April 20- Salute to a Fabulous Horror Film Heroine

I’m sure most of you horror genre fans have heard the bad news by now- that the lovely English actress who starred in many scary movies of the 50s and 60s has passed away.
Hazel Court- a strikingly attractive actress who played in some Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror films- died last week at the age of 82.
You may remember this green-eyed, red-haired knockout from such films as (pardon my Troy McClure there, Simpsons fans) the comedic horror flick “the Raven” featuring her alongside some big names like Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Vincent Price. She started her acting career in various stage shows as a teen, and was spotted by the J. Arthur Rank movie organization (you might remember their signature logo that opened their films- a guy hitting a huge gong!)-which got her into films by her 18th birthday- and set her on the path of being a popular actress and magazine pin-up girl. She was in a couple Sven-shown features like “Dr. Blood’s Coffin” and “Devil Girl from Mars” (no, she wasn’t the Devil Girl!) and in others we wish we had, like “Curse of Frankenstein” alongside British horror greats Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. She also did TV in England, as a regular in one series, and guest shots on others, including the old British “Invisible Man” show that runs on our MeToo sister station.
She made her way to the United States in the 50s, where she first worked in television on  “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” before settling into more movie work, as well as TV guest shots. She appeared in “Masque of the Red Death” and “Premature Burial” with Vincent Price, and the afore-mentioned “Raven”-while doing shows like “Bonanza,” “Rawhide”, “Twilight Zone”, “12 O’Clock High”, “Dr. Kildare”, “Wild Wild West”, “Mission: Impossible” and even “McMillan and Wife.”
She was very pretty-and a very competent actress - though one “obituary” labeled her as remembered mostly for her “screams and cleavage” (which were also nice…)…she obviously had a very long and successful career, since her work went from the 40s right through to the 80s- her final on-screen role being, appropriately enough, in “The Omen III: the Final Conflict.” She was also an artist, with many commissioned works, and she just recently finish an autobiography, “Hazel Court-Horror Queen’ which should be released in Britain this very week, and will hopefully make its way to our shores.
I will always remember Hazel Court not only from her movies, but also because, I recall always passing a small street in, I think, Des Plaines, when I’d be making my way to Mannheim Road- the name of the street? “Hazel Court!”