Marilyn Burns

Marilyn Burns was an American actress who became a defining figure in horror cinema. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and raised in Houston, she earned a drama degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971 and made her screen debut in Robert Altman's comedy Brewster McCloud (1970). Her breakthrough came as Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), the role that made her an early final girl and scream queen; critics singled out her performance, and she returned to the character in a cameo for The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1995). She played Linda Kasabian in the television miniseries Helter Skelter (1976), reunited with Hooper for Eaten Alive (1976), and later appeared as Verna Carson in Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013). In 2009 the Phoenix Film Festival inducted her into its Horror Hall of Fame. She died in 2014.