Friday the 13th: In Memoriam
One of my staffers Johnny Boots, at my other home Benevolentstreet.com, just served up a really cool article that I wanted to share with Fridaythe13thfilms.com readers. The article is entitled “Friday the 13th: In Memoriam” and is a write up about the Friday the 13th alum that are no longer with us.
Here is the article, in full. RIP Friday alum.
With the remake of Friday the 13th hitting theatres in a little over a week, I think now is the perfect time to honor the franchise alumns who are no longer with us. Without these guys and girls, the Friday universe would not be what it is today. And in fact, without them today, that universe is just a little bit smaller. However, as sad as it is, it is only natural and inevitable that in the 3 decades now that the series has been running, a few of those stars were bound to burn out. However, by watching these movies over and over again and remembering these men and women, we are keeping them as immortal as Jason Voorhees himself.
We have lost a total of 12 on screen personas in the Friday the 13th franchise over the course of, ironically, 12 installments. Lets take a moment to remember those who have passed on.
Walt Gorney – Crazy Ralph – Friday The 13th
April 12th, 1912 – March 5th, 2004
Although he is best known for his role as Crazy Ralph and was believed by many to be an actual town crazy that was cast in the film (even by some of the other cast members at the time!), Austrian born Walt Gorney was actually an accomplished stage performer. After Friday the 13th, he reprised his role as Ralph in Part 2 and even returned, post character death, in Part 7 to do the opening voice over narration. Gorney passed away at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City at the age of 91 as a result of natural causes.
Laurie Bartram – Brenda – Friday The 13th
May 16th, 1958 – May 25th, 2007
Prior to Friday, Bartram’s only acting credits were in a couple television shows as well as the 1974 horror film The House of Seven Corpses. Friday The 13th was her last acting role and after it, she enrolled at Liberty Baptist College where she met her husband Gregory McCauley, whom she went on to have five children with. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 49 in Virginia.
Rex Everhart – Enos (Truck Driver) – Friday The 13th
June 13th, 1920 – March 13th, 2000
Rex Everhart was an accomplished stage, television, and film actor who was nominated for Broadway’s 1978 Best Actor Tony Award. He appeared in the hit films Superman and The Elephant Man and voiced Belle’s father in Beauty and the Beast before ending his acting career in 1992. In 2000, he succombed to lung cancer in Watseka, Illinois at the age of 79.
Sally Anne Golden – Sandy – Friday The 13th
July 31st, 1910 – January 29th, 1982
No stranger to horror, Golden appeared in 1976’s Alice Sweet Alice before landing a role in Friday The 13th, which was to be her last role. She died of unknown causes at the age of 71 in New York City.
Tom McBride – Mark – Friday The 13th Part 2
October 7th, 1952 – September 24th, 1995
Friday The 13th was the first acting role for Tom McBride, who went on to appear in only two more films and one television show before his death from the AIDS virus at 42. His final moments were documented in the heart wrenching 1996 documentary Life and Death on the A List. McBride was the first franchise cast member who played a camp counselor to die in real life.
Steve Susskind – Harold – Friday The 13th Part 3
October 3rd, 1942 – January 21st, 2005
Part 3 was Susskind’s first acting role in a career that lasted until his death at the age of 62 in 2005 as a result of an automobile accident. He leaves behind a legacy that includes films like 1986’s House, Star Trek : The Final Frontier, Terminator 3, and Monsters Inc. as well as shows such as Married With Children, Tales From The Crypt, and Seinfeld.
David Wiley – Abel – Friday The 13th Part 3
1929 – February 5th, 2007
Before his Crazy Ralph-esque turn in Part 3, Wiley had roles on the popular shows Hogan’s Heroes and Chips. After the film, he went on to appear in countless other shows and a few more films as well as even voicing a pedestrian in Grand Theft Auto : Vice City. He lost his battle to cancer in his late 70’s.
Antony Ponzini – Vincent – Friday The 13th Part 4
June 1st, 1933 – December 30th, 2002
Antony Ponzini mostly acted in television shows over the course of his 40 year career, appearing on hit shows the likes of Hawaii Five-O, Three’s Company, All My Children, Baywatch, and Seinfeld. At 69, he passed away of unknown causes in Connecticut.
