Underappreciated Actors: Debra DeLiso

Filed Under (Movies) by admin on 18-05-2009

Tagged Under : ,

Debra DeLiso

This particular underappreciated actor is a woman who emerged onto the screen in the type of vehicle that tends so often to breed and spawn horrible acting and performances that range somewhere from wooden to false to robotic to empty…sometimes rounding all four of those bases.

Yes, such was the case with the low-budget 1980s horror scene…and one can say pretty confidently that things have not improved in that regard over the intervening decades, particularly with the advent of home editing studios, $500 HD cameras, and the still-prevalent syrup-and-food-coloring blood mixture.


With that said, every now and then a measurable degree of talent can emerge from these waters. One really wouldn’t have expected a credible and reliable character actor like Tomas Arana to emerge from Dario Argento’s Demons 3, nor Johnny Depp from A Nightmare on Elm Street, nor Kevin Bacon from Friday the 13th.

In like fashion, the formulaic Slumber Party Massacre (a quintessential tribute to scantily clad teen girls being stabbed and slashed) produced Debra DeLiso, a credible actor who would go on to some memorable theatrical performances and also to become one of California’s respected acting instructors.

She parlayed her experience and talents as a dancer to secure a position in Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler and Shelley Long, and also guest starred on the cult 1980s sitcom Sledge Hammer! Though less active in front of the camera in recent years, DeLiso nonetheless stands out as one of the more authentic and genuine acting talents to emerge from the 1980s teen-hack-and-slash scene.

BACK TO: The Wall of Underappreciated Actors