Elvira Mistress Of The Dark Poster Cassandra Peterson

Description

Cassandra Peterson is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage persona as Elvira, hosting Elvira’s Movie Macabre, a weekly B movie presentation. A member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, Peterson based her Elvira persona in part on a “Valley girl”-type character she created while a member of the troupe.

The popularity of Elvira’s Movie Macabre led to the 1988 film Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and later the 2001 film Elvira’s Haunted Hills, both starring Peterson as Elvira. The television show was revived in 2010, featuring Elvira hosting public domain films, and airing on This TV until 2011. Elvira returned as a horror hostess in 2014 with 13 Nights of Elvira, a 13-episode series produced by Hulu, and again in 2021 for a one-night 40th Anniversary Special that aired on Shudder.

Peterson has made cameo appearances as Elvira in a number of films and television programs, including appearing as a guest commentator during WrestleMania 2 and as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, and Halloween Wars.

In 1993, she filmed a pilot for CBS called The Elvira Show. An expansion of the 1988 film with a sitcom setting, the premise had Elvira and her family moving into a new neighborhood with her older aunt and dealing with nosy neighbors and uptight conservatives who all want them to move out.

Peterson has also portrayed non-Elvira roles in many other films, most notably Pee-wee’s Big Adventure in 1985 alongside friend and fellow Groundling Paul Reubens, who starred as his Pee-wee Herman character; Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, released in 1987, which starred Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone; and All About Evil, as a mother named Linda who says not to go to the old theater to watch scary movies.

Rob Zombie confirmed Peterson to appear in his The Munsters movie.

Peterson released her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark, on September 21, 2021. She revealed in the book that she has been in a relationship with a woman, Teresa “T” Wierson, since 2002. They began their romantic relationship following Peterson’s separation from her husband. In the book, she also accused basketball player Wilt Chamberlain of sexually assaulting her during a party at his Bel Air mansion in the 1970s.

Peterson was a vegetarian for many years; as of 2021, she continues to maintain a “mostly vegetarian” diet.

Peterson and frequent writing collaborator John Paragon met in the comedy troupe The Groundlings, and he worked his way up from recurring guest-star to writer on her Movie Macabre series. Sam Egan was brought into the fold because he was an experienced TV writer and had impressed Peterson with his script for The Fall Guy episode “October the 31st,” which he had written explicitly for her. Tartikoff pushed for a storyline similar to Harper Valley PTA, and after the first draft was turned in, the writers were forced to add a group of teenagers, which resulted in reducing screen time for all of the other characters.

After appearing in a small part in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Peterson thought Tim Burton was the perfect choice to direct her film, but he got tied up with the production of Beetlejuice.

Many roles were played by Cassandra Peterson’s associates from The Groundlings, including Edie McClurg (Chastity Pariah), Tress MacNeille (Anchorwoman), Joey Arias (Hitchhiker), Lynne Marie Stewart (Bartender), Deryl Carroll (Charlie), and co-writer John Paragon (Gas Station Attendant). Paul Reubens was also supposed to appear in a bit part, but this became unfeasible when Big Top Pee-wee went into concurrent production, so his cameo came in the form of a Pee-Wee Herman doll that is visible in Elvira’s dressing room.

Like new, no pinholes.