Laurie Strode: Innocence vs. Evil

    Every Halloween fan knows about the life and times of Laurie Strode/Keri Tate and he battles against her evil brother Michael Myers.  Throughout her battles against Michael, Laurie escaped death many, many....and many times.

    Our story begins in 1978, Laurie is a 17 year old school girl at Haddonfield High.  She is a studious, hard-working bookworm who is focused on her studies and is inexperienced in many social situations.  Her hobbies include babysitting for cash, saving money, studying and twirling her hair.  But Laurie is a well-liked, respected individual who has a least received a second look from some of her male counterparts at Haddonfield High.

    However, we can surmise that Laurie became friends with Lynda and Annie as a child.  Both girls still remained close friends with Laurie even though their focus was on partying, drinking and boys.

    On October 30, 1978 Michael Myers escaped from the Warren County Sanitarium.  He immediately heads to Haddonfield to search for his beloved sister.  He waits patiently at his former home and on the morning of October 31 as Laurie Strode drops off a key for the Myers home.  Michael follows Laurie to school and on her walk home afterwards.  Michael is such a confident stalker that he even leers at Lynda, Annie and Laurie as he drives by!!  Meanwhile, Laurie is excited because Annie is babysitting at the Wallace house directly across the street from the Doyle house.  (Laurie is babysitting at the Doyle house on October 31, 1978.)

    Myers murders Annie and Lynda while he waits for his prize prey.  Finally, brother and sister meet at the top of the stairs in the Wallace house.  Michael stabs Laurie and the force of his strike sends Laurie tumbling down the stairwell cracking a bone in her ankle.  Frightened she limps barely escapes Michael's grasp in the Wallace kitchen.  She runs outside screaming for help but the locals think it is just another Halloween prank.  She runs to the Doyle house and again barely escapes Michaels grasp several more times.  Finally she manages to stab him several times she mistakenly thinks that Michael is dead.  But Michael attacks her again and is about to finish her off when Dr. Sam Loomis (Michaels psychologist) shoots Michael six (seven) times.

    Laurie is saved for the time being and is rushed to the hospital with her wounds.  Michael pursues her there and after disposing of the hospital staff, he almost kill Laurie several times.  We find out that Laurie is a expert marksmen as she blows Michael's eyes out without nicking his infamous white mask!!!!  Again Dr. Loomis is there to save the day and he sacrifices his own life by blowing himself and Myers up.

    Twenty years past and Laurie distraught by the events of October 31, 1978 fakes her own death and flees to California.  There she becomes a head mistress of a private school but Michael is still alive and he finds out where she is after breaking into the late Dr. Loomis home.  Therefore, on October 31, 1998 Michael shows up in Laurie's life and almost manages to kill her own son.  But in the end, after a heated battle Laurie decapitates her brother in the hopes of ending is reign forever.  Is he dead??? We will find out in Halloween 8.

    Laurie Strode is played by actress Jamie Lee Curtis who is best remembered for her roles in Halloween (of course), is the daughter of film stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis launched her film career as a "scream queen." After a nondescript supporting role on the TV series Operation Petticoat, Curtis rose to cult stardom playing the straightlaced teenage baby sitter imperiled by an unknown slasher in Halloween (1978). Upon appearing in the film's sequel and in such spookers as The Fog (1979) and Prom Night (1980), she seemed in danger of being limited to blood-splattered horror films. But Curtis wasn't about to be typed this early in the game: with a meaty secondary role as a prostitute -- featuring several well-publicized nude scenes -- in the big-budget comedy Trading Places (1983), she made the transition from imperiled teen type to knowing adult with nary a hitch. She is married to actor Christopher Guest since 1984, Curtis became a Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the Barony in 1996

