What The Friday The 13th Final Girls Look Like Today
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The Friday the 13th series is one of the most well-known horror franchises in film history, spawning nine sequels, a TV series, a crossover, and a reboot since the release of the original film in 1980. Though the movies vary in terms of popularity and critical reception, they remain beloved for their action-packed battles between Jason and his prey, as well as the sometimes comedic satirical nature of certain entries in the series. While the success of the franchise is largely due to the films' primary antagonist, the terrifying Jason Voorhees, the various Final Girls who survived their encounters deserve praise for giving audiences someone to root for amid the carnage.
Many of the actresses were interviewed regarding their respective roles for the 2013 documentary Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. For some of them, this labor-of-love retrospective was the first time they had spoken publicly about their performances (and their careers since) in many years. Though you might not recognize them all, these women have gone on to star in film and television, start businesses, write books, and pursue other avenues outside of acting. Here are some of Friday the 13's Final Girls and what they are doing now.
Alice Hardy (Adrienne King)
The Friday the 13th franchise has plenty of Final Girls to root for, but Alice Hardy holds a special place in horror history as the sole survivor of the original movie. Played by Adrienne King, Alice decapitates Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees (who is actually the killer in the first film) and is the first person in the series to come face to face with an undead Jason when his decomposing body pops out of Crystal Lake and attacks her.
According to the Crystal Lake Tours website, Adrienne King was raised in Oyster Bay, New York, and appeared in her first commercial when she was six months old. After Friday the 13th, Adrienne returned as Alice for a cameo in Friday the 13th Part 2 and has acted in other horror films, including 2012's The Butterfly Room and the 2014 anthology Tales of Poe. Currently, Adrienne is set to co-write and co-star in an upcoming Friday the 13th fan sequel with fellow Final Girl Amy Steel (Part 2), though details on the project remain scarce.
Adrienne does have other pastimes outside of acting. Notably, her profile on Crystal Lake Tours states that she currently runs a winery in Oregon.
Ginny Field (Amy Steel)
Friday the 13th Part 2's Ginny Field is remembered for utilizing the sweater worn by Jason's mother to pacify the bag-masked killer (the iconic goalie look was still one movie away). The actress who plays Ginny Field in this 1981 sequel is Amy Steel. Among her acting credits are roles in the horror films April Fool's Day and Tales of Poe, as well as TV appearances in episodes of Millennium, Jag, and Home Improvement.
After 2003, Amy left her acting career behind and began work as a psychotherapist. Interestingly, her character in Friday the 13th also showed an interest in psychology. As she told Dread Central in 2010, "At one point in my life, I decided to go back to school, and I've been a psychotherapist for the last ten years. I do find it pretty funny that I ended up with the same career as one of the roles I'm most remembered for."
Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck)
Kimberly Beck's character, Trish Jarvis, is one of the most active Final Girls in the Friday the 13th franchise. In Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (that's the fourth one), Trish provides distractions so her younger brother Tommy (Corey Feldman) can fight Jason and help other characters escape.
Before Friday the 13th, Beck had made several appearances in movies and TV as a child, including an uncredited performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Some of her later roles include Claire Prentice in the television show Dynasty and a brief appearance as a housewife in the 1996 blockbuster hit Independence Day. After her role as Mrs. Buchinsky in The Secret Life of Girls in 1999, Beck took a break from acting until 2009, when she lent her voice to the talking dog movie Heidi 4 Paws. In all, Beck has 69 acting credits listed on her IMDb page — a number that's not likely to change any time soon.
Beck explained to Dread Central why she quit acting. "It was something I had done for soooo long, since I was two," she recalled. "I mean, I worked with Hitchcock, the original horror master when I was a child. I had had enough! So I wanted to be there completely for my husband and children too."
Pamela Higgins (Melanie Kinnaman)
In an interview with the blog TV Store Online, Melanie Kinnaman recalled that she was no newcomer to the world of acting when she became a Friday Final Girl. As a teen, she had landed a few acting parts on stage, but she really found success at the age of 19, when she received $30,000 for her part in a Dr. Pepper commercial.
After moving from commercials to film, Kinnaman got a role in the 1985 film Thunder Alley, wherein the actress agreed to be filmed nude for her role. Trouble came soon after, when the movie's producers included shots in the final cut of the film that the Kinnaman had not agreed to before shooting. She ended up suing the producers of Thunder Alley for breaching her initial contract, with the director agreeing to cut the unwanted shots.
As Kinnaman began work on the fifth Friday the 13th film, A New Beginning, she learned that director Danny Steinmann was "very strange," but strangeness was an improvement compared to her experience on Thunder Alley. In the end, Kinnaman came away from the movie with largely positive memories. She has recently been attending conventions in London, New Jersey, and Michigan.
Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke)
In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke) is the only one who believes Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews) about the return of Jason Voorhees. She quickly becomes Tommy's most valuable ally, eventually helping to put the supernatural killer back at the bottom of Crystal Lake. Shortly after her role in Jason Lives, Cooke played Debbie Nesbit in the television mini-series A Year in The Life, and then retired from acting. However, she continues to be an active member of the Urantia Foundation with her husband, Mo Siegel.
The Urantia Foundation is a spiritual group that follows and promotes the Urantia Book, which outlines a lifestyle based on elements of religion, philosophy, and science. Mo Siegel is a trustee of the Urantia Brotherhood, and also one of the founders of Celestial Seasonings Tea. Jennifer wrote Cooking With Tea: The Celestial Seasonings Cookbook in 1996. Despite all of this, the former actress is largely absent from the public eye these days.
Tina Shepherd (Lar Park Lincoln)
Lar Park Lincoln's character, Tina Shepherd, is a departure from the other Final Girls in the Friday the 13th franchise. The hero of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Tina has telekinetic powers that she uses to take on Jason.
According to her website, Lincoln shifted her focus from her own acting to a job as a career coach for aspiring performers in the entertainment industry. To that end, she has founded both the production company Ooh La Lar Productions and the educational resource Lar's Actors Audition Studios. Her efforts to provide guidance to young actors found her appearing on numerous talk shows throughout the '90s. In 2008, Lincoln wrote a book titled Get Started Not Scammed, a guide for young people with aspirations of stardom. On her website, Lar explains that her goal is to "educate young people so they don't waste their time or money doing something not right for them."
Dr. Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig)
In Jason X, Lexa Doig plays a Crystal Lake Research Facility scientist named Rowan LaFontaine, whose mission is to find a way to finally kill Jason. After many unsuccessful attempts, Jason breaks free and stabs her, but he accidentally freezes both LaFontaine and himself. The two remain in stasis until 445 years later, when they are brought aboard a space vessel piloted by a crew consisting of some students, their professor, and an android. From there, LaFontaine is healed, and Jason goes on a rampage.
After surviving one of the deadliest spaceship emergencies since Alien, Doig moved on to do more television and film work. She had recurring roles on Andromeda and Stargate SG-1, and made guest appearances on Eureka, Supernatural, and Smallville. 2012 was a big year for Doig, as she began substantial roles on two television shows, Arctic Air and Continuum. Her work on the latter earned her a Leo Award for Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series.
Currently, Doig plays the part of Talia Al Ghul on CW's Arrow. According to an interview with Icon Vs. Icon, while not acting, Doig and her husband Michael Shanks are charity partners for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti)
While she may have initially gotten fame for her role on The O.C. in the early 2000s, Amanda Righetti was cast as the lead female role in the 2009 reboot of the Friday the 13th series. Even though Jason spared Righetti's character because she looked like his dead mother, critics did not spare the film from their negative reviews.
Aside from appearing in this decades-old horror franchise, Righetti has kept busy in the 2010s. She has had a major recurring role on the CBS show The Mentalist, and even had a moment in the MCU with a brief role in Captain America: The First Avenger as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Outside of acting, Righetti has been successful as a model as well. She ranked 65th on Maxim's 2009 Hot 100 Celebration list. According to her website, Righetti was also named among the Sexiest Women of the Year in both 2005 and 2006 by FHM, a men's lifestyle magazine.
Conclusion
With the franchise approaching its 40th anniversary, many actresses have faced Jason and earned the title of Final Girl. However, in 2016 the possibility of any more Final Girls becoming a part of the Friday the 13th mythology was thrown into question when Victor Miller, one of the first movie's writers, sued for the rights to the characters he co-created. Though the fallout of the legal battle is ongoing, Miller won the case and expressed an interest in rebooting the series with an unlikely production partner: LeBron James.
After starring in Friday the 13th Part III, actor Larry Zerner became an entertainment lawyer, and now spends his free time posting explanations and updates about the legal battle over Jason Voorhees on his Twitter page. The results of this lawsuit could determine if there are any more films — or Final Girls — added to the series in the future. Regardless of how the lawsuit turns out, it is not likely that more entries will be forthcoming anytime soon. After Miller's initial victory, a motion for appeal was filed, so this legal dispute is far from over.
Whether or not new additions to the series materialize, the franchise has certainly helped all of these actresses to grow in their professional careers. No matter what they have moved on to, they will always be remembered as the triumphant survivors of Friday the 13th.