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Born in 1977, Danielle Harris is something special in the horror world. Not only has she appeared in multiple horror franchises, she’s also appeared as two different characters within the same franchise, been both a killer and the final girl, and was both replaced and the replacement in different franchises. She also had a relatively late start on her Scream Queen journey but has managed to become an icon of horror.
Mrs. Harris started as a child actor in commercials and on the soap opera One Life To Live. In 1988 she took on the role of Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and reprised the role in 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Despite initially accepting the same role in 1995’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, she backed out of the role and was replaced by J.C. Brandy.
After appearing in Halloween 4 and 5, Harris continued acting in both film and on television. She essentially grew up on television and in films. One of her most recognized roles outside of horror was as Molly Tilden on Roseanne. She was a recurring character on the series that made seven appearances. She also starred or guest starred in television shows like ER, Boy Meets World, The Wild Thornberrys, and Growing Pains. Some of the films that she had roles in included Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead, Free Willy, and Poor White Trash.
After almost nine years, Harris returned to the horror genre with 1998’s Urban Legend. This also marked her second horror franchise. She would continue working in both television and film and in multiple genres, but her horror cred continued to rise as she took on roles in films such as Left For Dead (2007) and The Black Waters Of Echo Pond (2009). She also continued to work in horror franchises adding films such as See No Evil 2 (2014) and the animated Night Of The Living Dead: Darkest Dawn (2015).
After being replaced in the original Halloween film series, Harris herself replaced Tamara Feldman as Marybeth in Hatchet II (2010), Hatchet III (2013), and Victor Crowley (2017). Harris also returned to the Halloween franchise in Rob Zombie’s remake of the series in 2007 and its sequel in 2009. In this timeline, Harris portrayed Annie Brackett, best friend of Laurie Strode (portrayed by Scout Taylor-Compton). Harris and Taylor-Compton would go on to host the popular podcast, Talk Scary To Me.
Harris continues working in horror and other genres and is considered by many to be one of the top scream queens of all time. I highly recommend checking out all of her performances in the Halloween and Hatchet franchises. I’m particularly fond of her work as Annie Brackett. Her podcast with Scout Taylor-Compton is also very enjoyable, but it doesn’t necessarily stay horror-centric. The duo often spend a lot of time talking about sex on the podcast and shy away from absolutely zero topics, no matter how taboo. Don’t let your kids listen to this one!!!
Thanks for checking out my latest post. Sorry that it’s so late in the evening but I’ve been pretty busy. See you again tomorrow!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 