Betsy Palmer

Betsy Palmer
Palmer in 1960
Born	Patricia Betsy Hrunek (1926-11-01)November 1, 1926 East Chicago, Indiana, U.S.
Died	Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1951–2007
Spouse(s)	Vincent J. Merendino (m. 1954–71)
Children	Missy Merendino (b. 1962)

Betsy Palmer (November 1, 1926 – May 29, 2015) was an American actress, known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the slasher film Friday the 13th.

Early life

Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, the daughter of Marie (née Love), who launched the Chicago Business College, and Rudolph Vincent Hrunek, an industrial chemist who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. She graduated from DePaul University, where she studied theater.

Acting career

Palmer got her first acting job in 1951 when she joined the cast of the 15-minute weekday television soap opera Miss Susan, which was produced in Philadelphia. She was "discovered" for this role while attending a party in the apartment of actor Frank Sutton (Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.). She had been in Manhattan less than one week.

Betsy Palmer and Jackie Gleason in The Time of Your Life (1958)

A life member of The Actors Studio, Palmer's stage work included a tour of South Pacific (as Nellie Forbush) and the title role in Maggie, a 1953 musicalization of What Every Woman Knows.

In 1953, she created the role of Virginia in the original teleplay version of Paddy Chayefsky's Marty. Also in 1953 she appeared in a Studio One television broadcast of Hound Dog Man with Jackie Cooper, and others, aired on the Decade channel, December 26, 2015, from 2:00 AM to 3:15 AM (Credits including cast were not broadcast.) 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 reprise her role in any of the various revivals of the show. Palmer was the last surviving member of the I've Got a Secret first version's cast.

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), starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, James Cagney and William Powell. In the same year she also played Carol Lee Phillips in the film Queen Bee, which starred Joan Crawford.

Palmer on I've Got a Secret with host Garry Moore and three of Bing Crosby's sons (1961)

Palmer starred alongside Fonda again as well as Anthony Perkins in the Paramount production of The Tin Star (1957).

In 1958, she played undercover agent Phyllis Carter/Lynn Stuart in the film The True Story of Lynn Stuart, co-starring Jack Lord and featuring 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 thing." Despite her distaste for the film, she reluctantly 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.

In 1982 Palmer created the role of "Suzanne Becker" on the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns. From 1989 to 1990, the actress appeared on Knots Landing as Virginia "Ginny" Bullock, the aunt of Valene Ewing (played by series star Joan Van Ark). Palmer acted in a Mayfield Dinner Theatre production of On Golden Pond in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997.

In 2005, she appeared in the horror 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.

Personal life

Palmer married Dr. Vincent J. Merendino on May 8, 1954. Together, the couple had one daughter, Missy Merendino, in 1962. Palmer and her husband divorced in 1971.

Palmer died on May 29, 2015 at a hospice care center in Danbury, Connecticut. Survived by her daughter, Palmer was 88 years old at the time of her death.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1955	Death Tide	Gloria
	The Long Gray Line	Kitty Carter
	Mister Roberts	Lt. Ann Girard
	Queen Bee	Carol Lee Phillips
1957	The Tin Star	Nona Mayfield
1958	The True Story of Lynn Stuart	Phyllis Carter/Lynn Stuart
1959	It Happened to Jane	Herself (panelist)
	The Ballad of Louie the Louse	Tina Adams	Television film
	The Last Angry Man	Anna Thrasher
1980	Friday the 13th	Pamela Voorhees
1981	Friday the 13th Part 2
	Isabel's Choice	Ellie Fineman
1988	Windmills of the Gods	Mrs. Hart Brisbane
	Goddess of Love	Hera
1992	Still Not Quite Human	Aunt Mildred
1994	Unveiled	Eva
1999	The Fear: Resurrection	Grandmother
2006	Waltzing Anna	Anna Rhoades
2007	Bell Witch: The Movie	Bell Witch

Television appearances

From 1953 to 2001, Palmer was a guest star on 73 television programs, including (in no particular order):

• Marty
• Just Shoot Me!
• Appointment with Adventure
• Murder, She Wrote
• Out of This World
• Knots Landing (1989–1990)
• Columbo: Death Hits the Jackpot (1991)
• Newhart
• Charles in Charge
• The Love Boat
• Hallmark Hall of Fame
• The Mike Douglas Show
• The Joey Bishop Show
• Toast of the Town
• The $10,000 Pyramid
• Password
• Kraft Television Theatre
• Philco Television Playhouse
• Lux Video Theatre
• Janet Dean, Registered Nurse
• Studio One
• The Today Show
• The New Candid Camera

Awards

Award	Category	Film	Result
Fantasporto Film Festival	Special Career Award	Penny Dreadful	Won
Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Actress	Friday the 13th	Nominated

Palmer was also the recipient of the 2005 Major Award from the New England Theatre Conference NETC online for her stage work.

External links

• Betsy Palmer at the Internet Movie Database
• Betsy Palmer at the Internet Broadway Database
• Betsy Palmer at AllMovie
• An Interview with Betsy Palmer, August 2011