Scream Queen Hazel Court Passes Away

She got her start as a pin-up girl -- now there's a phrase you don't hear much anymore.

Hazel Court, known best for her ability to shriek and to show some dandy cleavage in classic horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, died in California at age 82 after a heart attack.

The British-born brunette was directed by B-movie legend Roger CormanThe Raven, starring with a trio of the great horror actors of the day - Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price - a movie based very, very loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe poem. She was also seen screaming away in the another Poe adaptation, The Masque of the Red Death, as well as The Curse of Frankenstein and, my favorite for its title alone, Devil Girl from Mars.

More than a pretty face, Court became a well-known sculptress and painter, but she continued to receive fan mail for her screen appearances decades after she made them.

Devil Girl DVD Cover