In 1958, she played an undercover agent Phyllis Carter/Lynn Stuart in the film The True Story of Lynn Stuart
, with Kim Spalding
as her husband, Ralph Carter.
Palmer's need to purchase a new car was her reason for taking her most famous role in Friday the 13th. She recounted, in an interview, that her initial reaction to the experience was: "What a piece of shit! Nobody is ever going to see this piece of crap". Despite her distaste for the film, she consented to a cameo appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2
. She ultimately came to embrace her participation in the films since it made her more famous rather than infamous, appearing in the 2006 documentary Betsy Palmer: A Scream Queen Legend. Palmer was asked to reprise her role as Mrs. Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason
in 2003, but turned it down, reportedly due to the low remuneration she was offered.
Palmer created the role of "Suz Becker" on the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns
. From 1981 to 1982, the actress appeared on Knots Landing
as Virginia "Ginny" Bullock, the aunt of Valene Ewing
(played by series star Joan Van Ark
).
short
Penny Dreadful and in 2007 as the older version of the title character in Waltzing Anna. She provided the voice of the title character, the ghost of a witch, in the 2007 horror film Bell Witch: The Movie
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known as a regular panelist on the game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Sue Voorhees is a fictional character in the Friday the 13th films, and the antagonist of the original Friday the 13th film. She is a former camp cook and the mother of Jason Voorhees, the main character of the series....
in the notorious slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
Friday the 13th.
Life and career
Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, IndianaEast Chicago, Indiana
East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census.-Geography:East Chicago is located at ....
, the daughter of Marie (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Love), who headed the Chicago Business College, and Vincent R. Hrunek, an industrial chemist who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. She graduated from DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
. Palmer married Dr. Vincent J. Merendino on May 8, 1954; the couple had one daughter, Missy (b. 1962). They divorced in 1971.
Palmer got her first acting job in 1951 when she joined the cast of a 15 minute long, daily soap opera, Miss Susan
Miss Susan
Miss Susan is a daytime drama which aired on NBC from March 12 to December 28, 1951. The show, originating from Philadelphia and later retitled Martinsville, U.S.A., aired for fifteen minutes at 3:00 p.m. ET on weekdays...
, which was produced in Philadelphia. She was "discovered" for this role while enjoying a party in the apartment of actor Frank Sutton
Frank Sutton
Frank Spencer Sutton was an American actor best remembered for his role of Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter on the CBS television series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.-Early life:...
(Sgt. Carter of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
). She had been in New York City less than one week.
She would later become a familiar face on television as a long-running regular panelist on the quiz show I've Got a Secret. She joined the show's original run, replacing Faye Emerson
Faye Emerson
Faye Margaret Emerson was an American film actress and television interviewer, known as "The First Lady of Television". She acted in many Warner Brothers films beginning in 1941...
in 1958 and remaining until the show's finale in 1967. She did not subsequently reprise her role in any of the various revivals of the show.
Palmer appeared as Kitty Carter in The Long Gray Line
The Long Gray Line
The Long Gray Line is a 1955 American drama film directed by John Ford based on the life of Marty Maher. Tyrone Power stars as the scrappy Irish immigrant whose 50-year career at West Point took him from dishwasher to non-commissioned officer and athletic instructor.Maureen O'Hara, one of Ford's...
(1955), starring Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
and Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
. She also played nurse Lt. Ann Girard (the main female character) in the all-star cast of the classic film Mister Roberts (1955), which starred Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, and James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
. She also played Carol Lee Phillips in the film Queen Bee
Queen Bee (film)
Queen Bee is a 1955 drama film starring Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Fay Wray, Betsy Palmer, and Barry Sullivan in a story about a family dominated by a ruthless woman. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall was based upon a novel by Edna L. Lee. The film was directed by Ranald MacDougall and produced...
(1956), which starred Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
. Palmer starred alongside Fonda again as well as Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
in the Paramount production of The Tin Star
The Tin Star
The Tin Star was first a short story then a movie American western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, in one of Perkins' first roles. The film became one of the few low budget westerns to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay...
(1957), a Western that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
. In 1958, she played an undercover agent Phyllis Carter/Lynn Stuart in the film The True Story of Lynn Stuart
The True Story of Lynn Stuart
The True Story of Lynn Stuart is a 1958 Columbia Pictures feature film starring Betsy Palmer and Jack Lord. Marking the final directorial effort of Lewis Seiler, it dramatizes the true story of a young Santa Ana, California, housewife who became a volunteer undercover narcotics agent in the 1950's...
, with Kim Spalding
Kim Spalding
Kim Spalding was an American actor who appeared on television and in film between 1950 and 1961.Spalding's first role was as an uncredited clerk in the 1950 film The Gunfighter, starring Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo. From 1950-1953, Spalding appeared in different roles in the western television...
as her husband, Ralph Carter.
