Linnea Quigley

Linnea Barbara Quigley (born May 27, 1958) is an American actress, film producer, model, singer, animal rights activist, and author. She is best known as a B-movie actress and is considered a scream queen due to her frequent appearances in low-budget horror films during the 1980s and 1990s.

Biography

Early life and career beginnings

Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, to Dorothy and William Heath Quigley, a chiropractor and psychologist.^[1] They all moved to Los Angeles in 1976 where she landed a job at Jack LaLanne's health spa. When her friends encouraged her to try modeling, she started going to auditions and taking acting and guitar playing classes.^[2] After getting a few extra parts she got her first role in a Charles Band produced movie Fairy Tales. She began appearing in more movies such as Don't Go Near the Park with Meeno Peluce or the cult slasher classic Graduation Day, a part she got replacing the original actress who refused to do nude scenes. In 1981 the producer and director Jim Feazell decided to shoot some additional footage for a re-release of his unsuccessful 1975 psychological thriller-horror Wheeler. In one of the scenes Linnea played a waitress menaced by a truck driver. The movie was re-released under the title "The Hurting" and later changed to "Psycho from Texas".^[3]

Besides modeling and auditioning for movies, Linnea also auditioned for bands and later formed a band The Skirts with her friend Haydee Pomar. They practiced in the basement of the punk rock club The Masque^[4] and their music got featured in some of Linnea's later movies. The song "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy" was released on Mystic Records' 1983 compilation "The Sound of Hollywood Girls".

Quigley was a Playboy Flashdancer. Her picture appears in the December 1983 Playboy issue with Flashdancers, Tamara Rawlings, Marine Jahan, Demetria Garrett, Kim Arrow and Kathleen Carr.

Acting career

Quigley is best known for her role in The Return of the Living Dead (1985) (directed by Dan O'Bannon). She has also starred in dozens of other horror films including Savage Streets (with Linda Blair), Silent Night, Deadly Night, Nightmare Sisters, Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Night of the Demons (the 1988 original and the 2009 remake), and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Quigley is the author of two books about her career as a B-movie actress, Chainsaw and I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can. She has been called the "Queen of the B's".

Linnea co-starred Daniel Baldwin in Stripperland movie (2011). Recently, she plays in David DeCoteau's movies 1313: Cougar Cult (2012) and 3 Scream Queens (2014) and Charles Band's web series Throphy Heads (2014) with Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. Also in 2012, Quigley guest appeared in Massachusetts death metal band Sexcrement's music video entitled "Trucker Bombed."

Personal life

Quigley is a vegan.^[5] Aside from her acting career, she has also been a member of a band called The Skirts in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Filmography

Music

In 1979 prior to appearing in films, Quigley played guitar with an all-girl band, Mad Whistle, started by ASCAP singer and songwriter Lucrecia Sarita Russo. Russo's then-husband, Jeffrey Spry of Felony, The Gangsters of Rock, appeared in a Quigley film, Graduation Day. In the early 1980s, Quigley started her own all-girl band called the Skirts which she re-formed in 2003. Quigley appeared in various music videos for bands such as Revolting Cocks, Motorhead, and the Ramones.

• Miami Dice Anthology (2012) (performer: "What I Want to Do" and "Strange Days")

• Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era (2011) (music)

• Linnea Quigley and the Bi-Polar Bears-Surfboards and Chainsaws (2002) (performer: "This Chainsaw's Made For Cutting", and "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy")

• Scream Queen (2002) (performer: "This Chainsaw's Made For Cutting")

• Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout (1990) (performer: "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy")

• Nightmare Sisters (1987) (performer: "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy")

• Beverly Hills Girls (1986) (performer: "Strange Ways")

• The Skirts (1980's) ("Hard Life to Live", "Answers", "Maybe", Santa Monica Boulevard Boy", "Strange Ways")

References

External links

• Official website
• Linnea Quigley at the Internet Movie Database