Mark Lennihan / AP
Actor Betsy Palmer, a television pioneer who went on to play one of film's first slashers, has died at age 88.
Her longtime manager told the Associated Press on Sunday that Palmer had died of natural causes on Friday at a Connecticut hospice care center.
Palmer played Mrs. Voorhees, the camp cook and mother of Jason Voorhees, in 1980's Friday the 13th.
Paramount Pictures / Via sodahead.com
She told reporters she never expected the film to become a cult classic; she had taken the role to pay for a new car.
"I'm the queen of the slashers," she said bemusedly in one 2005 interview.
Palmer had previously been known for her work on early television.
She was a panelist on I've Got A Secret, appearing on episodes of the game show from 1955-1967. Other work on game shows, NBC's Today, and a variety of television series spanned six decades.
In 1955, she joined Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, James Cagney, and William Powell in the wartime comedy Mister Roberts.
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