Ric Mancini – Mayor Cobb – Friday The 13th Part 5
April 16th, 1933 – May 26th, 2006
Ric Mancini had a long career before Part 5 came along and a long career after it passed, taking on roles in the films Ghostbusters, Ready To Rumble and Ed Wood as well as small roles in the TV shows ER, The A-Team, Charlie’s Angels, and MASH. He died at the age of 73 in Woodland Hills, California at the Motion Picture Hospital of unknown causes.
Mark Venturini – Victor – Friday The 13th Part 5
January 10th, 1961 – February 14th, 1996
In the same year that he played Victor, the man essentially responsible for the return of “Jason” to the franchise, Venturini also appeared in the horror cult classic Return of the Living Dead, as the character Suicide. He career only lasted 10 years, when the 35 year old former football player died of Leukemia in Los Angeles.
Vernon Washington – George – Friday The 13th Part 5
August 10th, 1927 – June 7th, 1988
A New Beginning was the final film role for Vernon Washington, who had previously been known for his roles in the television shows The Jeffersons and Roots : The Next Generations. He died just three years after the film was released at age 50 after health problems forced him to retire from acting.
Last but not least, Abigail Shelton, who is credited only as “woman” in Friday the 13th Part 4, died on December 11th of 2006 at the age of 74. After thorough research, this is the only picture I have been able to find of her :
If you have any information as to where she appears in the film, please leave a comment and let me know.
REST IN PEACE TO ALL OF YOU.
Great tribute to the actors who are gone. I have no clue either about the final person, Abigail Shelton. Would have to watch the movie again and pay very close attention. Thanks for writing this, great job!
This is a great tribute..thank you. I watched Part 4 and when they first wheel Jason’s body into the hospital it pans into a side room with 3 people crying..the woman looks very much like Abigail Shelton, I might be wrong but she has the same hair and everything.
Aaaaw so sad. Tom McBride was really cute and I’d love to see him in more moives. <3
Sucha fitting tribute. Sometimes on here, I look at the actors & actresses on there “Where are they Now?” feature, and I gotta say I do get chokoed up easily.
I hope they’re all in better place and that the remaining relatives (immdiate fmaily mostly) get’s regular residuals in their name.
Bless’em all …
Their memories will forever live in our hearts
Glad you guys like the article! Really cool to see it posted over here.
Kelly – Thanks for that info. I watched every scene from the movie real close to try and pick her out but I just couldn’t seem to find her. I will check that scene again.
I have always thought it would be a good idea, and a warm way of remembering “Friday The 13th” actors and actresses who have passed away.
Being Tom McBride’s nursing assistant, he and I became friends.
He would talk about being in commercials, modeling, and movies.
I was a fan of the “Friday The 13th” series, and Tom would spend lots of time talking about the interview to land the role, the setting/scenes, and working with the other actors.
When I went to take Tom’s vital signs one morning, there was a machete laying on the chair beside his bed with his signiture.
Tom was funny, energetic, and always made a friend.
I remember him telling me that his wish before dying is for people to remember him not from AIDS, but as someone who made someone smile, laugh, and made a friend.
He told me that it would be neat to be remembered as “Machete-Face”.
He laughed and said he should have been the one to come back and be a horror icon like “Jason” and “Leatherface”.
So when I think of my friend, I can’t help but to think of ol’ “Machete-Face”.
-Gary
North Carolina
Cool. She’s definately in that side room hugging another family member. let me know if you catch it.
I was lucky to get a copy of Life and Death on the a-list, and as a fan of Tom Mcbride I was absolutely devastated. The start of the film he looks 100% healthy and he’s built like a body builder and then by the end theres nothing left. Throughout he is often laughing, getting on with everyday life as normal and I think doing the documentary helped him deal with his dying. He even continues to go to auditions. I believe he had so much more to give.
Everyone in this tribute gave a huge amount to the Friday series and they will be missed!
Gary – Thanks for commenting. It’s really cool that you got to know Tom and spend some time with him. And i’d say his wish came true. He will always be remembered by us Friday fans as “machete face”! I just wish he had more time to do some more acting work.
Kelly – I just checked the DVD and you are correct! Again, thanks for bringing that to my attention. As for Life and Death on the A List, one part of me wants to see it and the other part of me doesn’t want to see the man in that way. I think i’d rather remember him as he was when he was healthy.
