Linnea Quigley

At 66 years old, Linnea Quigley has this physical status:

Barbara Linnea Quigley (born May 27, 1958) is an American actress, film director, model, and author.

She is best known as a B movie actress and is often referred to as a "scream queen" because of her appearances in low-budget horror films in the 1980s and 1990s.

Quigley, a native of Davenport, Iowa, began her career in the late 1970s, just after moving to Los Angeles.

She was encouraged by her colleagues to try modeling and then started taking acting and guitar-playing lessons while working at Jack LaLanne's health spa.

Quigley made her first acting appearance in the Charles Band-produced film Fairy Tales (1978).

She continued to appear in B movies mainly for small parts.

In 1981 slasher film Graduation Day, she was her first big part.

Quigley was followed by two films, Savage Streets (1984) and Silent Night (1984). Quigley appeared in the zombie horror film The Return of the Living Dead (2005) as a teenager punk, which is one of her most popular roles and earned her "scream queen" recognition.

Following the popularization of the home video in the second half of the 1980s, Quigley appeared in a number of low-budget films.

She worked with directors David DeCoteau (Cheeple Sisters, and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) and Kevin Tenney (Night of the Demons and Witchboard), and appeared alongside fellow scream queens Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer.

Quigley decided to go in a different direction and appeared in the first two films of Rick Sloane's comedy series Vice Academy by the 1980s.

However, she continued to be cast as a victim in horror films. Quigley is also a writer (she formed The Skirts, an all-female band) and an author (I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can: My Life in B-Movies).

She is also a committed animal rights campaigner and a vocal supporter of PETA.

Personal life

Dr. William "Nip" Heath Quigley, a dean of education and vice president at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, was Linnea's father. Dorothy, her mother, was a homemaker. After graduating from Bettendorf High School in 1976, she and her parents moved to California when her father became president of Palmer College's Los Angeles campus. In the late 1980s, he left the college to open a private practice.

Quigley began a friendship with special effectss artist Steve Johnson during the shooting of Night of the Demons (1988). Later, whilst filming A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Johnson suggested to Quigley on the set. "I actually became interested on the film set right after getting out of Freddy's chest." So funny, he gave me a ring. "While he's hosing my K-Y Jelly off-me and some others, it's still asking for my marriage." They married on January 17, 1990, but divorced in 1992.

Quigley is a vegan. After her transfer to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, she went back to a vegetarian diet, first eliminating red meat, then chicken and fish, and eventually all dairy and all other animal foods. She is an animal-rights activist and a key member of the PETA, an animal-rights group. She appeared on the front page of Vegetarian Times in October 1990, but one reader chastised Quigley for appearing in films that depict violence against women.

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Career

Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy (November 29, 1922 – May 18, 2006). Her father was a chiropractor and psychologist. He served as an executive vice president at Palmer College of Chiropractic. Quigley, the only child, attended Garfield Elementary and Sudlow Middle Schools in Davenport. She began attending Bettendorf High School in Bettendorf, Iowa, in 1972. Quigley recalled her high school days: "I was so shy." I didn't move my mouth, didn't sing in glee club or something like that, and didn't do any plays. "I was terribly afraid, terribly shy."

Quigley and her parents migrated to Los Angeles shortly after graduating from high school in 1976. She landed a career at Jack LaLanne's health spa, where she met models who worked in film by doing work as extras. Quigley began teaching acting and guitar-playing lessons, which she was encouraged by her classmates. One of her first acting appearances was a television commercial for the Close-Up toothpaste. She had a few extra appearances in the Charles Band-produced erotic comedy Fairy Tales (1978), wherein she appeared as Sleeping Beauty. She was next seen in the pseudo-documentary Auditions (1978), which were also produced by Band and directed by Harry Hurwitz. She continued to appear in films including Don't Go Near the Park (1981) and the Troma slasher Graduation Day (1981). After the original actress refused to do nude scenes, she was given the role of Dolores. Jim Feazell, a film producer and director, decided to film some more for the reissue of his unbeaten 1975 psychological thriller Wheeler. Quigley played a waitress threatening by a truck driver in one of the scenes. The film was re-released under the name The Hurting and then moved to Psycho from Texas, and then to Psycho from Texas.

Quigley began auditioning for bands that would allow her to perform. Lucrecia Sarita Russo, a singer and songwriter, started playing guitar in Mad Whistle, an all-female band. Jeffrey Spry, Russo's then-husband, appeared alongside Quigley in the film Graduation Day with his band Felony. Quigley's mother, The Skirts, went on to form her own band. Haydee Pomar, a Hong Kong actress who appeared on Cheech & Chong's comedy Nice Dreams (1981), played the bass guitar. They performed in the basement of the punk rock band The Masque, and their music appeared in some of Quigley's later films. Their song "Santa Monica Blvd." The Boy" was released on Mystic Records' 1983 compilation The Sound of Hollywood Girls.

Quigley is best known for her appearance in The Return of the Living Dead (1985) (directed by Dan O'Bannon). She has appeared in scores of other horror films, including Savage Streets (with Linda Blair), Silent Night, Deadly Night, Creepoids, Sorority Babes, Night of the Demons, 1988 original and 2009 remake), as well as A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Quigley is the author of two books about her B-movie career, Chainsaw and Screaming as Fast as I Can. "Queen of the Bs" has been dubbed the "Queen of the Bs."

In Stripperland (2011), Linnea co-starred with Daniel Baldwin. She appeared in David DeCoteau's films 1313: Cougar Cult (2012) and 3 Scream Queens (2014), as well as Charles Band's web series Trophy Heads (2014) starring Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. "Trucker Bombed," a Quigley guest appeared in Massachusetts death metal band Sexcrement's music video in 2012.

Quigley, alongside regular co-star Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer, appeared in and was a central subject of the 2011 documentary Screaming in High Heels: The Reunion. Linnea will co-star in the 2022 film Jasper, directed by Shaun Cairo Pitchfork, according to Deadline Hollywood and Horror Fuel magazine.

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