Vampira: Maila Nurmi 1921-2008
By Craig Kennedy - January 15th, 2008; 10:35 am
Maila Nurmi achieved a brief moment of fame and a certain cult status in the 1950s for making goth sexy as Vampira, the hostess of a short-lived late-night horror show on Los Angeles’ KABC. She is probably best remembered to modern audiences for her role in Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, regarded lovingly by many as The Worst Movie Ever Made and for which she received $200.
The actress died in her sleep on Monday, January 14, 2008.
Read the obituary in the LA Times.
Filed under: Obituaries
Amazing the effect she had single-handedly on millions of teens in the 80’s through today regarding the goth movement. Most of them probably have no idea who she is yet they (and their musical idols) have been aping her style for a long time.
RIP.
Very true, joel.
My girlfriend is Transylvanian, and only came to America about fifteen months ago. Consequently, her interest is piqued every time some vampire-related news story hits the Internet. She’s been busily reading about Nurmi now.
I don’t think Plan 9 From Outer Space is all *that* bad, when you watch it.
I still think it beats The Beast with a Million Eyes from 1955. That movie… wow… It has to be seen to be believed.
Actually, Plan 9 From Outer Space is a hoot to watch (as are all Ed Wood’s movies).
RIP, Maila.
Plan 9 has its charms which is why I was careful to say it is “lovingly regarded” as the worst.
It has its place in pop-cultural history, for sure.
Alexander, has your girlfriend read The Historian? Good vampire yarn, travelogue, and Ottoman history page turner.
Yes, she loves that!
I enjoyed it a great deal as well.
We both really enjoyed it too. It’ll make a fine movie.
Yeah, and Burton’s Ed Wood definitely makes Plan 9 all the more lovable.
By far the worst movie I’ve ever seen that I can recall is Manos, Hands of Fate. It didn’t help it that I saw it on Mystery Science Theater 3000, but that movie makes Ed Wood look like John Ford. Miserably awful.
Anyway, thanks for noting this here Craig.
Joel, Ed Wood is my favorite Burton movie. I don’t like all of his films, but that one is terrific. That’s also the movie in which I discovered Depp.
Before I saw it I had heard about how great Martin Landau was in it. And he was. He was fantastic. There wasn’t a moment where I didn’t think I was actually watching Bela Lugosi. But I also thought that Depp was terrific, and didn’t understand why people were only talking about Landau. It remains my favorite Depp performance.
Yeah, mine too. Landau and Depp.
Off topic, but Brad Renfro also died. He was 25. They’re not sure what the cause of death was yet, but he had drug problems…
He was in Ghost World, Apt Pupil, Sleepers, among other films.
Yeah, I remember him from Apt Pupil. Wow, that is really young.