Palmer's need to purchase a new car was her reason for taking her most famous role in Friday the 13th. She recounted, in an interview, that her initial reaction to the experience was: "What a piece of shit! Nobody is ever going to see this piece of crap". Despite her distaste for the film, she consented to a cameo appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner, who also directed its sequel, Friday the 13th Part III and several other popular horror films. A sequel to Friday the 13th , it is the second film in the Friday the 13th film series. It was a moderate box-office hit, opening on...
. She ultimately came to embrace her participation in the films since it made her more famous rather than infamous, appearing in the 2006 documentary Betsy Palmer: A Scream Queen Legend. Palmer was asked to reprise her role as Mrs. Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
in 2003, but turned it down, reportedly due to the low remuneration she was offered.
Palmer created the role of "Suz Becker" on the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
. From 1981 to 1982, the actress appeared on Knots Landing
Knots Landing
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...
as Virginia "Ginny" Bullock, the aunt of Valene Ewing
Valene Ewing
Valene "Val" Ewing is a fictional character in the American television series Dallas and, more prominently, its spin-off series Knots Landing. She was played by Joan Van Ark....
(played by series star Joan Van Ark
Joan Van Ark
Joan Van Ark is an American actress, most notable for her role as Valene Ewing, which she originated on the CBS series Dallas and continued for thirteen seasons on its spin-off, Knots Landing...
).
Later years
She acted in a Mayfield Dinner Theatre production of On Golden Pond in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997. In 2005, she appeared in the horrorHorror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
Penny Dreadful and in 2007 as the older version of the title character in Waltzing Anna. She provided the voice of the title character, the ghost of a witch, in the 2007 horror film Bell Witch: The Movie
Bell Witch: The Movie
Bell Witch: The Movie is a 2007 horror film. It is based on The Bell Witch legend and stars Betsy Palmer as the voice of the Bell Witch...
.
TV appearances
From 1953 to 2001, Palmer was a guest star on 73 television programs, including (in no particular order):- MartyMartyMarty is a 1953 teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky. It was telecast live May 24, 1953, on The Goodyear Television Playhouse with Rod Steiger in the title role and Nancy Marchand, in her television debut, playing opposite him as Clara...
(the TV Adaptation) - Just Shoot Me!Just Shoot Me!Just Shoot Me! is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from March 4, 1997 to August 16, 2003, with 148 episodes produced. The show was created by Steven Levitan, the show's executive producer.-Description:...
- Appointment with AdventureAppointment with AdventureAppointment with Adventure is a half-hour adventure/dramatic anthology television series broadcast live on CBS from 1955-1956. The program has no host. It aired at 10 p.m...
- Murder, She WroteMurder, She WroteMurder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
- Out of This WorldOut of This World (TV series)Out Of This World is an American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique supernatural powers. It first aired in U.S. syndication on September 17, 1987 and ended on May 25, 1991. It was first broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on April 9, 1990, usually at...
- Knots LandingKnots LandingKnots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...
(1989–1990) - Columbo (Death Hits the Jackpot - 1991)
- NewhartNewhartNewhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
- Charles in ChargeCharles in ChargeCharles in Charge is an American sitcom series which starred Scott Baio as Charles, a 19-year-old student at the fictional Copeland College in New Jersey, who worked as a live-in babysitter in exchange for room and board...
- The Love BoatThe Love BoatThe Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
- Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
- The Mike Douglas ShowThe Mike Douglas ShowThe Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
- The Joey Bishop ShowThe Joey Bishop ShowThe Joey Bishop Show is the title of the following shows which starred American comic actor Joey Bishop:* The Joey Bishop Show , American situation comedy, broadcast by NBC and CBS...
- Toast of the Town
- PasswordPassword (game)Password is an American television game show which was created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman Productions. The host was Allen Ludden, who had previously been well known as the host of the G.E...
- Kraft Television TheatreKraft Television TheatreKraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
- Philco Television Playhouse
- Lux Video TheatreLux Video TheatreLux Video Theatre, is a weekly television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....
- Studio OneStudio One (TV series)Studio One is a long-running American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by the 26-year-old Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC.-Radio:...
Awards
Palmer was the recipient of the 2005 Major Award from the New England Theatre Conference NETC online for her stage work.External links
- An Interview with Betsy Palmer, August 2011
- Betsy Palmer a SCREAM QUEEN LEGEND DVD
- Interview with Betsy Palmer on the podcast The Future and YouThe Future And YouThe Future and You is a podcast hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb and teamed with Jim Baen's Universe Magazine...
(recorded Sept 4, 2005; assorted anecdotes about her career and the story of how she got her first acting job).