Elvira Opens Up About Late Mentors Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens — and the Emotional Dreams She Has About Them (Exclusive)
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12/15/2024 02:00 PM
The actress tells PEOPLE how her late mentors "radically changed" her
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Cassandra Peterson and Paul Reubens in 1985Cassandra Peterson is remembering the comedy greats who came before her.
At The Groundlings' 50th anniversary party in Los Angeles, the actress — known best, by many, as Elvira — spoke with PEOPLE about the impact of the improvisational sketch comedy troupe and her late mentors.
"I liked comedy, but I really decided [it was for me] when I went to The Groundlings, and mostly because I studied Phil Hartman, John Paragon and Paul Reubens," the 73-year-old says. "They were my mentors and I just wanted to be like them, so they became my teachers and best friends. They really radically changed my comedy chops and everything."
Rubens, known for his beloved character Pee-wee Herman, died on July 30 from acute hypoxic respiratory failure at the age of 70, after keeping his cancer diagnosis private for years. Paragon, a fellow Pee-wee's Playhouse actor, died in 2021 at age 66 from heart failure, while Hartman was killed in 1998 at age 49 by his wife in a shocking murder-suicide.
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To help keep their memory alive, Peterson says she has "big pictures of them all in [her] office" that she looks at every day. She also dreams about her fellow Groundlings alumni on occasion.
"It was so weird! The other night — I'm not kidding, about a week ago — I had a dream that I was coming here. And in the dream, I was holding hands with Phil, John and Paul and we were dancing together, like to a waltz. We were like '1, 2, 3' and we were dancing, and it was just them and me and we were in this big ballroom with all these people around, and I woke up sobbing," she says, fighting back tears.
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"I wouldn't be who I am or where I am in my career without The Groundlings. I guarantee you. It was 100% life-changing for me."
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Cassandra Peterson at The Groundlings' 50th anniversary celebration in L.A. in October 2024Peterson joined the LA-based Groundlings in 1979 where she created her Elvira persona, a Mistress of the Dark horror host known for her signature Valley girl voice, campy jokes and Morticia Addams-esque outfit.
She went on to star in several movies and TV shows as the character, such as 1988's cult classic, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. In 2021, Peterson published her New York Times best-selling autobiography Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark,in which she came out and revealed her 19-year relationship with partner Teresa "T" Wierson.
"[It] flipped everybody out," she previously said during a 2022 episode of David Yontef's Behind the Velvet Rope podcast. "Nobody was ready for that. People just said, 'Elvira, you lied to me. I don't respect you anymore. Goodbye.' "
Though she lost 11,000 social media followers when she initially shared the news, she later gained 60,000 more.
"It's so much nicer to just be who you are and I mean, if I can't be who I am by the age of 70, then, oh my God, I'm in big trouble, right? People keep saying, 'Why now?' And I say, 'Because if not now, when? When I'm 100?' " she previously told PEOPLE.
