Julie Bishop
(1914-2001)
Julie Bishop appeared in her only horror film under her real name, Jacqueline Wells. The Black Cat starred Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in a story ‘suggested by’ Edgar Allan Poe. She went on using her real name in a myriad of genres including mysteries like Night Cargo (1936) and comedies like The Bohemian Girl (1936) with Laurel and Hardy. It wasn’t until the 40’s that she started using the name Julie Bishop in films including Action in the North Atlantic (1943) with Humphry Bogart and Raymond Massey. She was also in Tarzan the Fearless (1933), Girls Can Play (1937), Torture Ship (1939), and Westward the Women (1951).
On Television from 1952 to 1953, she was a regular on My Hero. She guest starred on others including The Bob Cummings Show, Fireside Theater, Warner Brothers Presents, and the Ethel Barrymore Theater.
Ilona Massey (1910-1974)
Blonde singer and actress, Ilona Massey wowed horror fans in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, but she had made her mark long before that in an MGM musical starring opposite Nelson Eddy. Massey was highlighted in Balalaika (1939). Prior to that, she had starred with him in Rosalie (1937). She starred with Peter Lorre in 1942’s Invisible Agent. It was in 1943 that she made the movie that horror fans remember her for, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man remains one of her best known films.
Continuing her career through the 1960’s she was in Love Happy with the Marx Brothers in 1949 and even had her own Television series, The Ilona Massey Show which she hosted from 1954-55.
Evelyn Ankers (1918-1985)
Although she had been active in pictures since 1938 in such films as Murder in the Family (1938) with Jessica Tandy and Roddy McDowall, and in 1941 Hold That Ghost with Abbott & Costello, the film that would bring her lasting fame would be The Wolf Man (1941), with Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Raines. Next came The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) with Lionel Atwill, Lon Chaney Jr., Ralph Bellamy, and Bela Lugosi. Captive Wild Woman (1944) was a low budget that was John Carradine’s first leading role, but also featured Milburn Stone (who went on to be best known for his role as Doc in Gunsmoke) in a lead role because his thin frame and curly hair matched the archival shots of Clyde Beatty that were used in the film. Even using archive footage, the film only ran 61 minutes.
She also made a number of other genres, among the best remembered are Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), and The Pearl of Death (1944) starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. In 1943 it was back to horror with Son of Dracula with fellow Scream Queen, Louise Allbritton and Lon Chaney Jr., and then The Mad Ghoul with George Zucco and Turhan Bey. She soon became known as “Queen of Screamers” and “Screamer” because of her many roles in horror and suspense films.
Weird Woman (1944) is a favorite of her fans and stars fellow Scream Queens, Anne Gwynne and Elizabeth Russell as well as Lon Chaney Jr. In the same year, The Invisible Man’s Revenge was released which featured John Carradine and Gale Sondergaard in supporting roles as well. In 1945 she was back with Lon Chaney Jr. in The Frozen Ghost which also featured Elena Verdugo.
Elena Verdugo (1925-2017)
Elena Verdugo will always be best remembered for her portrayal of the gypsy girl, Ilonka in House of Frankenstein (1944). Her romance with Larry Talbot (the Wolf Man) is one of the sub plots, but takes center stage for most of the film. She meets J. Carroll Naish’s hunchbacked Daniel first. Daniel falls in love with her, but she is smitten by the tragic Talbot.
The main plot is Boris Karloff’s Doctor Gustav Niemann’s obsession with getting revenge on the men who sent him to prison. He and Daniel break out of prison, and he promised his friend that he will cure him of his hunchback once he retrieves the Frankenstein Notebooks. When Talbot joins them, he promises to cure Talbot of his lycanthropy as well. Of course, he is mainly interested in bringing the Frankenstein Monster back to life.
Niemann is a vicious killer and he uses the powerful hunchback as a weapon. Daniel will do anything for his friend who promises to make him normal. His love for Ilonka only makes his desire to be handsome stronger.
Next was The Frozen Ghost in 1945 again with Lon Chaney and this time with fellow Scream Queen, Evelyn Ankers. In 1946 Verdugo supported Abbott & Costello in Little Giant and continued appearing in films until 1953 when she began working almost solely in TV, with the exception of the film, Panama Sal (1959). She graced the small screen in everything from Schlitz Playhouse (1952) to Route 66 (1962) to Love American Style (1969), and many more. The one that she is most remembered for was as a regular on Marcus Welby M.D. (1969-76) where she appeared in 169 episodes!
Julie Adams (1926)
Julie Adams has had a long and varied career as an actor. Her large and small screen credits include Horizons West with Rock Hudson and Robert Ryan among a number of westerns as well as The Treasure of the Lost Canyon with William Powell, and on TV she has been on a number of shows over the years including: Playhouse 90, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, One Step Beyond, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Incredible Hulk, Code Red, Murder, She Wrote, Beverly Hills- 90210, Cold Case, and CSI: NY just to name a few.
The amount of work she has done is staggering, having over 145 screen credits in her career which spanned from 1949 to 2011. She has commented on the fact that no matter how many roles she had, what she was remembered for was Creature from the Black Lagoon. Certainly one of the true Scream Queens, Julie Adams brought a lot to the character of Kay in Creature from the Black Lagoon.
She had the right amount of intelligence, and her beauty did not keep her in the background as decoration. Her high spirited portrayal was a first step forward for this type of role. Perched somewhere between the shrinking violet of the Scream Queens of the past and the women that were yet to come, Julie Adams was a new kind of horror heroine that made a strong impression showing up as she did in 1954. Her beauty to the Creature’s beast was accentuated by astonishing underwater photography.
Virginia Christine (1920-1996)
Although Virginia Christine had a long and varied career, to some she will be always be most remembered for her Folger Coffee commercials as Mrs. Olsen.
As a Scream Queen, it was The Mummy’s Curse (1944) that brought her notoriety. This was the final film in the Universal Mummy series. The scripting was not up to par, and the casting of Virginia Christine was probably the best thing about the film. Alas, this was the only horror film that she was in unless you count a small role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956.
Being a Scream Queen had different effects on the various actresses that found themselves cast or assigned to a horror film. Virginia was one of those whose long career included films such as The Killers (1946) with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, The Men (1950) with Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright, The Cobweb (1955) with Ricard Widmark and Gloria Grahame. And in addition to her twenty-one year run with Folger’s Coffee, she appeared in a number of TV shows including guest spots on The Abbott and Costello Show (1952), Adventures of Superman (1954), Dragnet (1952-54), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Peter Gunn (1958), The Donna Reed Show (1958), and Wagon Train (1961-65) just to name a few.
