Mike, Kevin and I are doing our live riff of PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE this Thursday in San Francisco. So it was odd to hear that Maila Nurmi, the actress who invented the character of Vampira — and easily the most dignified actor in PLAN NINE — died just a few days ago.

It’s always awkward when you’ve riffed on someone recently, then hear they’ve passed away. One of our Film Crew DVDs has a reference to Charles Nelson Reilly, and it came out right around the time he died last year. (Luckily, it wasn’t a harsh reference, since we all liked CNR — he was a classic. A classic what, I don’t know…)

I don’t know much about Maila Nurmi except to say she was one of the early TV personalities whose hosted movie shows paved the way for MST3K. And when watching PLAN NINE to write riffs over the last few weeks, it was always a relief when she came back onscreen. I went over the script and checked — the worst joke I made about her had to do with the formidable length of her fingernails (or, if you’re Napoleon Dynamite, talons). So no worries there.

She also apparently has a website, which has a bit more information about her passing: here.

(And as you’ll see from her non-Vampira picture on the site, she was quite easy on the eyes.)

Rest in peace, Ms. Nurmi.

*
*
UPDATE 1/15/08: Ms. Nurmi’s death has finally hit the mainstream news outlets. From the AP:

Jan 15, 8:55 AM EST

Maila Nurmi, TV’s Vampira, Dies at 85

By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Maila Nurmi, whose “Vampira” TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner’s officials said. She was 85.

Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home, Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Fred Corral said. The cause of death has not been determined, Corral said.

Nurmi created her Vampira character - reminiscent of Charles Addams’ spooky New Yorker cartoons - to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954.

With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as “Revenge of the Zombies” and “Devil Bat’s Daughter.”

“The Vampira Show” was canceled after about a year, but Nurmi remained a cult figure among B-movie buffs and is thought to have inspired the vampish Morticia Addams on “The Addams Family,” which premiered about 10 years later.*

[SNIP]

Among Nurmi’s scattered film appearances following her TV career was a cameo in Ed Wood’s 1959 cult classic, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Nurmi was played by Lisa Marie in “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s 1994 tribute to the B-movie director.

Nurmi was born Maila Elizabeth Syrjaniemi in Finland on Dec. 11, 1922 and emigrated with her family to Ohio, said Heather Saenz, a friend.

In her late teens she went to New York, where she fell in with a clique of actors and artists and moved with them to Hollywood to seek a film career, Saenz said. She worked as a chorus girl and model before appearing as Vampira, Saenz said.

More at the link above.

* Re the Addams family: according to the Wikipedia entry on Vampira, Ms. Nurmi was first inspired to create the costume from Charles Addams’ drawings in the New Yorker, which were the basis for the Addams family:

Origin of Vampira

The idea for the Vampira character was born in 1953 when Nurmi attended choreographer Lester Horton’s annual Bal Caribe Masquerade in a costume inspired by a character in The New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams.

It’s all a glorious tapestry of cause and effect. And lots of makeup.

Other posts by Bill Corbett

• Prediction!
• THURSDAY.
• In honor of our FAST & FURIOUS riff...
• Fans of liquid potato salad, do NOT watch this!
• Rifftrax Live, across the U.S.A.! 8/20/2009