Lorna Thayer

Lorna Thayer

Born: March 10, 1919
Died: June 4, 2005
in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lorna Thayer (10 March 1919 - June 4, 2005) was an American character actress.

Thayer was born in Boston, the daughter of silent screen actress Louise Gibney. She appeared often in theatre and on television. In 1955 she played in The Beast with a Million Eyes with Paul Birch. She played minor roles in the films The Lusty Men, Texas City and Frankie and Johnny.

It was her role in the iconic 1970 film Five Easy Pieces as the waitress who refuses to allow Jack Nicholson's character to order a side of wheat toast that she is most likely to be remembered for and identified with. The scene has come to be known as the "chicken salad scene".

She died at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Retirement Home in Woodland Hills, California aged 86, after battling Alzheimer's disease for five years.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Lorna Thayer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Lorna Thayer...

Frankie and Johnny
Title: Frankie and Johnny
Character: Flower Mart Vendor
Released: October 11, 1991
Type: Movie
When Johnny is released from prison following a forgery charge, he quickly lands a job as a short-order cook at a New York diner. Following a brief fling with waitress Cora, Frankie develops an attraction for Cora's friend and fellow waitress Frankie. While Frankie resists Johnny's charms initially, she eventually relents when her best friend, Tim, persuades her to give Johnny a chance.
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Nothing in Common
Title: Nothing in Common
Character: Auditioning Grandma
Released: July 29, 1986
Type: Movie
On his way up the corporate ladder, David Basner confronts his greatest challenge: his father.
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Buddy Buddy
Title: Buddy Buddy
Character: Lady
Released: April 2, 1981
Type: Movie
During a high profile Mafia testimony case, a contract killer checks-in a hotel room near the courthouse while his next door depressed neighbor wants to commit suicide due to marital problems.
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The Aliens Are Coming
Title: The Aliens Are Coming
Character: Waitress
Released: March 2, 1980
Type: Movie
A young astrophysicist searches for sinister extraterrestrials looking for sanctuary for their comrades by possessing the bodies of humans.
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Flatbed Annie & Sweetie Pie: Lady Truckers
Title: Flatbed Annie & Sweetie Pie: Lady Truckers
Character: Hospital Receptionist
Released: February 10, 1979
Type: Movie
This engaging made-for-television movie follows the adventures of Ginny "Sweetie Pie" LaRosa (Kim Darby), who needs money after her trucker husband, Jack (Fred Willard), is shot by hijackers. Fortunately, she finds a partner in Flatbed Annie (Annie Potts), a freewheelin' driver. The women form an unlikely but profitable friendship while fending off the repo man who wants the truck and the criminals who are after the cocaine hidden in it.
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Title: CHiPs
Released: September 15, 1977
Type: TV
Lighthearted look at the adventures of two Highway Patrol officers in Los Angeles. The main characters are Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello, two motorcycle officers always on the street to save lives.
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Revenge of the Cheerleaders
Title: Revenge of the Cheerleaders
Character: Lilly Downs
Released: May 1, 1976
Type: Movie
There's shakin', quakin' and plenty of booty to be enjoyed when the perky gals from Aloha High School shimmy their groove things in this red-hot sequel to The Cheerleaders. Rainbeaux Smith (from the first film) is back ... and pregnant!
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Smoke In The Wind
Title: Smoke In The Wind
Character: Ma Mondier
Released: April 1, 1975
Type: Movie
The Civil War is over but in the Ozarks of Arkansas people are not ready to forgive and forget. The Mondier brothers have returned from fighting for the Union and Mort Fagan is keeping things difficult for them in the community.
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Alice Goodbody
Title: Alice Goodbody
Character: Yvonne
Released: December 1, 1974
Type: Movie
Sharon Kelly plays a naive waitress who sleeps her ways to bigger and bigger roles in a musical adaptation of Julius Caesar, only to suffer some form of physical calamity every time the cameras roll.
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It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy
Title: It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy
Character: Mrs. Gibbs
Released: November 19, 1974
Type: Movie
When Harry Walters runs out of gas, he gets picked up by a beautiful young woman. But when she pulls a gun on him and orders him to take his clothes off, Harry puts up no resistance and is sexually assaulted. He reports the incident to the authorities, but they either don't believe him, or, if they do, can't understand why he would consider it a crime - a reaction he also gets from his friends and family.
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The Family Kovack
Title: The Family Kovack
Character: Thelma
Released: April 5, 1974
Type: Movie
A tightly-knit family headed by a beleaguered Chicago widow rallies behind the eldest son when he is charged with bribing a city health department inspector in this pilot for a possible series.
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Rhinoceros
Title: Rhinoceros
Character: Restaurant Owner
Released: January 21, 1974
Type: Movie
A boozing young man in love with his co-worker finds that everyone around him, even his pompous and condescending best friend, is changing into a rhinoceros.
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Mrs. Sundance
Title: Mrs. Sundance
Character: Fanny Porter
Released: January 15, 1974
Type: Movie
The girlfriend of the Sundance Kid is on the run, with a price on her head, when she hears rumors that Sundance may still be alive.
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Skyjacked
Title: Skyjacked
Character: Weber's mother
Released: May 24, 1972
Type: Movie
A crazed Vietnam vet bomber hijacks a Boeing 707 in this disaster film filled with the usual early '70s stereotypes, and demands to be taken to Russia.
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Cisco Pike
