Friday the 13th Actress Betsy Palmer Dies Aged 88

Betsy Palmer, American actress best known for her role as Mrs Voorhees in the original ‘Friday the 13th,’ has passed away at the age of 88, reports say.

According to ABC News, Ms Palmer died of natural causes at a hospice care centre in Connecticut.

Born in 1926 with a career dating back to the 1950′s, it is her role as the deranged mother of the drowned, bullied boy Jason - who is not the killer in the 1980 original - with which Palmer has long been most closely associated.

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In 1996′s ‘Scream,’ Drew Barrymore’s character famously forgot that it was Mrs Voorhees and not Jason who did all the killing in the first film, with Jason (somewhat inexplicably) taking over in the 1981 sequel, and all but one of the ten further films in the series.

But quite apart from being a vital test of a slasher movie fan’s knowledge, Palmer’s performance remains one of the great mad mothers of horror - plus one of the genre’s great surprise reveals, as the killer’s face is not seen until the final act.

Perhaps ironically, Palmer had claimed in later years that she only took ‘Friday the 13th’ because she needed the money for a new car. She would also decline to reprise the role in 2003′s ‘Freddy Vs Jason’ when studio New Line Cinema refused to pay her above the Screen Actor’s Guild minimum wage.

However, this did not stop Palmer appearing at numerous fan conventions and giving many interviews on the subject over the years, notably for the ‘Friday the 13th’ DVD extras and the documentaries ‘Going to Pieces: the Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film’ and ‘His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th.’

Outside the infamous slasher franchise, Palmer worked extensively in theatre, film and television with around 60 screen credits to her name, including a long run on 1980s soap opera ‘Knots Landing.’

Palmer is survived by her daughter Melissa Merendino, and will be sadly missed.

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Picture Credit: Paramount, Wicked Channel