Friday The 13th Actors You May Not Know Passed Away

The "Friday the 13th" franchise has logged 12 films since its debut on May 9, 1980. The entire series was an excuse for mindless violence involving everything from knives and axes to sauna rocks and corkscrews. Every film in the series was rated 'R' by the MPAA, yet it appealed to those with a decidedly adolescent sensibility — from an adult perspective, the series is of very dubious quality. 

In fact, watching a compilation of Siskel and Ebert's scathing reviews provides greater entertainment. Particularly amusing was Ebert's po-faced rant about "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," which he described as "an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash." But whatever you think about the merits of "Friday the 13th," there is no doubting that hundreds of people worked together to make the films happen, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for what Ebert waspishly termed "sleaze merchants." Many of the cast and crew members were young when they appeared in the franchise, so most of them are alive today. Yet death, of course, can strike at any age. Here are the "Friday the 13th" actors you may not know passed away.

Betsy Palmer brought some Broadway pedigree to "Friday the 13th." Born in 1926 in East Chicago, Indiana, Betsy Palmer began her career in show business with TV dramas such as "Miss Susan" and the game show "I've Got a Secret," in which she appeared nearly 200 times.

In the documentary "Return to Crystal Lake: Making Friday the 13th," Palmer confessed that she only took the job because she needed $10,000 to buy a Volkswagen Scirocco. Palmer recalled how she thought the script was a 'piece of junk' and that nobody would ever see it. Palmer hoped that "Friday the 13th" would come and go and she'd ride off into the sunset with her VW Scirocco, ready for a career in dramatic roles. However, the film would gross almost $60 million at the box office, which was 108.6 times the production budget of $550,000. This huge success redefined Palmer for a generation of moviegoers. Happily, she grew to embrace her new cult following, "I was dumb, 'Friday the 13th' is an excellent film. I am now called the Queen of the Slashers ... I love going to these events [Friday the 13th Reunion]. People are so sweet, it's really adorable." Betsy Palmer died on May 29, 2015 in Danbury, Connecticut. She was 88.

Tom McBride's IMDb page remembers the late actor with a badly cropped photo of his character's brutal death in "Friday the 13th Part 2." It's a curious choice for an online biography picture, yet this bloody moment has entered the annals of "Friday the 13th" history. McBride plays Mark, a jock and wheelchair user. Because of his vulnerability, you wonder if the filmmakers will spare his life, or at least give him a quick, low key death. But no. Instead, Mark receives a machete to the face, sending him back in his wheelchair and down a long flight of steps. No "Friday the 13th" 'best kill' list is complete without reference to poor Mark.

Sadly, Mark would be McBride's last notable film role. In the mid-'90s, he was diagnosed with AIDS. His illness was documented in "Life and Death on the A-List," an absorbing and intimate account of sexuality and illness not unlike the gut wrenching "Silverlake Life: The View From Here." McBride was a big name in New York's gay community, sometimes referred to as an "A-list" gay and a "demigod of the gay world."

Symptoms of McBride's condition included seizures, rashes and a gradual paralysis in the left side of his body. Yet he presented himself openly and without self-pity, singing and joking about his mortality, with which he was bravely comfortable. "I'm afraid of dying, but I'm not afraid of death," was the line he subscribed to. In the documentary's last 10 minutes, it cuts to McBride's final state. In these September days of 1995, McBride's personality was gone. Paralysis had stiffened his shriveled, sunken body. His face was blank, his eyes haunted. He was awake but his voice was reduced to a murmur. It was the tragic conclusion to Tom McBride's 42-year life.

In "Friday the 13th Part III," Gloria Charles appeared as Fox, a biker girl who travels with a gang of leathered good-for-nothings. Fox and her friends think they're pretty badass until they meet Jason. He is ready for them with an arsenal of clubs, blades, and especially an old fashioned pitchfork — which he uses to impale Fox on barn rafters. 

