While we’re still… sorta, kinda… on the subjects of slasher movies and birthdays, to most of you Betsy Palmer is best known for being Jason’s mother in FRIDAY the 13th. She’s maybe the world’s most famous Hockey Mom.But to us baby boomers Ms. Palmer is forever etched in our minds as a celebrity panelist on the I’VE GOT A SECRET game show from the 50s and 60s. And she was also playing P
eter Pan in any dinner theater that could afford the flying apparatus. So how does this cheery, chirpy pixie with a trademark smile and sixty teeth go from live game shows to blood splatter fests?
She needed to buy a car.
"What a piece of junk!” she said of the movie (not the car) in an early interview. “Nobody is ever going to see this piece of crap."
Any teenager who ever pissed in his (or her) pants knows that’s not true.
Betsy eventually embraced the franchise. And why not? No one ever became a cult figure asking contestants if their secret had anything to do with trampolines?
Betsy just turned 85. Happy Birthday. Your son is carving you a gift even as we speak.
