Betsy Palmer, Camp Cook in 'Friday the 13th,' Dies at 88
by Mike Barnes, The Associated Press
Betsy Palmer, the veteran character actress who achieved lasting, though not necessarily sought-after, fame as the murderous camp cook in the cheesy horror film Friday the 13th, has died. She was 88.
Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospice care center in Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack, told The Associated Press on Sunday. Palmer also was known for her work as a regular panelist on the CBS game show I’ve Got a Secret for about a decade starting in 1958. The wholesome Indiana native had appeared in films, on Broadway and in TV shows for years before she took the role of Mrs. Voorhees in the 1980 movie in which young camp counselors suddenly begin meeting their bloody ends. The back story was that she was the mother of Jason Voorhees, who had died at the camp years before. He would come to life in several sequels, and she is seen oh-so-briefly in the 1981 Friday the 13th follow-up. Palmer said that she only took the role in that first film because she wanted the money to buy a new car, a Volkswagen Scirocco that cost $9,999. Her old Mercedes had just broken down on the road days earlier. “My agent called and said, 'How would you like to be in a movie?’" she recalled.
"I said, 'Great, I haven’t done a movie since the 1960s.’ He said, 'It’s 10 days’ work, they’ll pay you $1,000 a day.’ I said, 'Great, I want to buy a car. It’ll just cover the car, perfect.’ He said, 'There’s a drawback … it’s a horror film.’ I said, Oh, no.’ But Palmer did want to pay for that car, so she asked to see the script. "I said, 'What a piece of junk,’” she said. “Nobody is ever going to see this. This will come and go.”
