Betsy Palmer

Betsy Palmer is an American actress born Patricia Betsy Hrunke in East Chicago, Indiana on November 1st, 1926. Though she appeared in dozens of variety shows and films during the 1950s, it was the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th that turned Palmer into a horror film icon. Palmer played the role of psychopath Pamela Voorhees, mother to infamous mass murderer Jason Voorhees.

During casting for Friday the 13th, producer Sean S. Cunningham sought Palmer out and provided her with a copy of an early draft of the Friday script. After reading the script, Palmer's reaction was, "What a piece of shit!". As it turned out however, Palmer's car had broken down and she needed money to buy a new vehicle, so she agreed to work on the film.

Notes & Trivia

 * Several production assistants doubled for Palmer's character in certain sequences of the film. Stunt man and special effects artist Taso Stavrakis drove the jeep that picked up the hitchhiking Annie in the beginning of the film. Taso was also the "hand-double" for the scene where Pamela slits Annie's throat and at the end when Alice Hardy beheads Pamela on the shore of Camp Crystal Lake. Assistant director Richard Feury was the hand-double in the scene where Mrs. Voorhees kills Jack Marand.


 * appears as an interviewee on the His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th documentary.