Title: Cisco Pike
Character: Swimming Lady
Released: January 14, 1972
Type: Movie
A down on his luck former drug dealer is forced by a corrupt LAPD policeman to sell 100 kilos of confiscated marijuana in one weekend.
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Five Easy Pieces
Title: Five Easy Pieces
Character: Waitress
Released: September 12, 1970
Type: Movie
A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.
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Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
Title: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
Character: Widow Wycherly
Released: January 1, 1969
Type: Movie
Dr. Heidegger invites four of his respected friends to try out the elixir of youth.
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The Shakiest Gun in the West
Title: The Shakiest Gun in the West
Character: Saloon Girl (uncredited)
Released: July 10, 1968
Type: Movie
Jesse W. Haywood (Don Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing (Barbara Rhoades) is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers. She tricks Haywood into a sham marriage as a disguise. Haywood inadvertently becomes the legendary "Doc the Haywood" after he guns down "Arnold the Kid".
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Title: Garrison's Gorillas
Released: September 6, 1967
Type: TV
Garrison's Gorillas is an ABC TV series broadcast from 1967 to 1968; a total of 26 hour-long episodes were produced. It was inspired by the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen, which featured a similar scenario of training Allied prisoners for World War II military missions. Garrison's Gorillas was canceled at the close of its first season and replaced by The Mod Squad in 1968. It managed to gather a cult following in China in the 1980s.
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Title: That Girl
Released: September 8, 1966
Type: TV
That Girl is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It stars Marlo Thomas as the title character Ann Marie, an aspiring actress, who moves from her hometown of Brewster, New York to try to make it big in New York City. Ann has to take a number of offbeat "temp" jobs to support herself in between her various auditions and bit parts. Ted Bessell played her boyfriend Donald Hollinger, a writer for Newsview Magazine; Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp played Lew Marie and Helen Marie, her concerned parents. Bernie Kopell, Ruth Buzzi and Reva Rose played Ann and Donald's friends. That Girl was developed by writers Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, who had served as head writers on The Dick Van Dyke Show earlier in the 1960s.
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Title: The Dick Van Dyke Show
Released: October 3, 1961
Type: TV
The Dick Van Dyke Show centers around the work and home life of television comedy writer Rob Petrie. The plots generally revolve around problems at work, where Rob got into various comedic jams with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell, Sally Rogers and producer Mel Cooley.
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Title: 87th Precinct
Released: September 25, 1961
Type: TV
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.
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Freckles
Title: Freckles
Character: Alice Cooper
Released: October 19, 1960
Type: Movie
A young man with only one hand gets a job at a timber camp and falls for his boss's daughter.
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Title: The Tall Man
Released: September 10, 1960
Type: TV
The Tall Man is a half-hour American western television series about Sheriff Pat Garrett and the gunfighter Billy the Kid that aired seventy-five episodes on NBC from 1960 to 1962, filmed by Revue Productions.
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Title: The Detectives
Released: October 16, 1959
Type: TV
The Detectives is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC during its third and final season. The series, starring motion picture star Robert Taylor, was produced by Four Star Television.
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Title: Johnny Ringo
Character: Mrs. Haig
Released: October 2, 1959
Type: TV
Johnny Ringo is an American Western television series starring Don Durant that aired on CBS from October 1, 1959, until June 30, 1960. It is loosely based on the life of the notorious gunfighter and outlaw Johnny Ringo, also known as John Peters Ringo or John B. Ringgold, who tangled with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Buckskin Franklin Leslie.
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Title: Black Saddle
Character: Belle Bronson
Released: January 10, 1959
Type: TV
Black Saddle is an American Western television series starring Peter Breck that aired 44 episodes on ABC from January 10, 1959 to May 6, 1960. The half-hour program was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television, and the original pilot was an episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, with Chris Alcaide portraying the principal character, Clay Culhane. For syndicated reruns, Black Saddle was combined with three other Western series from the same company, Law of the Plainsman starring Michael Ansara, Johnny Ringo starring Don Durant and Mark Goddard, and the critically acclaimed creation of Sam Peckinpah, The Westerner with Brian Keith, under the umbrella title, The Westerners, with new hosting sequences by Keenan Wynn.
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Natchez
Title: Natchez
Released: May 29, 1958
Type: Movie
A Civil War veteran returns home to find his father has become a social pariah.
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Title: Have Gun, Will Travel
Released: September 14, 1957
Type: TV
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
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The Women of Pitcairn Island
Title: The Women of Pitcairn Island
Character: Mortua
Released: December 1, 1956
Type: Movie
The widows and children of survivors of the H.M.S. Bounty rule Pitcairn Island, fighting off sailors and intruders.
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Title: Playhouse 90
Character: Belle
Released: October 4, 1956
Type: TV
