Bonnie Peabody (actress)

Bonnie Peabody (May 5th, 1951 -- ) is an American actress best remembered for playing the innocent and doomed Joanie Young in the 1973 gore film The House of Blood.

Early Life
Bonnie was born in El Paso, Texas. Both of her parents were born in Mexico and owned a hardware store. Bonnie was the youngest of seven children. Her birth name is Bonita Salazar. She legally changed her name to Bonnie Peabody in 1970 when her then-agent told her that she would get more work with an anglo name. However, she still prefers to be called "Bonita" in private.

Bonnie graduated from El Paso Senior High in 1969 and attended North Texas State University for one semester.

She first started modeling when she was sixteen years old and was hired to appear in ads for local businesses. After dropping out of college, she appeared in a series of lingerie ads for Moody's Department Store in Dallas, Texas. These ads led to her getting her first agent and moving to California in 1970 where she soon began to audition for acting roles.

She made her film debut with a small role in The Lawgiver (1971).

1973: The Year of Hot Asphalt and The House of Blood
In 1973, Bonnie was cast in the two roles that she remains best known for. In Hot Asphalt, she played the younger sister of the film's star, drive-in movie queen Rachel Christian. Their close relationship on screen was reportedly duplicated in their friendship off-screen and Bonnie has described Rachel Christian as being one of the most important mentors she ever had. According to Bonnie, Rachel not only turned down a role in The House of Blood (reportedly, Rachel was considered for the role of Squeaky that eventually went to Robin Mirthel) but suggested the Bonnie do the same.

However, Bonnie was aware that this would be her biggest role to date (and has also claimed that she was only shown an early, "softer" draft of the film's script) and she agreed to take the role of Joanie Young in The House of Blood. As Joanie, Bonnie played the most innocent of the six "Young sisters" and she was also one of the final girls to die. When the film was initially released, several reviewers noted the intensity of Bonnie's performance in the film's many scenes of rape and torture and even critics who attacked the film overall praised the authenticity of Peabody's reactions.

Years later, in an interview in American Macabre BiMonthly, Bonnie would say that these reactions seemd real because they were real. "At the time, I thought that both Robert (Benson, Jr.) and John (C. Butler) were going to kill me! That wasn't acting on screen. That was real terror!" On the commentary track for the 2005 DVD of The House of Blood, Bonnie added that the entire torture sequence was filmed over the course of 9 days and that "I would leave the set numb every day. I would go back to the motel we were staying at, I'd lock the door, and I'd sit in the corner. If anybody knocked on the door, I wouldn't answer. I was like a zombie for the rest of the shoot." The other actresses who appeared on the commentary track all agreed that Bonnie was the most severly affected of any of them with Maureen O'Hearne (who played Maggie Young) adding: "Every morning, I was shocked to see you (Bonnie) back on set. I always thought you'd probably end up killing yourself every night after we finished shooting."

Both Hot Asphalt and The House of Blood were released in the summer of 1973 and both went on to break box office records.

An Urban Legend
Almost as soon as House of Blood was initially released, rumors started to spread that one (or more) of the actresses had actually been killed during the filming. It was often claimed that, at least one of the deaths, was authentic. Despite frequent debunking on the part of both the film's producers and members of the press, the rumor quickly picked up steam and has never fully been put to the rest, indeed this urban legend became a somewhat popular Internet meme in the late 90s. Over time, the legend itself evolved and it was often said that the actress either committed suicide after filiming or was murdered in a similar fashion after the film was released. Though every actress in the film (including Ingrid LeClair, the only actress whose character does not die in the movie) was, at some point, named as the subject of this rumor, it would appear that the one most frequently mentioned was Bonnie Peabody. Indeed, in a 1991 issue of American Macabre, costar Jennifer Robinson would state that she had long believed that Bonnie had been dead since 1974.

Adding fuel to this untrue rumor is the fact that, alone of all the performers in House of Blood, Bonnie didn't immediately appear in another movie. Her subsequent disappearance from the screen provided "proof" that she was actually deceased. However, the truth of the matter was that Bonnie suffered a nervous breakdown after the release of House of Blood. The breakdown was brought on by both the stress of filming and the tragic death (in an automotive accident) of her close friend and mentor, actress Rachel Christian.

By Bonnie's own account, she began to suffer from agorophobia and would literally spend months at a time locked in her New York apartment. She was eventually diagnosed with and treated for bipolar disorder and made a return to acting in 1979.

Later Career and Retirement
Following her recovery, Bonnie appeared in a handful of films, including Day of the Grizzly (1979), Scream of the Yeti (1980), The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), and Homecoming (1982).

In 1983, she suffered another nervous breakdown and was arrested for shoplifting when she apparently tried to walk out of Macy's with a pair of leather gloves in her purse. She was subsequently sentenced to a year's probabtion and 88 hours of community service. In the 1991 interview with American Macabre, Bonnie described this incident as a "cry for help that nobody wanted to hear."

Following her eventual recovery in 1985, Bonnie retired from acting. With the exception of her 1991 American Macabre Interview and the 2005 DVD commentary track, she has done her best to avoid the public eye.

Life Today
Bonnie has been married to Javier Sanchez since 1996. They currently live in New Mexico and own a small business designing and selling jewelry online.

Though she says she has no "burning desire" to return to acting, she might consider it if "the right role comes along."

Filmography
The Lawgiver (1971) as Suzy

Cycle Freaks (1972) as Cheering Girl

Moonshine Mother (1972) as Showgirl

The Kids Are Coming To Get You (1972) as Waitress

Hot Asphalt (1973) as Jenny True

The House of Blood (1973) as Joanie Young

Day of the Grizzly (1979) as Rosa

Scream of the Yeti (1980) as Carla

The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) as Pandora

Homecoming (1982) as Ms. Tate