Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi , known professionally as Maila Nurmi, was an American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira.
She was raised in Astoria, Oregon, where she worked in tuna and salmon canneries. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1940, with hopes of becoming an actress. After several minor film roles, she found success with her Vampira character, television's first horror host. Nurmi hosted her own series, The Vampira Show, from 1954 to 1955, on KABC-TV.After the show's cancellation, she appeared in the 1959 cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood. She is also billed as Vampira, despite not playing the character, in the 1959 films The Beat Generation, where she plays a beatnik poet, and crime film The Big Operator. She was portrayed by Lisa Marie in Tim Burton's 1994 biopic, Ed Wood.
Wikipedia
“A scar on the hand the hand might be quite continental,
But demons are a ghoul's best friend.”
[Vampira (Maila Nurmi)—Rare 1988 TV Interview, James Dean, 21 December 2016, Alan Eichler, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKIUxdgXsa8] (quote at 3:42)
[Vampira in "The Haunted World of Ed Wood", 20 March 2017, The-Vampira-Show.tumblr, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdfGJOaUPlw] (quote at 3:22)
