Linnea Quigley

Barbara Linnea Quigley is an American actress, model, singer, and author. She is best known for her appearances in low-budget horror films during the 1980s and 1990s, which established her status as a prominent scream queen. Often referred to as the "Queen of the Bs," she gained widespread recognition for her performance in the 1985 horror film The Return of the Living Dead.

Quigley was born in 1957 or 1958 and raised in Davenport, Iowa. She is the only child of Dorothy and William Heath Quigley, who worked as a chiropractor and executive vice president at Palmer College of Chiropractic. She attended Garfield Elementary, Sudlow Middle Schools, and Bettendorf High School, describing herself as very shy during her youth. Shortly after graduating from high school in 1976, she relocated with her parents to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Quigley took a job at Jack LaLanne's health spa. Encouraged by friends she met there, she began modeling, taking acting and guitar-playing classes, and working as a film extra. Her early screen appearances included a commercial for Close-Up toothpaste before landing her first feature acting role in the 1978 erotic comedy Fairy Tales, followed by Auditions in 1978. She continued securing small roles in B movies, including Don't Go Near the Park and the 1981 slasher film Graduation Day. Around this time, she also pursued music, playing guitar in the band Mad Whistle before forming her own all-female band, The Skirts.

Quigley gained wider recognition with roles in films such as Savage Streets and Silent Night, Deadly Night in 1984. Her breakthrough came in 1985 with the zombie horror film The Return of the Living Dead, playing a punk teenager. Following the popularity of home video in the late 1980s, she starred in numerous low-budget horror films. She frequently collaborated with directors David DeCoteau on projects like Creepozoids, Nightmare Sisters, and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, and Kevin Tenney on Night of the Demons and Witchtrap. She also appeared alongside fellow scream queens Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer, as well as in Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Toward the end of the decade, she expanded into comedy by starring in the Vice Academy series.

In her later career, Quigley appeared in projects such as Stripperland, 1313: Cougar Cult, 3 Scream Queens, and the web series Trophy Heads. She was featured in the documentaries Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era and its 2020 sequel, and was cast in the feature film Jasper. Beyond acting, Quigley has authored three books reflecting on her life and career: The Linnea Quigley Bio & Chainsaw Book, I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can: My Life in B-Movies, and Skin.

In her personal life, Quigley married special-effects artist Steve Johnson in January 1990 after he proposed on the set of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master; the couple divorced in 1992. Quigley adopted a vegetarian diet in the late 1970s before transitioning to full veganism. She is an active animal rights advocate and a member of PETA, appearing on the cover of Vegetarian Times in October 1990.