Johnny – Yay! I’m glad we’ve solved the mystery. As for Tom, in many ways I do regret watching the documentary…maybe I wasn’t completely prepared for what it contained. But despite that I will always remember him as he was when he was well. Bizzarely on the His name was Jason documentary in the end credits theres a in memoriam list and Tom was not on there??? only 5 people including Laurie Bartram and Steve Susskind. a total of 12 people have died, I wonder why they only put 5 people??
Gary – Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. It must’ve been such a privilege to have known Tom.
Kelly – Over at Benevolent Street, I edited the original post with a screen grab and credited you! Check it out! Interesting about how many names were left out on that DVD. Someone didn’t do their research! I’ve yet to check it out but I really think they should’ve had some kind of video tribute to all who have passed rather than relegating it to the end credits (and missing out on more than half of them!).
Thats a very cool tribute to those who passed away. Gary, it was cool that you got to meet him. I am a nursing assistant too. Awesome tribute guys.
Laurie Bartram was a dear friend of mine. While I still think about her at random times whenever a Friday the 13th roles around she is the first person I think of. Laurie and I became friends while we were at Liberty University our freshman year. It’s funny, at the time, I had no idea that she had been an actress in a movie or that she had a role in the soap opera, “Another World“. When someone asked me if she ever talked about her acting career, I was oblivious to it. Later when I asked her, “Why didn’t you tell me?“ Laurie said very simply, “I loved the fact that you didn’t know and that you just loved me for who I am.” And I did. Later she actually gave me the shirt she wore in the movie Friday the 13th but she didn’t want me to watch it! For Laurie those years were a past she had left behind. Years later I finally got her to agree to let me rent it. Watching her on screen made me smile because it was “so Laurie“. Her expressions and mannerisms came through in her character. Laurie was a beautiful person. I think that would have shown through in any role that she played. RIP I miss you Leej.
Jenny – Great story. It is amazing to see people who actually knew these great people showing up and sharing their stories about these people. Thanks everyone.
Jenny, thanks so much for sharing that story. It really made my day to hear that. Like Tony said, it\’s really cool how this article brought about all these stories from folks like you and Gary who knew these men and women. It makes all the time and effort I put into it well worth it. This is why I write…
I had no idea Laurie Bartram had passed. My friend Matt and I just watched the blu-ray version 2 nights ago, and were saying how we were surprised how we never saw “Brenda” go on to bigger and better things, as she was SO beautiful she could even have had a successful modeling careeer, and she was a very natural talent in front of the camera. It’s talent and looks like hers that make me cringe when I see the bimbos they hire for horror films today. Silicone and fake hair are no match for classic beauty and personality. Laurie will definitely be missed, by more than she’ll ever know.
Also, for anyone interested, here’s a great article written around when “Life and Death On The A-List” released. Very nice profile of Tom with quotes and interviews with friends. Very bittersweet.
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/071097/article021.shtml
Good read. Thanks for that Baloo. Still haven’t figured out if I wanna watch that documentary or not.
Nice tribute. All great character actors. crazy Raplh is one of my all-time favorite Friday characters.
A really nice tribute to some of the actors who helped out with the F13th saga!
Great tribute! I have on the first Friday the 13th and began to wonder what happened to some of these folks. I figured with some of the older characters, but was shocked with others.
Very GREAT tribute! And thank you so much for including Abigail Shelton.
Abigail Shelton is my Aunt. She did a lot of part work for old shows like The Fugitive, Bonanza, Perry Mason etc. She also had a small reoccurring role on Dallas in 1989. She was Married to John T. Kelly a writer until he passed away. She was in the movie he wrote called Zig Zag and she also was in Disney’s original That Darn Cat. She did tons of theatre and was very talented.
Her real name was Francis Compton. She had a sister and brother (my dad) and only one son Peter. She moved out to California from Virginia when she was 20 to follow her dream of acting.
Her IMDB page is: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0791295/
Wendy,
I am sure that Tony and Johnny will be happy to see that there is appreciation for their hard work. I for one am glad that Johnny included everyone he could find that acted in the franchise and not just the more known stars. He did a great job in digging up the individuals information.
All the best to you and your family and as always Happy Friday the 13th!!