Camilla Carr obit

Camilla Carr, Actress in ‘Keep My Grave Open’ and ‘Designing Women,’ Dies at 83

The Texas native appeared in three films for exploitation director S.F. Brownrigg, including ‘Don’t Look in the Basement’ and ‘Poor White Trash Part II.’

 She was not on the list.

Camilla Carr, the Texas-born actress who appeared for director S.F. Brownrigg in the low-budget 1970s horror films Don’t Look in the Basement, Poor White Trash Part II and Keep My Grave Open, has died. She was 83.

Carr died Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, of complications from Alzheimer’s and a dislocated hip, her son, writer, poet and painter Caley O’Dwyer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Carr also stood out on CBS’ Designing Women when she portrayed a Sugarbaker client who thinks gay men who contract AIDS are getting what they deserve in the October 1987 episode “They’re Killing All the Right People,” written by series creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason.

Carr played an unhinged patient who kills a nurse in Don’t Look in the Basement (1973) and a devious hillbilly daughter in Poor White Trash Part II (1974) — a drive-in hit also known as Scum of the Earth — before she starred in Keep My Grave Open (1977) as a woman with a murderous split personality (she thinks she’s also her brother).

All three were cult exploitation films from Brownrigg, a producer-director known for his ability to create creepiness with very little money.

Born on Sept. 17, 1942, in Memphis, Texas, Carr attended Kermit (Texas) High School and the University of North Texas. She first met her future husband, Hugh Feagin, when they were actors at Theatre Three in Dallas, and they appeared together in the Texas-shot A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), starring Fabian as 1930s bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd. (Feagin was in Don’t Look in the Basement and Poor White Trash Part II as well.)

As Mrs. Imogene Salinger on Designing Women, Carr overhears plans for a funeral for a young interior designer (Tony Goldwyn) dying of AIDS and remarks, “As far as I’m concerned, this disease has one thing going for it: It’s killing all the right people.” (Watch the scene here.)

“It was a shitty character, but she did a great job for an important cause,” her son said.

Bloodworth Thomason, whose mother had recently died after getting AIDS through a blood transfusion, earned an Emmy nomination for writing the episode.

Carr also showed up in the Michael Anderson-directed Logan’s Run (1976); played housekeeper/snoop Nellie Maxwell on three episodes of CBS’ Falcon Crest in 1988; appeared on One Day at a Time and Another World; and played Maxine in 1991 in Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana, one of several productions she did for the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

And in 2015, she came out of retirement to appear in Don’t Look in the Basement 2, directed by S.F. Brownrigg’s son, Anthony Brownrigg.

Carr also wrote on telefilms and authored the comic 1989 novel Topsy Turvy Dingo Dog, which revolved around a B-movie actress, Mary Jane Shady, who returns to her hometown of Uncertain, Texas, for her 20th high school reunion.

Her second husband was Oscar-winning screenwriter Edward Anhalt (Panic in the Streets, Becket). They were married from 1968 until their 1976 divorce, and she was one of his five wives.

 

Actress

Don't Look in the Basement 2 (2015)

Don't Look in the Basement 2

4.2

Emily

2015

 

Falcon Crest (1981)

Falcon Crest

6.2

TV Series

Nellie Maxwell

1988

3 episodes

 

Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Peterson, Trey Ames, Adam Arkin, Jayne Atkinson, Richard Kiley, Diana Muldaur, David Oliver, Scott Paulin, Wendy Phillips, and Morgan Stevens in A Year in the Life (1987)

A Year in the Life

8.6

TV Series

Laura

1988

1 episode

 

Annie Potts, Delta Burke, Jean Smart, and Dixie Carter in Designing Women (1986)

Designing Women

7.3

TV Series

Mrs. Salinger

1987

1 episode

 

My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985)

My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn

6.4

TV Movie

Lou Warner

1985

 

Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, and Michael Ontkean in Making Love (1982)

Making Love

6.9

Susan

1982

 

Tuesday Weld, Eleanor Parker, and Granville Van Dusen in Madame X (1981)

Madame X

6.7

TV Movie

Kit

1981

 

Another World (1964)

Another World

7.1

TV Series

Rita Connelly

1979

34 episodes

 

Valerie Bertinelli, Bonnie Franklin, Pat Harrington Jr., and Mackenzie Phillips in One Day at a Time (1975)

One Day at a Time

6.6

TV Series

Waitress

1978

2 episodes

 

Keep My Grave Open (1977)

Keep My Grave Open

4.3

LesleyKevin's sister

1977

 

Jenny Agutter, Farrah Fawcett, Michael York, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Richard Jordan in Logan's Run (1976)

Logan's Run

6.8

Sanctuary Woman

1976

 

Scum of the Earth (1974)

Scum of the Earth

5.3

Sarah Pickett

1974

 

Rosie Holotik in Don't Look in the Basement (1973)

Don't Look in the Basement

4.9

Harriet

1973

 

Fabian and Jocelyn Lane in A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970)

A Bullet for Pretty Boy

5.2

Helen

1970

 

Writer

Charisma Carpenter, Krista Bridges, and Katya Gardner in Cheaters' Club (2006)

Cheaters' Club

4.7

TV Movie

collaborating writer

2006

 

Brenda Bakke and Greg Evigan in Nobody Lives Forever (1998)

Nobody Lives Forever

5.0

TV Movie

teleplay

1998

 

Crimes of Passion: Escape from Terror - The Teresa Stamper Story (1995)

Crimes of Passion: Escape from Terror - The Teresa Stamper Story

6.4

TV Movie

storyteleplay

1995

 

Producer

Patricia Velasquez and Eloisa Maturen in Liz in September (2014)

Liz in September

6.0

associate producer

2014

 

Thanks

Molly Ringwald, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Carol Kane in Office Killer (1997)

Office Killer

5.2

thanks

1997

 

Self

Lynn Lowry, Craig Muckler, Mel Novak, Brinke Stevens, Frank M. Farel, Dustin Ferguson, and Joseph Williamson in Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors (2023)

Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors

5.4

Self

2023