Lorna Raver, Drag Me to Hell star, dies at 81

Lorna Raver, the stage-trained actress best known for her chilling turn as the elderly woman who curses a bank loan officer in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, has died at age 81. Her death on May 12, 2025 was announced in the Summer 2025 In Memoriam section of SAG-AFTRA’s magazine, prompting a look back at a career that spanned Broadway-style stage work, extensive television guest appearances, and notable film roles.

Born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Raver built her career on the stage before transitioning to screen. She honed her craft at the Hedgerow Theatre outside Philadelphia and later performed Off Broadway, nurturing a three-decade résumé that included early leads in productions such as Last Days of the Dixie Girl Café and Between Daylight and Boonville. Her move to Los Angeles broadened her opportunities, and she remained a versatile presence in television through the 1990s and 2000s, portraying a range of characters from receptionists and judges to doctors and professors.

On television, Raver accumulated more than 50 screen credits, with recurring or notable placements on The Young and the Restless, where she played Rebecca Kaplan, a Holocaust survivor and mother, from...