Maila Nurmi, TV's Vampira, Dead at 85

Maila Nurmi, TV's Vampira, died of natural causes in her Los Angeles home at age 85.

Widely believed to be the first television horror host(ess), Maila Nurmi was the daughter of multiple Olympics medal-holder, Paavo Nurmi. She created her sexy alter-ego for a masquerade contest, based on Charles Addam's New Yorker cartoons, and won first-prize. Addams' cartoons were later the basis for the TV show, The Addams Family, and Nurmi's Vampira is widely credited as the basis for Morticia Addams' appearance.

Nurmi was a bonafide cultural phenomenon for about one year (1954-1955), after her winning costume landed her a job as a hostess for local LA TV's late-night horror films, where she paraded about sexily and dropped outlandish sexual double-entendres as part of her act, introducing B-rater films. The role landed her an Emmy nomination, as well as appearances in nationwide magazines, such as Life and TV Guide. She then appeared in Ed Woods' famous Plan 9 From Outer Space, opposite Bela Lugosi, but by then, her star had faded.

In the 1990s, Maila Nurmi sued Cassandra Peterson, claiming Peterson's Elvira character was nothing more than a rip-off of Vampira. She lost the case and spent the rest of her life in relative obscurity until she was "re-"discovered a few years back and made some small film appearances as herself.

Nurmi has no known surviving family members.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008