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Born on October 21st,
1932 little is known of Barboura Morris
aka Barboura ONeill aka Barbara
Crane, prior to her graduation from UCLA.
(Hmmm
always food for thought when a
bio opens that way.) Shortly after
graduation she did some stock theater
work before getting into television,
primarily in dramatic anthologies and
such before transitioning into film.
After meeting her in an acting class,
Roger Corman convinced Barboura to accept
a leading role in his 1957 bad-girl opus
Sorority Girl
about a psychotic pledge (Susan Cabot)
who vows vengeance on the sorority that
turned her down. In it the attractive
actress was billed as Barboura
ONeill. She made Teenage
Doll and Rock
All Night for him the same
year. Almost instantly she had become a
Corman stock player alongside Susan
Cabot, Dick Miller, Anthony Eisley, Fay
Spain, Ed Nelson, etc. Next she costarred
as Lynn with Charles Bronson in Machine
Gun Kelly.
The following year came
Morris largest screen success in
the cult favorite Bucket of
Blood. In the film she
plays Carla, the hipster proprietor of a
(finger snapping applause, berets,
incense, poetry, dope smoking, and all)
coffee shop which features art that is
basically plaster of carcass,
the handiwork of psychotic
sculptor/busboy Walter Paisley (Dick
Miller). The film is a great
horror/comedy and a commentary on the
beatnik scene at the time, contemporary
art, you name it. Corman shot this little
gem in 5 days for $50,00! [It
predates the somewhat similar (in tone)
Little Shop of Horrors,
which Corman shot the following year.]
Barboura also had a great role in
Cormans next film The
Wasp Woman (1960) as Mary
Dennison, the faithful secretary of the
stinging she beast Susan Cabot as Janice
Starling in the title role. Never one to
let an exploitative genre slip by, Corman
and his cast next traveled to Athens to
film Atlas
with Barboura and Michael Forest. She
made The Wild and the
Innocent in the early 60s
as well.
In 1963 she continued her
longtime association with American
International Pictures and made a couple
more horror favorites. She was Mrs.
Weeden in The Haunted
Palace. Based on a story
by HP Lovecraft this much-loved
dark castle and curse gothic
flick features Vincent Price, Debra
Paget, Lon Chaney Jr., and Elisha Cook
Jr. Next she was featured in the Ray
Milland chiller X: The Man
With X-Ray Eyes. Her roles
thereafter diminished but were no less
cult-worthy The St.
Valentines Day Massacre
(1967), she was Flo or that lady in
the Laundromat in the LSD opus
The Trip
(1967) with Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern,
Susan Srasberg, Luana Anders and with a
screenplay by Jack Nicholson (!!!), as a
change of pace she played Mother Superior
in De Sade
(1969) with Kier Dullea as the Marquis
himself. Her final film role was as Mrs.
Cole in the Sandra Dee creep-fest
The Dunwich Horror in 1970.
The lovely and reliable
actress left this earth far too soon. On
October 23rd 1975, a mere two
days after her 43rd birthday,
Barboura Morris suffered a fatal stroke
and died in Santa Monica. She had been
very ill at the time. In the few years
since her last screen appearance her
health had greatly deteriorated due to
the ravaging effects of cancer. Thanks to
her association with Roger Corman and
American International she leaves behind
a fascinating and diverse film oeuvre. |