Verna Bloom death: Actor who starred in Animal House and Last Temptation of Christ dies aged 80

She also starred in three films by Martin Scorsese and two films by Clint Eastwood

Verna Bloom starred across from Tim Matheson in 1978's 'Animal House' (Rex Features)

Verna Bloom, best-known for her role in Animal House, has died aged 80.

Although she was also prolific both on television and on the stage, she gained the most recognition for her film work. In 1978’s Animal House, she starred as the drunken, debauched wife of Dean Wormer. She starred in three films by Martin Scorsese: 1970’s Street Scenes, 1985’s After House, and 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ.

She also starred in two Clint Eastwood films, playing Sarah Belding in 1973’s High Plains Drifter and Emmy in 1982’s Honkytonk Man.    

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Bloom graduated from Boston University before she moved to Denver and started a local theatre.

In the mid-1960s, she moved to New York, starring as Charlotte Corday in the Broadway revival of Marat/Sade and making her film debut in 1969’s Medium Cool, in which she played an Appalachian mother caught up in the riots surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. 

• Read more

Star Trek actor William Morgan Sheppard dies aged 86

Bloom died on 9 January in Bar Harbor, Maine, her representative confirmed to Variety. Her family has stated the cause was complications from dementia. 

She is survived by her husband of 49 years, screenwriter Jay Cocks, and her son Sam. 

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

 

Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on Film, TV, Music, and more