None of these fascinating women should be called “Scream Queens”. (You won’t find Fay Wray here.) Each captured my imagination in one way or another, even at a young age. Perhaps they only starred in ONE horror movie yet that role would linger in my memory long after I’d seen the film. Some I EQUATED with a particular movie. The one thing they all have in common? They’re all bewitchingly beautiful.
Gloria Holden
Like Margaret Sheidan, Zita Johann, and Carroll Borland, Gloria Holden is best remembered for her role in a horror movie. Like Borland that role happened to be a vampire. A vampire from a very aristocratic and historic bloodline: Dracul.
Based on a short story by Dracula author, Bram Stoker, Dracula’s Daughter (1936) tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska (played by Gloria Holden) trying to escape her vampiric nature and live a normal life.
Although scandalous at the time, the implied concept of “love that dares not spell its name” was lost on me. I was way too young. However, what was NOT lost on me was the hypnotically dark beauty and regal bearing Gloria brought to Zaleska. Much like Luna and Helen, Gloria Holden’s role as the Countess immortalized her as one of my Archetypes.
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