Dee Wallace: The Scream Queen!
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
October 1, 2006
by MaryAlice Bitts
"Are the trees turning out there?" Dee Wallace Stone asked, in a telephone interview from her California home. "I'm really looking forward to seeing that. Fall is my favorite time of year!"
Wallace Stone is famously sunny for a grizzled veteran actress. Best known for playing Elliott's mother in "E.T." and the woman who battles a rabid Saint Bernard in "Cujo," she has emerged from multiple personal hardships with optimism and a reputation for kindness toward her fans.
Next weekend, Wallace Stone will get a chance to greet those fans - and enjoy the fall foliage - at Jason's Woods, a large-scale outdoor Halloween show in Lancaster that uses pyrotechnics, fog and light effects, professional actors and gory makeup to create an effect both entertaining and terrifying.
"I'm very jealous of all of you back East because we really don't have outdoor horror shows out West. I just think it's so totally cool," Wallace Stone said.
The annual spook extravaganza at Jason's Woods features a haunted hayride, mazes and other creepy attractions on a 180-year-old, 46-acre family farm. This year's show boasts a fiery volcano; a laboratory with real bolts of electricity; a 9-foot robot; an indoor maze that features twisted fairy-tale characters in a 3-D experience; a Psycho Circus (beware of the clowns); and the Macabre Museum, which displays ghoulish surprises including a horse-drawn hearse, mortician supplies from the 1800s and, according to owner Bob Hershey, a real human skeleton.
In previous years, organizers brought in memorable horror film personalities including the actors who portrayed Leatherface in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Eddie Munster in "The Munsters," Michael Myers in "Halloween," Pinhead in "Hellraiser," Jason in "Friday the 13th," Gillman in "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and the Incredible Hulk, among others.
Wallace Stone, who has earned a sizable cult following among horror film buffs, is a plum choice for this year's event.
Born Deanna Bowers on December 14, 1949, in Kansas City, Mo., Wallace Stone is a former ballet soloist who taught high school for a year before setting out for New York City to become a star. Since then, she has appeared in more than 80 feature films - seven of which were filmed this year - and scores of television shows, from "Lou Grant" in the 1970s to this season's "Without a Trace."
To each of these roles she brings All-American good looks and bankable likability, playing fresh-faced women you recognize and trust. Over the years, audiences have cringed as they watched this gal-next-door get gnawed on by Cujo, hunted down by werewolves in "The Howling" and terrorized by cannibals in "The Hills Have Eyes."
Every October, Wallace Stone makes a handful of personal appearances to connect with fans of these films. While she doesn't want to be typecast ("That's just what Hollywood does. It loves to put you in a cubbyhole."), she doesn't seem to lose sleep over the issue.
"If you're an actor, you like to act, you like to emote. What better genre of films to make that available to you than the horror genre?
"I think your highest desire has to be to work in good vehicles and to do good work in whatever vehicle you're in, and let the universe work out the rest of it," she said. "You'll go nuts if you try to control it all."
The latter statement neatly sums up the actress' life philosophy.
Wallace Stone's alcoholic father committed suicide when she was young, and her husband and "Cujo" co-star, Christopher Stone, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1995. In the past, she has worked hard to overcome these tragedies, and now she wants to share the wealth. The actress has written a book about healing past wounds, and regularly gives lectures and workshops on the subject. In 2003, she also opened an acting studio, where she slips into the roles of teacher and mentor, sometimes giving workshops on how to live a happier, more fully realized life.
It's fitting, then, that when she signs autographs at Jason's Woods, this horror film actress will most likely decorate her signature with a decidedly unterrifying smiley face. And although Wallace Stone admitted to being too skittish to enjoy the bulk of the attractions at Jason's Woods ("I'm too much of a wuss!"), she said she's looking forward to the Lancaster appearance.
"I have a lot of great stories and great pictures, and I just love meeting the fans," she said. "I mean, if you really like what you're doing, it ends up being fun, and not work. That's what we all aim for, isn't it?"