After her grisly end in Camp Crystal Lake, Charles would feature in "Brewster's Millions" and "National Lampoon's European Vacation," as well as television appearances in "Falcon Crest" and "The A-Team." In 1992, Charles entered a long hiatus until 2010, when she appeared in the short film "A Blind Man." She also featured in "Crystal Lake Memories," a sweeping documentary about the entire "Friday the 13th" series. Sadly, three years after the documentary, Charles died on December 8, 2016. The cause of her death is unclear, but a GoFundMe page said that she required "24 hour, around the clock, in-home care." She was just 61 years old.

Ron Palillo appeared in "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" as Allen Hawes, the friend of lead character Tommy Jarvis, played by Thom Mathews. Together, they enter Crystal Lake — renamed'Forest Green — to visit the grave of Jason Voorhees, whose corpse Tommy intends to burn. However, quite the opposite is achieved when a bolt of lightning strikes Jason's rotten cadaver, bringing him back to life. Of course, his first and only impulse is to kill, and he satisfies this impulse by ramming his fist into Hawes's chest and ripping out his heart, bringing Palillo's character to an abrupt end within the opening 10 minutes.

Palillo was best known for his role in "Welcome Back, Kotter," the hit high school sitcom that launched John Travolta's career. Palillo played Arnold Horshack, a class cown with a wacky, wheezing laugh. The show's 95-episode run lasted from 1975 to 1979, after which Palillo entered a period of depression, according to ABC News. In the 1990s he had something of a second career as a stage actor and director, appearing in productions of "Amaedeus," "Guys and Dolls" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Sadly, Palillo died of a heart attack on August 14, 2012. He was just 63 years old. In reaction to Palillo's death, John Travolta said, "Ron was a wonderful person and talent and helped catapult 'Welcome Back, Kotter' to great success. We will miss him."

Dominick Brascia started out as a film and TV actor, appearing in "Knight Rider," "Night Court" and "Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning," which was the first film not to feature Jason Voorhees, who had 'died' in the previous film, "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter." Brascia appeared as Joey Burns, a large and simple kid who doesn't know when to give people space. This faux pas gets him in serious trouble when he bothers Victor Faden, who proceeds to butcher him with an axe. 

Later in life, Brascia worked as a radio personality in Texas, Alabama, California and Colorado. Eventually, he settled in Bozeman, Montana, where he hosted "Dominick in the Morning" on AM 1450 KMMS. Brascia's show addressed a "variety of topics" and was described as "using a quick wit to create an open platform where ideas were exchanged in a unique way between himself, his on-air guests and callers." On November 26, 2018, Brascia died of "natural causes" at the age of 62.

Mark Venturini appeared as Victor, the aforementioned axe murderer who kills poor Joey in "Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning," which was released in 1985. Later that year, in August, Venturini's second horror feature "The Return of the Living Dead" was released in the US. Directed by Dan O'Bannon, "Living Dead" earned a cult status among fans and critics, whose consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, "A punk take on the zombie genre, Return of the Living Dead injects a healthy dose of '80s silliness to the flesh consuming."

After this success, Venturini spent the rest of the 1980s assuming small roles in everything from "Knight Rider" to "Murder, She Wrote." His final role was in "Out-of-Sync," a crime vehicle for star LL Cool J, who was trying to migrate from music to film and television. Tragically, eight months after the film's release, Venturini's life and career were cut short when he died aged just 35 on February 14, 1996.

Oklahoma native Travis Davis was a jobbing film and TV actor throughout the '90s and '00s, appearing in shows such as "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "The Wild Thornberrys". He also lent his voice to video games including the "Medal of Honor" and "Command and Conquer" series. Perhaps his biggest role was Officer Lund in the 2009 reboot of "Friday the 13th," which earned over $92 million at the worldwide box office. Later in the year, Davis had supporting roles in "12 Rounds," a John Cena vehicle, and "G-Force," a live action animation with Zach Galifianakis.

Sadly, just three months after "G-Force" had its US debut, Travis Davis died of stomach cancer on October 12, 2009. He was just 40 years old. In remembrance, fellow actor D.C. Douglas wrote, "He was a voiceover and on-camera actor who also wrote, directed and produced his own film shorts. He was a go-getter and very talented. We were acquaintances for over a decade."