Linnea Quigley

Last updated
Linnea Quigley
Linnea Quigley (2007).jpg
Quigley in 2007
Born
Barbara Linnea Quigley

(1958-05-27) May 27, 1958 (age 65)
Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actress
  • film producer
  • model
  • singer
  • author
Years active1978–present
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1990;div. 1992)​
Website www.linnea-quigley.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Barbara Linnea Quigley (born May 27, 1958) is an American actress, film producer, model, singer, and author. She is best known as a B-movie actress, and is often referred to as a "scream queen" due to her frequent appearances in low-budget horror films during the 1980s and 1990s. Born in Davenport, Iowa, Quigley first pursued her career in the late 1970s, shortly after moving to Los Angeles. While working at Jack LaLanne's health spa, she was encouraged by her friends to try modeling, and also began taking acting and guitar-playing classes. After appearing as an extra in various films, Quigley got her first acting role in the Charles Band-produced film Fairy Tales (1978). She continued receiving small parts, mostly in B movies. Her first bigger part was in the 1981 slasher film Graduation Day . Quigley followed with more films such as Savage Streets (1984) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

Contents

In 1985, Quigley appeared in the zombie horror film The Return of the Living Dead playing a teenaged punk, which is considered one of her most notable roles and earned her "scream queen" status. During the second half of the 1980s, Quigley starred in a number of low-budget films following the popularization of home video. She repeatedly worked with the directors David DeCoteau ( Creepozoids , Nightmare Sisters , and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama ) and Kevin Tenney ( Night of the Demons and Witchtrap ), and appeared alongside fellow scream queens Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. By the end of the 1980s, Quigley decided to take a different direction and starred in the first two films of Rick Sloane's comedy series Vice Academy . However, she continued being type cast as a victim in horror films.

Aside from her acting career, Quigley is also a singer (she formed an all-female band, The Skirts, in the early 1980s) and an author (she wrote three books: The Linnea Quigley Bio & Chainsaw Book, I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can: My Life in B-Movies, and Skin). She is also an animal rights activist and a member of PETA.

Career

Early life and career beginnings

Quigley as a senior at Bettendorf High School, 1976 Linnea Quigley Yearbook 1976.jpg
Quigley as a senior at Bettendorf High School, 1976

Quigley was born on May 27, 1958, in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy and William Heath Quigley. Her father was a chiropractor and psychologist. [1] He worked as an executive vice president at Palmer College of Chiropractic. An only child, Quigley attended Garfield Elementary and Sudlow Middle Schools in Davenport. In 1972, she began attending Bettendorf High School in Bettendorf, Iowa. Quigley later reminisced about her school years: "I was so shy. I didn't move my mouth, didn't sing in glee club or anything like that, didn't do any plays. I was terribly, terribly shy." [2]

Shortly after graduating from high school in 1976, Quigley moved with her parents to Los Angeles. She landed a job at Jack LaLanne's health spa, where she met models who worked in films by doing work as extras. [2] Encouraged by her friends, Quigley began taking acting and guitar-playing classes. [3] One of her earliest acting jobs was a television commercial for Close-Up toothpaste. After getting a few extra parts, she got her first acting role in the Charles Band-produced erotic comedy Fairy Tales (1978), wherein she appeared as Sleeping Beauty. Her next role was in the pseudo-documentary Auditions (1978), again produced by Band and directed by Harry Hurwitz. She continued receiving small parts in films such as Don't Go Near the Park (1981) and the Troma slasher Graduation Day (1981). She was given the role of Dolores after the original actress refused to do nude scenes. In 1981, producer and director Jim Feazell decided to shoot some additional footage for the reissue of his unsuccessful 1975 psychological thriller Wheeler. In one of the scenes, Quigley played a waitress menaced by a truck driver. The movie was re-released under the title The Hurting and later changed to Psycho from Texas. [3]

Besides modeling and auditioning for films, Quigley also began auditioning for bands that would let her join in. She first played guitar in an all-female band, Mad Whistle, started by singer and songwriter Lucrecia Sarita Russo. Russo's then-husband Jeffrey Spry appeared alongside Quigley in the film Graduation Day with his band Felony. Quigley then managed to form her own band called The Skirts. Her friend Haydee Pomar, whom she met on the set of Cheech & Chong's comedy Nice Dreams (1981), played the bass guitar. [4] They practiced in the basement of the punk rock club The Masque and their music got featured in some of Quigley's later movies. [5] Their song "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy" was released on Mystic Records' 1983 compilation The Sound of Hollywood Girls.

Acting career

Quigley is best known for her role in The Return of the Living Dead (1985) (directed by Dan O'Bannon). She has also starred in dozens of other horror films, including Savage Streets (with Linda Blair), Silent Night, Deadly Night , Nightmare Sisters , Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers , Night of the Demons (the 1988 original and the 2009 remake), and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master . Quigley is the author of two books about her career as a B-movie actress, Chainsaw and I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can. She has been called the "Queen of the Bs".

