Marilyn Burns

Marilyn Burns
Marilyn Burns at the TCM panel at Days of the Dead Indianapolis 2012.
Born	Mary Lynn Ann Burns (1949-05-07)May 7, 1949 Erie, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	August 5, 2014(2014-08-05) (aged 65) Houston, Texas, United States
Alma mater	University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–1994, 2011–2014
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Marilyn Burns; (born Mary Lynn Ann Burns; May 7, 1949 – August 5, 2014) was an American actress who became known for her role as Sally Hardesty in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series. Her other film roles included Eaten Alive (1977) and Future-Kill (1985). She is also known for portraying Linda Kasabian in the three-time Emmy-nominated television film Helter Skelter (1976).

Burns was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, (1949) and raised in Houston, Texas. In seventh grade, she appeared in a musical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1970, she made her first film appearance in the Robert Altman movie Brewster McCloud (1970). Burns attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from there with a degree in Drama in 1971. Burns was cast in Lovin' Molly (1974), but was replaced by Susan Sarandon. Burns stayed on as a stand-in for Sarandon and Blythe Danner.

She also had a small part in George Roy Hill's The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), where she helped cast some of the film's extras.

In Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Burns, in her first lead role, played Sally Hardesty, a teenager who travels with her brother and some friends to the cemetery where her grandfather is buried to investigate reports of grave vandalism, and then encounters an insane, murderous family including the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface. The film was a massive hit, becoming one of the most successful independent films ever at the time.