Vampira

Born Maila Nurmi (a name she has used professionally at times), this tall, Finnish-born cult figure is best known as Vampira, the ghoulish, wasp-waisted personality who appeared in a number of features. Vampira, she of the deadened staring eyes, tight-fitting funereal garb, and white pancake makeup, became involved in the "Beat" scene in the mid-1950s. A friend in this bohemian circuit was no less than James Dean, and after his death, Vampira published a piece claiming that she was in "telephonic" contact with his ghost (this despite the fact that her own telephone was disconnected). Eventually, she had to move out of her home because of the flood of Dean fans who kept bothering her.