Linnea co-starred with Daniel Baldwin in Stripperland (2011). She played in David DeCoteau's movies 1313: Cougar Cult (2012) and 3 Scream Queens (2014), and Charles Band's web series Trophy Heads (2014) with Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. In 2012, Quigley guest appeared in Massachusetts death metal band Sexcrement's music video entitled "Trucker Bombed".

Alongside regular co-stars Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer, Quigley appeared in and was a main subject for the 2011 documentary Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era and its 2020 follow up Screaming in High Heels: The Reunion. According to Deadline Hollywood and Horror Fuel magazine, Linnea will co-star alongside horror icons Michael Berryman, Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder in the 2022 feature Jasper, produced by Shaun Cairo.

Personal life

Relationships

Linnea's father was Dr. William "Nip" Heath Quigley, a dean of education and vice president at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Her mother Dorothy was a homemaker. After she graduated from Bettendorf High School in 1976, she moved to California with her parents when her father became the president of the Los Angeles campus of Palmer College. He left the college in the late 1980s to open a private practice.

During the filming of Night of the Demons (1988), Quigley began a relationship with special-effects artist Steve Johnson. [1] Later, while working on the film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Johnson proposed to Quigley on the set. "I actually got engaged on the set of that movie right after coming out of Freddy's chest. He gave me a ring so that was funny. While he's hosing my K-Y Jelly off me and after it fell over almost killing us and some others, he still managed to ask me to marry him." [6] They married on January 17, 1990, but divorced in 1992.

Veganism

Quigley is a vegan. She switched to a vegetarian diet in the late 1970s after her move to Los Angeles, first by eliminating red meat, then chicken and fish, and eventually all dairy and all other foods from animals. She is an animal-rights activist and an active member of the animal-rights organization PETA. [7] In October 1990, she appeared on the cover of Vegetarian Times , but the cover story met with criticism from one reader who attacked Quigley for appearing in films that depict violence against women. [8]

Filmography

Discography

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scream queen</span> Actress known for her work in horror films

A scream queen is an actress who is prominent and influential in horror films, either through a notable appearance or recurring roles. A scream king is the male equivalent. Notable female examples include Barbara Steele, Sandra Peabody, Linda Blair, Olivia Hussey, Marilyn Burns, Neve Campbell, Daria Nicolodi, Dee Wallace, Jamie Lee Curtis, Heather Langenkamp, Shawnee Smith, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Linnea Quigley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Bauer</span> American actress

Michelle Bauer is an American actress, model, and B movie scream queen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Final girl</span> Trope in slasher horror films

The final girl is a trope in horror films. It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including Psycho, Voices of Desire, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and Train to Busan. The term was coined by Carol J. Clover in her article "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film" (1987). Clover suggested that in these films, the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experienced a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debbie Rochon</span> Canadian actress

Debbie Ann Rochon is a Canadian actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in independent horror films and counterculture films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brinke Stevens</span> American actress (born 1954)

Brinke Stevens is an American actress. A native of San Diego, Stevens initially pursued a career as a marine biologist prior to becoming an actress, earning an undergraduate degree in biology from San Diego State University before studying marine biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Unable to find employment in the field of biology, Stevens began modeling in Los Angeles in 1980, and she worked as a film extra.

<i>Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers</i> 1988 film by Fred Olen Ray

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is a 1988 American black comedy horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray, and starring Gunnar Hansen, Linnea Quigley, Jay Richardson and Michelle Bauer. It is known as a B-movie.

<i>Creepozoids</i> 1987 film by David DeCoteau

Creepozoids is a 1987 American science fiction horror film directed by David DeCoteau, and starring Linnea Quigley, Ken Abraham, Michael Aranda, Richard S. Hawkins and Kim McKamy. It was the first DeCoteau-directed film to be shot on 35 mm film.

<i>Jack-O</i> 1995 American horror film by Steve Latshaw

Jack-O a 1995 American horror film directed and co-produced by Steve Latshaw and executive produced by Fred Olen Ray. It is the third collaboration between Latshaw as director and Ray as executive producer, following 1993's Dark Universe and 1994's Biohazard: The Alien Force.

