It was in the 1970s that the phrase “Scream Queen” gained major prominence thanks to four iconic horror movie actresses: Veronica Cartwright, Sandra Peabody, Dee Wallace, and of course, James Lee Curtis. Women who paved the way for them included Fay Wray, from 1933’s King Kong and known as the “very first scream queen,” Anne Gwynne (Chris Pine’s grandmother) who starred in 1940’s Black Friday opposite Boris Karloff and 1944’s House of Frankenstein, as well as Janet Leigh (Jamie’s mother) who is known as Marion in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
“Scream Queen” is a term used to refer to the conventionally attractive young damsel-in-distress characters that always appear in the horror genre, and although derogatory it has taken on a new meaning, with many on-screen “scream queens” instead turning the stereotype on its head and, perhaps, wreaking their own vengeance on the monster in the dark.
Much has been written about why the 1970s became the decade that the ,horror genre bloomed; gone was the freedom and “love and peace” of the 1960s, with the real-life horrors of the Vietnam War darkening the mentality of young people and the Civil Rights Movement bringing the realities of racial tensions into the light.
As the genre grew, so too did the popularity of the actresses who embodied those real-world tensions, with Veronica Cartwright beginning her career in the 1960s with Alfred Hitchcock, before working with Ridley Scott and Philip Kaufman. Dee Wallace joined forces with Wes Craven for The Hills Have Eyes in 1977, while Marilyn Burns headlined what is perhaps considered one of the best horror films of all times, 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But where are these legendary women now?
© Getty ImagesVeronica Cartwright
Born in Bristol, England in 1949, Veronica moved to Los Angeles with her family as a young girl where she was bitten by the acting bug. At the age of 14 she starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror The Birds, and went on to work alongside Henry Fonda and starred in NBC’s Daniel Boone from 1964 until 1966.
In 1978 she starred alongside Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a now cult horror movie about a San Francisco health inspector and his colleague who, over the course of a few days, discover that humans are being replaced by alien duplicates, each a perfect biological clone of the person replaced yet devoid of empathy and humanity.
It was in 1979 that she broke out though as Lambert in director Ridley Scott’s Alien. Famously, her reaction to the chestburster scene, where an alien explodes from the chest of one of Lambert’s colleagues, is real as Veronica was not told beforehand what would occur.
“I saw it in the theater when it first came out, and people got up and left the theater when the chestburster came out. They were just totally freaked. It was a good scare, and it holds up, which is amazing.” she told PopHorror.com in 2025.
“That whole movie was shot with no CGI. Everything was practical. You just don’t make movies like that anymore”
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These days, Veronica has slowed down and can be seen in V projects. In recent years, she has appeared in episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Good Doctor., The Rookie, and A Man on the Inside.
In 2024 she appeared in horror film The Ruse
© Getty ImagesSandra Peabody
Born in 1948, Sandra studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University and in her 20s she appeared in several horror movies, including Voices of Desire (1972), Massage Parlor Murders! (1973), and the cult sex comedy Teenage Hitchhikers (1974).
Sandra, however, is best known for her work as Mari Collingwood in Wes Craven’s directorial debut horror film The Last House on the Left (1972).
The film folows 17-year-old Mari, a teenager who is abducted, raped, and brutally murdered by a group of violent fugitives. When her parents discover what happened to Mari, they seek revenge against the killer – who have taken shelter at their home.
The original script was a hardcore pornographic horror film, however, after auditioning Sandra told Wes she would not work on the movie with the script as is.
Yet she impressed Wes so much that he rewrote much of the original script and turned it into a classic horror movie.
Sandra worked on several other movies in the 1970s but her final acting credit is the stage production Tunnel of Love (1977), after which she retired and moved into children’s programming and documentaries.
She returned to Portland, Oregon, where she was raised, and now lives there with her husband and son, where she works as an acting coach and talent agent teaching the Meisner technique to a new generation of Hollywood hopefuls.
© LMPC via Getty ImagesMarilyn Burns
Marilyn was born in 1949 and at the age of 25 she starred as Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s exploitation horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, now considered one of the best horror films of all time.
Her work in the film called for a special Oscar to be given out for “one of the most sustained and believable acting achievements in movie history,” as she appeared as a teenager who encounters a family of cannibals, including the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface.
Marilyn returned to the franchise several times and also appeared in the 1976 television miniseries Helter Skelter about the real-life trial of Charles Manson.
She continued to work sporadically, including in the 1977 horror film Eaten Alive, reuniting with Chainsaw director Tobe Hooper.
In later decades, she placed her focus elsewhere, although she continued to engage with fans, appearing at horror conventions.
Marilyn died at the age of 65 in her home in Houston, Texas.
© Getty ImagesDee Wallace
Dee was also born in 1948, and throughout her 20s appeared in numerous horror films that remain must-see viewings today, including The Stepford Wives (1975) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and in the following years The Howling (1981), Cujo (1983), Critters (1986), The Frighteners (1996), Halloween (2007), The House of the Devil (2009), and The Lords of Salem (2012).
She also starred in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T as Mary Taylor, a single mother to Elliott, Michael and Gertie who find E.T.
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Dee is still acting, and has a recurring role on ABC’s 9-1-1 as Margaret Buckley, the mother of Maddie Han (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley (Oliver Stark).
She will also appear in the new Netflix series The Boroughs, a sci-fi series with Bill Pullman and Geena Davis from the Duffer Brothers, the men behind Stranger Things.
However, she is also a public speaker and self-help author. In 2018, she gave her first TED talk at TEDx Cape May, entitled “The Common Ground of Self”.
She has also written three books, and has a call-in radio show.
Private “healing sessions” with Dee are available for $150 for one hour, during which time she can “assist an individual in discerning limiting beliefs and fears to bring about a balance in the person’s life”.
© Corbis via Getty ImagesJamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee has become a Hollywood icon over the decades, and although she is known to many as the iconic Scream Queen, she is also Lindsay Lohan’s mom in Freaky Friday, an Oscar winner for Everything Everywhere All At Once, and a children’s book author.
The daughter of another Scream Queen – Psycho’s Janet Leigh – Jamie Lee made her big screen debut at the age of 20 in John Carpenter’s 1978 horror film Halloween.
She starred as Laurie Strode, the female protagonist stalked by crazed murderer Michael Myers.
Jamie Lee has now become synonymous with the Halloween franchise, returning seven times as Laurie including most recently for the 2022 film Halloween Ends.
She went on to work with John Carpenter in the 1980 movie The Fog, another horror movie, and the same year also appeared in slasher film Prom Night.
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Jamie moved away from the horror genre in the 1980s, winning a BAFTA for Trading Places and going on to star in A Fish Called Wanda, Blue Steel, My Girl, and True Lies.
She also worked on the TV series NCIS, the comedy New Girl as Zooey Deschanel’s on-screen mom, and Fox’s satirical horror comedy series Scream Queens.
She received her first Oscar nomination and win in 2023, and also won her first Emmy for her work on FX’s The Bear.
In 2025m she co-produced and reprised her role as Tess Coleman in a sequel to Freaky Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan, 22 years after the original.
Still working, Jamie Lee will next be seen in political comedy Ella McCay, and she is also leading the charge in advocacy against the negative effects of cosmetic surgery and Hollywood standards on young women