Extra Laurie Photos

Trivias

• Jamie Lee Curtis has learned never to show her teeth when she smiles - because they used to be disgusting. The actress has revealed for the first time her teeth were permanently greenish-grey while she was growing up, because her mother Janet Leigh took the strong antibiotic tetracycline when she was pregnant, and Jamie learned to cover her less than gleaming gnashers.
• Movie star Jamie Lee Curtis loves renting designer outfits - because then she can give them back. Jamie admits she hates hoarding clothes.
• Once the drug habit was behind her, things started to fall into place in Jamie's personal life as well. In 1983 she met Christopher Guest, whom she eventually married a little over a year later. Jamie describes her hubby as her kindred spirit.
• Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tom Arnold, TRUE LIES (1994) was attacked by Arab Americans for its depiction of Middle Easterners as homicidal, religious zealots. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was one of four groups to hold a protest at a Washington theater when the action film opened; a boycott of the movie was called, as well as a ban of its distribution in 54 Arab and Muslim countries. Despite the boycott and the intense controversy, the film was one of the top money-makers of 1994, earning more than $150 million.
• All of the actors of HALLOWEEN (1978) wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode's wardrobe. She spent less than a hundred dollars for the entire set.
• Before getting similar role in THE TAILOR OF PANAMA (2001), Curtis previously played a wife that didn't know her husband was involved in espionage in TRUE LIES (1994).
• HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER (1998) was made after her suggestion.
• She did the helicopter stunt on her birthday.
• She had to wear a wig that matched her original hairstyle for HALLOWEEN II (1981)
• When Arnold Schwarzenegger rescues wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) from an airborne chopper (TRUE LIES), he grasps her by her arm just as the chopper heads out over the water. The woman you see dangling below the chopper skid is no body double, but Curtis doing her very own stunt work. At her insistence, director James Cameron agreed to let her perform this scary spectacle.
• While she was making TRADING PLACES (1983), she stayed in Marlene Dietrich's apartment (12E) at 993 Park Avenue in Manhattan. She'd been engaged to Dietrich's grandson, production designer J. Michael Riva.  
• Her character in Halloween is named after one of John Carpenters old girlfriends.

Quotes

• I'm a minimalist. I like to have as little in my closet as possible.
• I just don't want the scrutiny. I'm not interested in the telephotoness (sic) of everyone's eyes. I'm very chaste, for someone who dances around in her underwear in movies. I go to the edge of the pool in a sarong and a shirt and I take them off and I swim. I also choose to walk around in my private life in chaste clothing. I don't wear tank tops or shorts. I wear dark clothing and longsleeved shirts and skirts to my knee. It's about an appropriateness and an inappropriateness and I'm sure we all know what that line is.
• I don't think it's the government's responsibility to regulate what's made, it's the parents' responsibility to regulate what a child sees or does. We took Nintendo out when we realized Tom was up to level five on Star Fox. I made the decision to take the Eminem album out of the house after I listened to the whole thing... I have chosen not to let my daughter have the internet in her room - if she wants to go online, she has to come downstairs into a common room so my husband and I can see what she's doing.
• I'm a minimalist. I like to have as little in my closet as possible.
• I'm happier with myself than I've ever been and I think the primary reason I'm so happy is because I got sober almost two years ago. Outing myself was positive as my children are directly involved in my sobriety.
• Is my daughter allowed to see horror movies? Absolutely not.
• I've never been mainstream in any area of my life. I've always been on the fringe as an actor. All my movies except True Lies (1994) have been pretty fringy films. So until now I've felt on the periphery of everything. But my children's books have put me smack dab in the mainstream, where I'm having the biggest success of my life and it is satisfying. These books are how I see the world and I think they are fun.

Awards

• Awarded The 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards 1989 as the Best Actress in a Leading Role--Musical or Comedy Series or Television Movie in ANYTHING BUT LOVE.
• Awarded The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards 1994 as the Best Actress in a Leading Role-Musical or Comedy in TRUE LIES.
• Voted the Best Actress Supporting at the British Academy Award 1984 through her appearance in TRADING PLACES.
• In 1995 Jamie Lee Curtis won American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) for TRUE LIES and Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical in 1995 for TRUE LIES and Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical in 1990 for ANYTHING BUT LOVE.

BACK TO MAIN MENU