Cassandra Peterson

In 1981, Cassandra Peterson married her personal manager Mark Pierson. They have a daughter, Sadie Pierson, who was born on October 12, 1994. The couple divorced in February 2003. She once briefly dated Elvis Presley.

Peterson is a vegetarian and was seen promoting a vegetarian diet in a Halloween-themed ad for PETA.

Cassandra Peterson was born on September 17, 1951 in Manhattan, Kansas. She grew up in the Randolph area of Kansas until the area was flooded to build the Tuttle Creek Reservoir. Then she, along with her family, moved to Colorado Springs.

When she was a year and a half, she met with a kitchen accident. She accidentally pulled a pan of boiling eggs off the stove, and burned over a third of her body. At school, she was teased for her scars.

Her mother ran a costume business, and whatever costumes she liked, her mother made one in her size, which she wore to school.

She attended General William J. Palmer High School and graduated in 1969. When she was just a teen, she worked as a go-go dancer in a local gay bar.

Cassandra Peterson dreamed of a career in the show business from a young age. At the age of 17, she convinced her parents to let her sign a contract to become a showgirl in Viva Les Girls at The Dunes in Las Vegas.

In 1971, she appeared in a brief role as a showgirl in the James Bond film ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, and was featured as a topless dancer in ‘The Working Girls’ in 1974. She posed as a stripper on the cover of Tom Waits' album ‘Small Change’ in 1976.

In Las Vegas, she befriended Elvis Presley, who encouraged her to become a singer. Acting on his advice, she moved to Italy in the 1970s to become the lead singer of the Italian rock band Latins 80 and The Snails.

After she returned to the United States, she toured nightclubs and discos with a musical-comedy act, ‘Mama’s Boys’, along with seven men. She also posed in the nude for ‘Playboy’ magazine, and modeled for several men's magazines like ‘High Society’, ‘Man's Delight’, and ‘Modern Man.’

In 1979, she joined the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe ‘The Groundlings’ to learn acting and comedic skills. There she created a ‘valley girl’ type character, on which the character of Elvira was loosely based. For a year, she also worked with the Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM.

Cassandra Peterson’s portrayal as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, in the comedy TV show ‘Elvira's Movie Macabre’ was critically acclaimed and loved by the audience. While playing the character, she wore a black gown and black wig and used the tone of a California ‘valley girl’. Her comments were sharp and sarcastic. Soon her character became a popular brand and she reprised her role in other TV productions as well.