For our customary Friday the 13th piece today, we have crazed killer Jason Vorhees burying the hatchet (well, yes, it’s a full-sized ax) in Melissa’s head in 1988’s Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. The actress who played Melissa, Susan Jennifer Sullivan, was and still is by some, believed to be dead.
It was reported in November of 2012 at the Friday the 13th, the Franchise website that she passed away and a link to an obituary in the Boston Herald confirms that a Susan J. Sullivan of West Roxbury, Massachusetts did die on August 10, 2009 and was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts. As with obituaries, no cause of death was given, but since it states that donations may be made in Susan’s memory to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, one could assume that Susan succumbed to cancer. However, this lengthy July, 2016 post by “Germaniac” at the Friday the 13th Forum claims that the Susan J. Sullivan in the Boston Herald obituary is NOT the actress Susan Jennifer Sullivan from Friday the 13th Part VIII: The New Blood and that Susan the actress is still alive and well. According to her IMDb page, her brief acting career ended with an appearance on a 1990 episode of the then-popular sitcom Charles in Charge, but according to Germaniac’s research, she also went by Grace Sullivan (which is now confirmed at the IMDb page on Susan Jennifer Sullivan) and appeared in at least one other film, which was the 1997 sci-fi thriller Gattaca.
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About the author
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Chris flirted with the music business there and in Nashville before joining the U.S. Army and serving in South Korea. He remained in Asia for several years afterwards, teaching English, traveling, and covering the regional entertainment scenes. Currently in a mindset between Seoul and San Francisco, besides Idol Features, you can also catch his writings in the print edition of the monthly magazine, Effective.
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