<i>Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama</i> 1988 film by David DeCoteau

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by David DeCoteau, loosely based on the classic short story "The Monkey's Paw". Notable for scream queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer appearing together, its plot follows an imp accidentally released and causing havoc among a group of teenagers inside a mall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I'm with Stupid (Static-X song)</span> 2000 single by Static-X

"I'm with Stupid" (released as a single under the name of "I'm with Stupid (He's a Loser)") is the second single from Static-X's debut album, Wisconsin Death Trip. The song starts off with singer Wayne Static screaming out the words of the chorus, "He’s a loser, she said" and quickly moving on to the main guitar riff that is repeated throughout the song. The outro, a sample of dialogue from actress Linnea Quigley, comes from the 1988 film Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lin Shaye</span> American actress

Lin Shaye is an American actress. In a career spanning over fifty years, Shaye has appeared in more than a hundred feature films. She is regarded as a scream queen due to her roles in various horror productions, which include the films Alone in the Dark (1982), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Critters (1986) and its sequel Critters 2: The Main Course (1988), Amityville: A New Generation (1993), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Dead End (2003), 2001 Maniacs (2005) and its sequel 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010), Ouija (2014) and its prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Tales of Halloween (2015), Abattoir (2016), The Final Wish (2018), Room for Rent (2019), The Grudge (2020), and the Insidious film series (2010–2023).

<i>Nightmare Sisters</i> 1988 American Horror Comedy Film

Nightmare Sisters is a 1988 direct-to-video, low-budget, horror comedy. It is notable as one of only two films in which 1980s scream queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer appear together, excluding later reunion films such as 1313:Cougar Cult.

<i>Dont Go Near the Park</i> 1981 American horror film by Lawrence D. Foldes

Don't Go Near the Park is a 1979 American Independent supernatural horror film directed by Lawrence D. Foldes, and starring Aldo Ray, Meeno Peluce, Tamara Taylor, Robert Gribbin, Barbara Bain, and Linnea Quigley. Its plot follows a brother and sister, both cursed in prehistoric times, who remain on earth and must subsist on the entrails of young people; in an attempt to break their curse and achieve immortality, the brother conceives a child as a virginal sacrifice.

Jewel Shepard is an American writer, photographer, and actress, best known for her roles in movies such as Party Camp (1987) and Return of the Living Dead (1985).

The Horror Hall of Fame was an annual Oscars-style award show hosted by Robert Englund which honored the best horror films, television series, actors, producers and special-effects designers. It ran for three years during October from 1990 to 1992 and was shown in syndication. At the end of Horror Hall of Fame III, the host promised a Horror Hall of Fame IV, but it never happened. All 3 shows was held at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Texas Frightmare Weekend is a horror-oriented for-profit media event held annually in the Dallas, Texas, area. The weekend is a way for fans of the horror genre to connect with fellow horror lovers, meet guests that work in the genre, discover new films, and buy merchandise.

<i>The Barn</i> (film) 2016 American horror film

The Barn is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Justin M. Seaman, and starring Mitchell Musolino, Will Stout, Lexi Dripps, Cortland Woodard, Nikki Howell, Nickolaus Joshua, Linnea Quigley, and Ari Lehman. The film is set on Halloween night 1989 and follows two teenage friends that end up accidentally resurrecting a deadly curse. A sequel, The Barn Part II, was released in 2022.

The 1992 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards ceremony, presented by Fangoria magazine and Creation Entertainment, honored the best horror films of 1991 and took place on May 16, 1992, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was hosted by Bruce Campbell.

The 1994 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards ceremony, presented by Fangoria magazine and Creation Entertainment, honored the best horror films of 1993 and took place on June 11, 1994, at the Hilton LAX in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was hosted by Linnea Quigley.

The 1995 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards ceremony, presented by Fangoria magazine and Creation Entertainment, honored the best horror films of 1994 and took place on May 6, 1995, at the LAX Sheraton in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was hosted by comedians Rick Overton and Scott LaRose.

References

  1. 1 2 Reed, Susan; Tomashoff, Craig (December 4, 1989). "A Real Scream, Linnea Quigley Gets Sliced, Diced and Chomped on as the New Cult Queen of the B's". People . 32 (23). Time Inc. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Davenport native Quigley has a cult following thanks to B-movies". Quad-City Times . Lee Enterprises. October 31, 2010. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Dawson, Jim; Weiss, Brice (August 1991). "The Scream Queen Speaks!". Chic . Larry Flynt Publications.
  4. ↑ Milligan, Glenn (August 2007). "An Interview with Haydee Pomar". Metalliville. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Barsky, Larry (January 1990). "The Naked Truth About Linnea Quigley". Fangoria Horror Spectacular (2). The Brooklyn Company, Inc.: 23–26.
  6. ↑ Davies Brown, Phil (July 9, 2004). "Linnea Quigley Interview". Horror Asylum. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ Breier, David Gypsy (September 2001). "Are Those Brains Vegan? - Linnea Quigley: A Vegan in Zombie's Clothing". Vegetarian Journal. 20 (5). Vegetarian Resource Group. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Letters". Vegetarian Times (161). Vegetarian Times, Inc.: 8 January 1991. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.