Camilla Carr, a Texas-born actress best known for her roles in a trio of cult 1970s horror films and for a memorably controversial guest spot on Designing Women, has died. She was 83.
Carr died Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease and a dislocated hip, her son, writer and artist Caley O’Dwyer, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Carr carved a niche in low-budget horror under director S.F. Brownrigg, starring as a homicidal patient in Don’t Look in the Basement (1973), a scheming hillbilly in Poor White Trash Part II (1974), and a woman with a murderous split personality in Keep My Grave Open (1977). These exploitation films became drive-in and midnight-movie staples, earning a enduring cult following.
She achieved a different kind of notoriety in 1987 on CBS’s hit series Designing Women. In the landmark episode “They’re Killing All the Right People,” written by series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Carr played Mrs. Imogene Salinger, a bigoted client who declares of the AIDS crisis, “As far as I’m concerned, this disease has one thing going for it: It’s killing all the right people.” The episode, inspired by Bloodworth-Thomason’s own mother who died from AIDS via a blood transfusion, was nominated for an Emmy.
“It was a shitty character, but she did a great job for an important cause,” her son noted of the role.
Born in Memphis, Texas, on September 17, 1942, Carr attended the University of North Texas and began her acting career in Dallas theater, where she met her future husband, actor Hugh Feagin. Her film debut was in A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970). Her other credits include Logan’s Run (1976), a three-episode arc on Falcon Crest in 1988, and stage work including Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
In 1983, she performed alongside a pre-Designing Women Jean Smart in the groundbreaking lesbian play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. Carr also authored the comic novel Topsy Turvy Dingo Dog in 1989.
In 2015, she emerged from retirement to appear in Don’t Look in the Basement 2, directed by Brownrigg’s son, Anthony. Carr’s career spanned gritty exploitation horror, prime-time television controversy, and respected stage work, leaving a unique mark on multiple corners of American entertainment.
