This Day in Horror History: Happy Birthday, Adrienne Barbeau!

On this day in horror history, scream queen supreme Adrienne Barbeau was born in Sacramento, California in 1945. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway’s original Rizzo in Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s musical Grease.

Barbeau was married to Halloween and They Live director John Carpenter from 1979 to 1984. They met on the set of Carpenter’s TV movie, Someone’s Watching Me! in 1978 and had a son, John Howard “Cody” Carpenter Junior in 1984.

Carpenter cast her in The Fog in 1980 marking her first theatrical film appearance. She subsequently appeared in a number of classic horror and science fiction films such as Carpenter’s Escape from New York, Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, George A. Romero and Stephen King’s Creepshow, Romero and Dario Argento’s Two Evil Eyes, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, and Harrison Smith’s Death House.

She also has a solid career as a voice actor lending her talents to such films as The Thing (Computer voice), Demolition Man (Main Frame Computer voice), and Judge Dredd (Central voice). Not to mention the role of Catwoman and Martha Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Gotham Girls.

On top of that, she also had roles in such classic shows such as Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, and The Twilight Zone before returning for DC Universe’s canceled Swamp Thing series and the episode “Gray Matter” of Shudder’s Creepshow.

Not to mention roles in such classic non-genre flicks such as The Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, and Jackie Chan, Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield, and Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning motion picture Argo.

What your favorite Adrienne Barbeau movie? Make sure to let us know what you think in the comments below or over on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

John Carpenter’s The Fog begins when strange things occur in a tiny California coastal town preparing to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone stumbles upon a dark secret about the town’s founding; radio announcer Stevie ( Barbeau) witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.

The film sports a 74% approval rating over on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: A well-crafted return to horror for genre giant John Carpenter, The Fog rolls in and wraps viewers in suitably slow-building chills.

Check out the trailer below.

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