Mary Woronov

Mary Woronov, born December 8, 1943, at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida — then operating as Ream General Hospital during World War II — is an American actress, writer, and figurative painter. Born prematurely, she was not expected to survive infancy. She later relocated with her mother to Brooklyn Heights, New York, where her mother married Victor D. Woronov, a Jewish cancer surgeon, in 1949. Her stepfather legally adopted her, and she has stated she does not know the identity of her biological father. She has one younger half-brother, Victor, born on her eighth birthday.

Woronov studied art and sculpting at Cornell University, where she met artist Gerard Malanga in 1963. Malanga, who worked as Andy Warhol's assistant, introduced her to Warhol's studio, The Factory, and she subsequently appeared in numerous Warhol films, becoming recognized as a Warhol superstar during the 1960s. Among her Warhol collaborations was Chelsea Girls (1966), an experimental underground film in which she played Hanoi Hannah. She also danced with Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Warhol's multimedia presentation featuring The Velvet Underground. Warhol gave her the nickname "Mary Might," which she did not embrace. Between 1970 and 1972, she appeared in three films directed by her then-husband Theodore Gershuny: Kemek (1970), Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), and Sugar Cookies (1973). She and Gershuny divorced in 1973, and she subsequently married producer Fred Whitehead in 1976.

Woronov's Broadway career brought her to Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1973, where she was originally cast as understudy to Julie Newmar in the role of Susan in David Rabe's Boom Boom Room. When Newmar was dismissed during rehearsals, Woronov assumed the role for the production's run from November 8 to December 9, 1973. Her performance earned her a Theatre World Award in 1974.

Her film work expanded significantly in the mid-1970s with a leading role in the Roger Corman-produced cult film Death Race 2000 (1975), followed by Hollywood Boulevard (1976), directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante. In 1979, she relocated from New York to Los Angeles and appeared that same year in Rock 'n' Roll High School. Her role in Paul Bartel's black comedy Eating Raoul (1982) marked a significant point in her career; she portrayed the wife of a Los Angeles would-be restaurant owner, both characters resorting to robbing and murdering swingers to fund their ambitions. Woronov and Bartel, who appeared together in 17 films and frequently played a married couple, reprised those roles in cameos in Chopping Mall (1986). She also appeared in the Suicidal Tendencies music video "Institutionalized" (1983) alongside actor Jack Nance, portraying the protagonist's parents, a character she reprised in the band's 1987 video "Possessed to Skate." Additional film credits from this period include Blood Theatre (1984), Night of the Comet (1984), Nomads (1986), Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), and Dick Tracy (1990).

During the 1980s, Woronov made guest appearances on numerous television series, including Charlie's Angels, Logan's Run, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Mr. Belvedere, Murder She Wrote, Amazing Stories, St. Elsewhere, and Babylon 5, among others. In 1991, she reprised her Rock 'n' Roll High School role in the sequel Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever. Later film appearances include Glory Daze (1995), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects (2005), and Ti West's The House of the Devil (2009). She also appeared in the Soundgarden music video for "Blow Up the Outside World" in 1996 and was featured in Barneys New York's fall 2014 advertising campaign, "L.A. Stories," photographed by Bruce Weber.

Alongside her acting career, Woronov has worked as a painter since moving to California in 1979, citing Francis Bacon as an influence on her work. In February 2022, a retrospective exhibition of her paintings, The Story of the Red Shoe, was held at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. As a writer, she published the memoir Swimming Underground: My Years in the Warhol Factory in 1995, followed by the novel Snake in 2000 and the short story collection Blind Love in 2004. Woronov has resided in Los Angeles since 1979.