Pamela Voorhees

Pamela Sue Voorhees
Friday the 13th character
Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees in a publicity still from Friday the 13th (1980)
First appearance	Friday the 13th
Last appearance	Friday the 13th (2009)
Portrayed by	Betsy Palmer(Part I-Part IV) Connie Hogan Marilyn Poucher(Part III) Paula Shaw(Freddy vs. Jason) Nana Visitor(Friday the 13th (2009))
Information
Gender	Female
Spouse(s)	Elias Voorhees (husband)
Children	Jason Voorhees (son)
Primary location	Camp Crystal Lake
Signature weapon	Bowie knife

Pamela Sue Voorhees is a character in the Friday the 13th films, and the main villain of the original Friday the 13th film. She is a former camp-cook and the vengeful mother of Jason Voorhees, the main villain of the series.

In the original Friday the 13th film, the character introduces herself as Pamela Voorhees, and makes reference to her son named Jason who drowned in the lake in 1957.

The character was portrayed by Betsy Palmer in the first two films. During the character's brief appearance in Freddy vs. Jason, she was played by Paula Shaw. According to the actress herself at conventions, Betsy Palmer was asked to reprise her role as Pamela Voorhees for the Freddy vs. Jason film but turned the part down after she read the script, as she stated in the "Friday The 13th Reunion" available as a "special feature" on the 2009 Paramount release of the "Uncut: Special Edition".

Nana Visitor played Pamela Voorhees in the 2009 reimagining of Friday the 13th.

Pamela (whose maiden name is never revealed) was born in 1930 (revealed in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter). At age 15, Pamela became pregnant by a man named Elias Voorhees. Very little is known about their romance and short marriage, aside from the fact that Pamela kept a class ring which belonged to Elias which she then wore on her ring finger of her left hand (as seen in several scenes in the first Friday the 13th film). On June 13, 1946, at age 16, she gave birth to a hydrocephalic boy and she named him Jason, as shown in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Because of his deformity, Pamela never sent Jason to school, and was extremely overprotective of him.

Pamela got a job as a cook at Camp Crystal Lake. On a fateful day in 1957, Jason, infuriated by the constant teasing and harassment from other children, snuck out of his cabin late at night to prove that he could swim. The counselors were not watching him at all, as they were at a party in one of the adult cabins. Jason was never recovered from the lake and was presumably drowned. Pamela blamed the counselors for his death because she was working the day that it happened.