‘Friday The 13th’ Star Betsy Palmer Passes Away Friday, According To Reports

Betsy Palmer, famous for her role as mother to fictional serial mass murderer Jason Voorhees, has seen her last Friday the 13th. Comicbook reports that Palmer, also known in Friday the 13th as Pamela Voorhees, has passed away on Friday. Despite her agent giving Friday the 13th fans and media the news on Sunday, Palmer passed away Friday, May 29, 2015. At age 88, Betsy Palmer passed away of natural causes at a hospice in Connecticut.

Though her Friday the 13th role was her most notable, for a variety of people of varying ages, she also starred in The Long Gray Line and Queen Bee. Long before her passing, dating back to the 1950s, Palmer also landed roles in The Love Boat and Newhart.

According to ABC News, she did not choose her role in the 1980 slash film Friday the 13th to revive a film career, or to be a cult horror icon. Betsy Palmer merely wanted to buy a new car. She recounted this in an interview with Movieweb.

” I said, ‘Wonderful, I just saw a car that I want to buy. That sounds just perfect.’ And he says, ‘Well, there is a drawback.’ And I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘It’s a horror film.’ And I said, ‘Ooooooh, no! No, no, no, no! It’s bad enough that I’m an actress that wants to be recognized as an actress. Instead I am known for doing game shows. And now I am going to add a horror film to my list of credits? No, no! I don’t want to do that.’ But then I started thinking about that ten thousand dollars. I said, ‘Send me the script.’ They sent it over and I read it. And I said, ‘What a piece of s***! Nobody is ever going to see this thing. What an awful thing this is.’ It was only ten days work, so I thought, ‘I’ll do it so I can get my car.'”

Despite Palmer’s initial ill feelings towards Friday the 13th and horror, she would go on to be a cult horror icon, right up until the day she passed away. Her death came a few months after a Friday the 13th TV show was in the process of being picked up by the CW network, according to the Inquisitr. Though it was not mentioned that she would star, it was certainly a possibility.

Betsy Palmer has certainly delighted millions through the silver screen, broadway, TV, and many Friday the 13th or horror conventions. She will certainly be missed. She is survived by one daughter.

[Image Via Creative Commons/Friday The 13th]