Carol Locatell, who had a memorable turn as foul-mouthed mother Ethel Hubbard in Friday the 13th Part V: A new beginning and worked with Burt Reynolds in three films, passed away. She turned 82.
Locatell died April 11 at her home in Sherman Oaks after a long battle with cancer, her husband, songwriter and producer Gregory Prestopino, said. The Hollywood Reporter. They were together for 50 years.
Locatell moved from Los Angeles to New York in the mid-1980s to kick-start her career, and from her first audition there, landed a role on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Broadway boundwhich premiered in 1986. She then appeared in The shadow box in 1994 and in The rose tattoo a year later.
She first met Reynolds when she auditioned him for a role in Simon’s Chapter two at his dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida. She worked with him Paternity (1981), where she played a hooker; Sharky’s machine (1981), which he directed; and that of Norman Jewison Best friends (1982).
In Friday the 13th Part V: A new beginning (1985), Locatell gained a legion of fans for her trashy turn as the short-tempered, stew-making Ethelwho lives with her son Junior (Ron Sloan) on a farm next to the Pinehurst Youth Development Centre.
“The first time I put on makeup, I took one look at myself and I was like, ‘Okay, I know what to do,'” she recalled in an interview last year. “So I go out and I find a bunch of dirt and I put dirt on me, dirty (my) hands, and I thought, ‘This is perfect.’
At horror movie conventions, Locatell’s interactions with the faithful “really warmed my heart,” Sloan wrote on Facebook.
She asked “every fan the question, ‘Do you want me to flip you, or what line would you like signed on your photo?’ he noted. “She offered lines like, ‘You big dildo, eat your fucking slop’ (or) ‘Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want?’ … Her sailor mouth will be truly missed at the next convention.”
An only child, Locatell was born in Atlanta on December 13, 1940. She grew up in San Mateo, California, and was sent to a Catholic boarding school by her mother when she was four. was hired to play one of the Pigeon sisters in Simon’s first road company The separate couple.
In the early ’60s, CBS brought her to Los Angeles because the network was looking for a version of the studio system, her husband said.
Locatell made her on-screen debut in an episode of The flying nun in 1967, and she would show up It takes a thief, Medical Center, The Smith family, Bonanza, Mannix, M*A*S*H, Police woman, Dynasty, Ally McBeal, NYPD blue, Gray’s Anatomy, Crazy men, Scandal, Station 19 And Shameless.
Her big screen resume was also included Coffee (1973), Sammy (1977), The day trippers (1996), critter (2002) and The family stone (2005).
Locatell continued to act after surviving tongue cancer eight years ago, Prestopino said, preferring working in the theater to anything else. “She projected her voice and you could hear every word, but she wasn’t sensual,” he said. “She had a beautiful instrument that could fill the room.”