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were usually hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays. Playhouse 90 began as a pitch by Frank Stanton—the formidable, forward-thinking right-hand man to CBS chairman William S. Paley—during a brainstorming session for program ideas. The project was ultimately developed by Hubbell Robinson, a CBS vice president who received no screen credit on Playhouse 90 but is often described as its creator.
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Title: The Adventures of Jim Bowie
Released: September 7, 1956
Type: TV
The Adventures of Jim Bowie is an American Western television series that aired on ABC from 1956 to 1958. Its setting was the 1830s-era Louisiana Territory. The series was an adaptation of the book Tempered Blade, by Monte Barrett. The series stars Scott Forbes as the real-life adventurer Jim Bowie. The series initially portrayed Jim Bowie as something of an outdoors-man, riding his horse through the wilderness near his home in Opelousas, where he would stumble across someone needing his assistance. He was aided by the Bowie Knife, his ever-present weapon. He designed it in the first episode, The Birth of the Blade.
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Title: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
Released: September 6, 1955
Type: TV
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a television western series loosely based on the life of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black-and-white program aired for 229 episodes on ABC from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian in the title role.
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The Beast with a Million Eyes
Title: The Beast with a Million Eyes
Character: Carol Kelley
Released: June 15, 1955
Type: Movie
At a decrepit farm outside a remote American desert community, something takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through their eyes and control their actions.
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Women's Prison
Title: Women's Prison
Released: February 1, 1955
Type: Movie
A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.
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Title: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Released: October 15, 1954
Type: TV
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program. Beginning in October 1954 until May 1959, 166 episodes originally aired on ABC television network. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known as Fort Apache. He and his German shepherd dog, Rin Tin Tin, helped the soldiers to establish order in the American West. Texas-born actor James Brown appeared as Lieutenant Ripley "Rip" Masters. Co-stars included veteran actor Joe Sawyer and actor Rand Brooks from Gone with the Wind fame.
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Title: Medic
Character: Lorraine Lockwood
Released: September 13, 1954
Type: TV
Medic is an American medical drama that aired on NBC beginning in 1954. Medic was television's first doctor drama to focus attention on medical procedures. Created by its principal writer James E. Moser, Medic tried to create realism which would typify medical shows from then on. Moser had previously written for the radio shows Dragnet and Dr. Kildare. He went on to write the television series Ben Casey.
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Title: The Lone Wolf
Released: January 1, 1954
Type: TV
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Jennifer
Title: Jennifer
Character: Molly
Released: October 25, 1953
Type: Movie
A young woman is hired to take care of an eerie old mansion, where she finds herself entangled with an enigmatic murderer.
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Title: Letter to Loretta
Character: Christine Markham
Released: September 20, 1953
Type: TV
Letter to Loretta is an American anthology drama series telecast on NBC from September 1953 to June 1961 for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show was hosted by Loretta Young who also played the lead in various episodes. Letter to Loretta was sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960. The final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's Listerine.
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Title: I Led Three Lives
Released: January 1, 1953
Type: TV
I Led Three Lives is an American drama series which was syndicated by Ziv Television Programs from October 1, 1953 to January 1, 1956. The series stars Richard Carlson. The show was a companion piece of sorts to the radio drama I Was a Communist for the FBI, which dealt with a similar subject and was also syndicated by Ziv from 1952 to 1954.
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The Lusty Men
Title: The Lusty Men
Character: Grace Burgess
Released: October 24, 1952
Type: Movie
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.
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Title: Cavalcade of America
Character: Miss Holmes
Released: October 1, 1952
Type: TV
Cavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on television from 1952 to 1957. Originally on CBS, the series pioneered the use of anthology drama for company audio advertising. Cavalcade of America documented historical events using stories of individual courage, initiative and achievement, often with feel-good dramatizations of the human spirit's triumph against all odds. This was consistent with DuPont's overall conservative philosophy and legacy as an American company dating back to 1802. The company's motto, "Maker of better things for better living through chemistry," was read at the beginning of each program, and the dramas emphasized humanitarian progress, particularly improvements in the lives of women, often through technological innovation.
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Title: Dragnet
Released: December 16, 1951
Type: TV
Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
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Title: Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Character: Irene Williams
Released: October 5, 1951
Type: TV
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The title was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse, beginning with the fall 1957 season.
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Title: The Adventures of Boston Blackie
Released: September 8, 1951
Type: TV
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Title: Lux Video Theatre
Character: Liza
Released: October 2, 1950
Type: TV
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.