Priscilla Alden

Birth : 1939-06-27, San Francisco, California, USA

Death : 2007-08-24

History

Heavyset character actress Priscilla Diane Alden was born on June 27, 1939 in San Francisco, California. Alden moved with her family to Santa Barbara, where she attended high school and graduated from UC Santa Barbara. After receiving a master's degree in English literature from the University of Montana, Priscilla returned to the Bay Area to enroll in the School of Drama at San Francisco State College. Alden acted throughout the 1970's, 80's, and 90's in an eclectic array of stage productions in such venues as the Magic Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, and the One Act Theatre Company. Moreover, in 1982 Priscilla won the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for her performance as Lady Bracknell in a stage production of "Earnest in Love" at the Lamplighters theatre and appeared at times as a spear carrier in operas. Alden achieved her greatest enduring cult cinema popularity with her unforgettable portrayal of obese and unhinged compulsive eater serial killer Ethal Janowski in Criminally Insane (1975). She was likewise memorable as the equally deranged and dangerous Edith Mortley in Death Nurse (1987). Priscilla died at age 68 from complications of diabetes on August 24, 2007 in her home in San Francisco, California.

Movies

Nine Months
Older Woman
When he finds out his longtime girlfriend is pregnant, a commitment-phobe realizes he might have to change his lifestyle for better or much, much worse.
Quest of the Delta Knights
Old Woman
A secret society, the Delta Knights, attempts to save a medieval society from the evil over-lady.
Stolen: One Husband
Court Clerk
An angry wife seeks revenge against her philandering entrepreneur husband who left her for a younger woman.
Death Nurse 2
Edith Mortley
That crazy killer nurse is at it again! Edith Mortley continues to slay more and more dumbfounded patients, turning them into rat food.
Criminally Insane 2
Ethel Janowski
A mental hospital, faced with a severe decrease in funding, is forced to release mass-murderer Ethel Janowski into a halfway house. Ethel is psychotic, delusional and has a hefty appetite. In fact, her killing spree began 13 years before with the murder of her grandmother, who had forced her to go on a diet. Now that she's tasted the home-cooked fare at the halfway house, she'll do absolutely anything to get more.
Death Nurse
Edith Mortley
Shady Palms Clinic, a place where nurse Edith Mortley and her brother Dr. Gordon Mortley take great care of their patients. They tuck you in, offer free burial service, and serve freshly made sandwiches.
Birdy
Waiting Room Lady
Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?
.357 Magnum
Esther
American Jonathan "Johnny" Hightower works as a contract secret agent and his favorite tool is his .357.
Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days
Townsperson
After returning from Egypt, Abraham and his nephew Lot separate and Lot settles outside of Sodom with his wife and two daughters. Lot's eldest daughter Leah captures the eye of the city's king, Bera, but due to his impotency there is a ban on lovemaking. Meanwhile two astronauts, assigned to Earth to observe Sodom and to cure the people of a gonorrhea epidemic, institute a circumcision program with the aid of Abraham.
Criminally Insane
Ethel Janowski
An obese woman recently released from an insane asylum kills anyone who attempts to get her to stop eating.