I hope I never see a Pinto again in my life.
Every once in a while, Scream Queens last. Jamie Lee Curtis, of course. Anne Gwynne. A handful of others. And Dee Wallace is still there, with seven credits listed as “upcoming” on IMDb. And if some of them look shockingly low-budget, well, it pays the bills, I’m sure. On the other hand, that may in part be because a lot of us don’t really remember her as a Scream Queen. Yes, it looks like most or all of those movies she’s got coming up are horror, but casting Dee Wallace also triggers a certain amount of nostalgia for a lot of us.
In fact, one of the first movies I remember seeing in the theatre is ET. I’m not its biggest fan—there’s a lot of Spielberg I like better, including Other Movie I Saw In The Theatre Raiders of the Lost Ark—but I rewatched it as an adult and am charmed by Wallace’s performance. As a parent, I fully understand the moment of trying not to laugh when one son insults another using what we call around here “grown-up words.” Or anyway all the words are individually acceptable but are strung together in a way the kid may or may not understand to be a grown-up insult.
Arguably I know her more from that sort of role—yes, I’ve also seen her in Cujo. She graduated from being a Scream Queen to a Fierce Mom, and goodness knows we could do with more of those. Oh, sure, there’s probably hints of Leah Adler in her, but I suspect she was also playing the mom Steven Spielberg wished he’d had instead. As Donna Trenton, frankly, there was no little Tabby King in the character. A lot of us could wish for a mom played by Dee Wallace.
She also did a lot of those TV shows you’d expect. Trapper John, M.D. Barnaby Jones. Both CBS Afternoon Playhouse and ABC Afterschool Specials. Even after The Hills Have Eyes, she did Starsky and Hutch. Paying the bills, the way you’d expect. Apparently, she’s done motivational speaking, which is a modern way of paying the bills.
One assumes she’s still on Spielberg’s Christmas list, since Ke Huy Quan is. She’s certainly still in Gen X’s memories. No matter what else she does in her life, we’ll always remember her as Mary Taylor, single mother of three kids whose son brings home something a bit more exotic than a stray dog. There’s doubtless a reason Peter Jackson cast her in The Frighteners, which is another fantastic role that far too few people have seen.
