Betsy Palmer

right|thumb|Betsy Palmer and Jackie Gleason in The Time of Your Life (1958)
thumb|Palmer on I've Got a Secret with host Garry Moore and three of Bing Crosby's sons (1961)
Betsy Palmer (November 1, 1926 – May 29, 2015) was 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 slasher film Friday the 13th.
==Life and career==
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.Betsy Palmer Biographyhttp://www.nwitimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/theatre/wall-to-wall-smile-actress-betsy-palmer-inducted-this-week/article_c96ea8eb-34bb-5a80-aac1-ce655fd7cd45.html She graduated from DePaul University, where she studied theater.Friday the 13th Reunion Panel, from the Friday the 13th Deluxe Edition DVD (Paramount Home Video) 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 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 New York City less than one week.
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.
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 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. 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).
In 1958, she played an 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 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 1991 to 1992, the actress appeared on Knots Landing as Virginia "Ginny" Bullock, the aunt of Valene Ewing (played by series star Joan Van Ark).
===Later years and death===
She 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.
Palmer died on May 29, 2015, of natural causes at a hospice care center in Danbury, Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack, told The Associated Press on May 31, 2015. She is survived by her daughter.http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/05/betsy_palmer_dead_at_88_actres.html
==Filmography==
Film	Film 	Film 	Film
Year	Film 	Role 	Notes
1955	Death Tide 	Gloria 	
1955	The Long Gray Line 	Kitty Carter 	
1955	Mister Roberts 	Lt. Ann Girard 	
1955	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) 	
1959	The Ballad of Louie the Louse	Tina Adams 	Television film
1959	The Last Angry Man 	Anna Thrasher 	
1980	Friday the 13th 	Pamela Voorhees 	
1981	Friday the 13th Part 2 	Pamela Voorhees 	
1981	Isabel's Choice 	Ellie Fineman 	
1988	Windmills of the Gods 	Mrs. Hart Brisbane 	
1988	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
*Password
*Kraft Television Theatre
*Philco Television Playhouse
*Lux Video Theatre
*Janet Dean, Registered Nurse
*Studio One
*The Today Show
*The New Candid Camera
==Awards==
Palmer was the recipient of the 2005 Major Award from the New England Theatre Conference NETC online for her stage work.
==References==
==External links==
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* 
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* An Interview with Betsy Palmer, August 2011
Category:1926 births
Category:2015 deaths
Category:Actresses from Indiana
Category:Actors Studio members
Category:American film actresses
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:American people of Czech descent
Category:DePaul University alumni
Category:People from East Chicago, Indiana