October 1, 2006
by MaryAlice Bitts
"Are the trees turning out there?" Dee Wallace Stone asked, in a telephone interview from her California home. "I'm really looking forward to seeing that. Fall is my favorite time of year!"
Wallace Stone is famously sunny for a grizzled veteran actress. Best known for playing Elliott's mother in "E.T." and the woman who battles a rabid Saint Bernard in "Cujo," she has emerged from multiple personal hardships with optimism and a reputation for kindness toward her fans.
Next weekend, Wallace Stone will get a chance to greet those fans - and enjoy the fall foliage - at Jason's Woods, a large-scale outdoor Halloween show in Lancaster that uses pyrotechnics, fog and light effects, professional actors and gory makeup to create an effect both entertaining and terrifying.
"I'm very jealous of all of you back East because we really don't have outdoor horror shows out West. I just think it's so totally cool," Wallace Stone said.
The annual spook extravaganza at Jason's Woods features a haunted hayride, mazes and other creepy attractions on a 180-year-old, 46-acre family farm. This year's show boasts a fiery volcano; a laboratory with real bolts of electricity; a 9-foot robot; an indoor maze that features twisted fairy-tale characters in a 3-D experience; a Psycho Circus (beware of the clowns); and the Macabre Museum, which displays ghoulish surprises including a horse-drawn hearse, mortician supplies from the 1800s and, according to owner Bob Hershey, a real human skeleton.
In previous years, organizers brought in memorable horror film personalities including the actors who portrayed Leatherface in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Eddie Munster in "The Munsters," Michael Myers in "Halloween," Pinhead in "Hellraiser," Jason in "Friday the 13th," Gillman in "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and the Incredible Hulk, among others.
Wallace Stone, who has earned a sizable cult following among horror film buffs, is a plum choice for this year's event.
Born Deanna Bowers on December 14, 1949, in Kansas City, Mo., Wallace Stone is a former ballet soloist who taught high school for a year before setting out for New York City to become a star. Since then, she has appeared in more than 80 feature films - seven of which were filmed this year - and scores of television shows, from "Lou Grant" in the 1970s to this season's "Without a Trace."
To each of these roles she brings All-American good looks and bankable likability, playing fresh-faced women you recognize and trust. Over the years, audiences have cringed as they watched this gal-next-door get gnawed on by Cujo, hunted down by werewolves in "The Howling" and terrorized by cannibals in "The Hills Have Eyes."
Every October, Wallace Stone makes a handful of personal appearances to connect with fans of these films. While she doesn't want to be typecast ("That's just what Hollywood does. It loves to put you in a cubbyhole."), she doesn't seem to lose sleep over the issue.
"If you're an actor, you like to act, you like to emote. What better genre of films to make that available to you than the horror genre?
"I think your highest desire has to be to work in good vehicles and to do good work in whatever vehicle you're in, and let the universe work out the rest of it," she said. "You'll go nuts if you try to control it all."
The latter statement neatly sums up the actress' life philosophy.
Wallace Stone's alcoholic father committed suicide when she was young, and her husband and "Cujo" co-star, Christopher Stone, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1995. In the past, she has worked hard to overcome these tragedies, and now she wants to share the wealth. The actress has written a book about healing past wounds, and regularly gives lectures and workshops on the subject. In 2003, she also opened an acting studio, where she slips into the roles of teacher and mentor, sometimes giving workshops on how to live a happier, more fully realized life.
It's fitting, then, that when she signs autographs at Jason's Woods, this horror film actress will most likely decorate her signature with a decidedly unterrifying smiley face. And although Wallace Stone admitted to being too skittish to enjoy the bulk of the attractions at Jason's Woods ("I'm too much of a wuss!"), she said she's looking forward to the Lancaster appearance.
"I have a lot of great stories and great pictures, and I just love meeting the fans," she said. "I mean, if you really like what you're doing, it ends up being fun, and not work. That's what we all aim for, isn't it?"
Labels: cujo, dee wallace, dee wallace stone, ET, halloween, jason's woods, mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts
posted by MaryAlice Bitts at 12:18 PM
