1. Cassandra Gay Peterson was born on September 17,1951 and is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
22 Facts About Cassandra Peterson
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Cassandra 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.
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Cassandra Peterson was born on September 17,1951, in Manhattan, Kansas.
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Cassandra Peterson graduated from Palmer High School in Colorado Springs.
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Cassandra Peterson had a small role as a showgirl beside Shady Tree in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever and played a topless dancer in the film The Working Girls.
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Cassandra Peterson was one of two finalists for the role of Ginger Grant for the third Gilligan's Island television movie in 1981, but was dropped before filming.
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The station sent out a casting call, and Cassandra Peterson auditioned and won the role.
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Cassandra Peterson reveled in dropping risque double entendres and making frequent jokes about her cleavage.
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Cassandra Peterson was associated with many products through the 1980s and 1990s, including Halloween costumes, comic books, action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume and dolls.
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Cassandra Peterson has appeared on the cover of Femme Fatales magazine five times.
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Elvira's popularity reached its zenith with the release of the 1988 feature film Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, on whose script, written directly for the screen, Cassandra Peterson collaborated with John Paragon and Sam Egan.
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From 1989 through 1991, Cassandra Peterson appeared as Elvira in a series of commercials promoting World Championship Wrestling's annual Halloween Havoc pay-per-view events.
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In November 2000, Cassandra Peterson wrote, again in collaboration with Paragon, and co-produced Elvira's Haunted Hills.
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Cassandra Peterson has 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 2010's All About Evil, as a mother named Linda Thompson who says not to go to the old theater to watch scary movies.
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Cassandra Peterson appeared in Rob Zombie's The Munsters movie in 2022.
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Cassandra Peterson married musician Mark Pierson in 1981, and he soon became her personal manager.
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Cassandra Peterson released her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark, on September 21,2021.
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Cassandra Peterson revealed in the book that she has been in a relationship with a woman, Teresa "T" Wierson, since 2002.
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Cassandra Peterson was a vegetarian for many years; as of 2021, she continues to maintain a "mostly vegetarian" diet.
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In 2025 Cassandra Peterson protested the role of Elon Musk in the Trump Administration by having the words "Elon Sux" added to the side of her Tesla.
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Cassandra Peterson recorded several songs and skits for her Elvira Halloween albums in the 1980s and 1990s:.
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Cassandra Peterson performed on a track called "Zombie Killer" for the band Leslie and the LY's, released in February 2008.