Vampira - R.I.P.

" ... In the early days of television, when horror movies were often campy by nature, actress Maila Nurmi created the character Vampira, a glamorous ghoul who as hostess of late-night fright films in the 1950s layered on her own brand of camp.

Vampira played with her pet tarantula, gave gruesome recipes for vampire cocktails and bathed in a boiling caldron. With a knack for the double- entendre and the requisite blood-chilling scream, Vampira was a hit.

The character won Nurmi short-lived fame and a dedicated cult following. Nurmi claimed that Vampira also was the uncredited inspiration for later ghoulish yet glamorous female characters in film and television, including Elvira.

Nurmi, who appeared in director Edward D. Wood Jr.'s 1959 film "Plan 9 From Outer Space," was found dead Jan. 10 in her Hollywood home. The cause of death was still being investigated, said Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Nurmi was believed to be 85, although sources offer conflicting dates of birth.

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In creating Vampira, Nurmi said she went beyond the Addams cartoon, developing an alter ego influenced by beatnik culture and her experiences as a child of the Depression.

Vampira wore a low-cut, tattered black dress that showed off her impossibly small waist (courtesy of a waist cincher) and displayed more cleavage than was common for the day. With her long nails and dark, dramatically arched eyebrows, watching Vampira was "a release for people."

"The times . . . were so conservative and so constrained," Nurmi said in a video interview posted on her website. "There was so much repression, and people needed to identify with something explosive, something outlandish and truthful."

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Nurmi's influence can be seen in today's teen "goth" look, said Dana Gould, a longtime friend of Nurmi.

"She really sort of cast the mold for a look that is still around," the comedy writer and comedian said.

Director Tim Burton's film about Wood, starring Johnny Depp, introduced a new audience to Wood and Nurmi. ... "

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