Vampira

Born Maila Nurmi (a name she has used professionally at times), this tall, Finnish-born cult figure is best known as Vampira, the ghoulish, wasp-waisted personality who appeared in a number of features. Vampira, she of the deadened staring eyes, tight-fitting funereal garb, and white pancake makeup, became involved in the "Beat" scene in the mid-1950s. A friend in this bohemian circuit was no less than James Dean, and after his death, Vampira published a piece claiming that she was in "telephonic" contact with his ghost (this despite the fact that her own telephone was disconnected). Eventually, she had to move out of her home because of the flood of Dean fans who kept bothering her.

Around this time Vampira began playing bit parts in a handful of feature films, the best known of which is Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s hilariously incompetent cult classic, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1956). As one of the dead raised to help take over the Earth, Vampira and fellow zombie Tor Johnson were fully equal to the dramatic demands placed upon them. She later appeared as a Beat poet in "The Beat Generation" (1959), played a bit in the comedy "Sex Kittens Go to College" (1960), and made a striking appearance as a hag in Bert I. Gordon's beguiling fantasy, "The Magic Sword" (1962). Vampira made personal and media appearances for years, though as time passed it was often hard to tell whether it was "the original" or one of her many imitators. She was played by model/actress Lisa Marie in Tim Burton's affectionate biopic, "Ed Wood" (1994).