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Betsy Palmer from Friday the 13th dies

Palmer had appeared in numerous TV shows dating to the early 1950s Golden Age of Television.

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 at age 88.

Palmer died on Friday of natural causes at a hospice care center in Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack, said on Sunday.

Palmer had appeared in films, on Broadway and in TV shows for decades before she took the role of Mrs. Voorhees in the campy 1980 movie in which young camp counselors suddenly begin meeting their bloody demise. She would say in later years that she only took the role in that first film because she wanted the money to buy a new car.

Palmer had appeared in numerous TV shows dating to the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. Among them were such classic dramas as Kraft Theatre, Playhouse 90 and Studio One.

Her film credits included Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda, The Long Gray Line with Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara, Queen Bee with Joan Crawford, and The Tin Star with Fonda and Anthony Perkins.