Vampire Prey

Babcock also - starred with a bat in 'The Munsters' the "Bats of a Feather episode).
"Chosen Survivors and the Munsters are aspects of my past that I don't even put on my resume anymore, she laughs. "I think there were animals in the Munsters I did. I was Eddie Munster's teacher and there were creatures in the classroom- a bat and a squirrel. That's what I remember about it, it was great fun to do. It was like playing 'let's pretend' and becoming a child again.

She was a resident of Stephen King's ' Salem's Lot'. (1979) the small main town populated by vampires. "That was a two part movie for television and I'll tell you why l did it, she says in a conspiratorial
tone. 'The reason- the only reason I did that, was to work with James Mason (Staker, the head vampire's emissary) He had been an idol of mine when I was starting out. I went to see every one of his movies because he was the consummate film actor. I learned so much from watching that man work.

"Even though my Salem's Lot' role was very small and my agent said, You mustn't do this- it's sliding back wards rather than going forward! I said, I'm going to do this film because I have a scene with him and I want to work with him. even though it's a small scene!' I wanted to express my appreciation because I had studied James Mason and his work for years.

"I was in awe of this man," she smiles. He was sitting across from me and we were waiting for the shot to be ready so we could film. I kept thinking,' How am I going to talk to him? What am I going to say?' I had
only just been introduced to him. Someone got up and left so there was an empty chair next to him. I thought, 'I've got to do it now!' I got up and as I walking towards him,, somebody else sat down in the chair!
I found myself still walking towards him and I ended up kneeling at his feet," Babcock sheepishly confesses.

"There I was in this reverential pose. I told him how much he meant me. I supose it all came pouring out of me because I was kneeling. He was so moved tears came to his eyes. I learned then that no matter what the status of an actor is.' she smiles, every actor likes, to be appreciated!"

Babcock ,suffers aI horrible death in Salem's Lot when Barlow the vampire slams her and her husband's heads together in front of their vampire-hunting son, Lance Kerwin. "It scared the hell out of me when I was killed," the performer reveals. "It was also technically scary because the whole room comes down at that point! The room was literally rigged so that the ceiling and walls collapsed and all of us were just bombarded with flying objects! Everyone was on wires and that all had to be done perfectly the first take".

The actor was able to do the stunt for her own death scene- "It helps where you're a dancer," Babcock relates. We use our bodies as our instrument. Having done gymnastics, I know how to fall backwards and not get hurt myself. I didn't have to use a stunt person for when I fall off the table and onto the floor There's I great kick to it as when you're close to danger. you feel more alive. Tthat's what I've been told by racing car drivers and that makes sense, up to a point! "

Babcock was born in theUnited States and "went to Japan when I was I0 months old. We were Americans, but I loved Japan. My first word as a child was in Japanese,"she smiles. "We went there because my
father was partly in the Army, partly in the diplomatic corps."

The story of her parents' meeting is one Babcock enjoys telling. "My mother was an actress and was working in Carmel when it was an artists' colony. My father saw her play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and said,"That's the woman I'm gonna marry." ' Sure enough, he did, whisking her away." she laughs.

"If I didn't go into acting, my original goal was to be a diplomat. Since the only women who got to be diplomats at that time were actors, I thought, ''I'll become an actor and when I'm really well-known, I'll be a diplomat." She cites Shirley Temple Black as an example. "It hasn't happened yet!"

Babcock is a tireless crusader for animal rights. "I've worked with scientists in the Amazon jungle and Africa on research expeditions and projects. For instance. in the Amazon jungle, we studied a species of monkey called Callaseabus Torquatis. which was endangered. We spent about four weeks in very dense jungle, where not even the indigenous people went. We hacked out trails with machetes in order to be able to follow the monkeys, because they're arboreal-they never come down from the trees.

"It's very difficult to he able to observethem. It rained 20 hours a day- we lived on platforms that we constructed three feet off the ground in order to avoid snakes. which are instantly letha. \\'e had a doctor on the expedition but he privately told me, 'I'm just window dressing-if you ever get bitten by one of these things- you're a goner!' It was a remarkable experience for me."

Babcock is also a teacher. "I have developed a workshop which I have taken into academic circles and the corporate world, which is to teach non-actors how to act in front of the public. Not acting, but how to give lectures. (lot interviews and behave in front of a camera, because there are more and more people who have to do that kind of work. I find it much more interesting thanteaching acting to actors.To teach the craft, an actor has to learn to instruct people who need to use it for things other than acting in daily life."