Lorna Raver, ‘Drag Me to Hell’ Villain, Dead at 81 — Cult Horror Star Remembered
I’m Kai Montgomery, and yes, I’m grumpy, but here’s the straight scoop: character actress Lorna Raver died on May 12 at age 81, and no, you shouldn’t be surprised that her creepiest role is what everyone remembers.
Look, I don’t want to be the one to sentimentalize this, but Raver’s turn as Mrs. Sylvia Ganush in Sam Raimi’s 2009 cult horror hit Drag Me to Hell made her a memorably nasty presence in modern genre cinema. SAG-AFTRA quietly confirmed her passing in the “In Memoriam” section of its Summer 2025 magazine, and reputable outlets including TMZ and the union publication aligned on the date. If you’re keeping score, that film helped pull in nearly $91 million worldwide, and Raver’s gaunt, gravelly depiction of a wronged, vengeful elder was a big part of the film’s lasting pop-culture sting.
Raver wasn’t a one-note scare-machine. She spent decades grinding it out across TV, stage and the audio world. Before the Ganush makeup and the scream-inducing close-ups, she had a recurring run on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless, and popped up in prestige network fare like The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Weeds and Bones. Those credits show she was a reliable character player producers could drop into any tone and trust to deliver.
Here’s the bit that reveals the actress’s professional pragmatism: in a 2014 interview she admitted she didn’t know what Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell was actually about when she auditioned. She took the role because of Raimi’s name — fair move — and later told interviewers she wasn’t fully aware of the film’s specifics before signing on. That’s classic working-actor behavior: respect the director, read the room later.
Raver also carved out a quieter but respected second life narrating audiobooks, where her voice-work earned multiple Earphones Awards. People who only knew her from genre fansites might be surprised to learn she had won critical notice in the audiobook circuit — an indicator of range that doesn’t always show up on-screen. The industry loss therefore impacts multiple corners of performance arts: stage, screen and audio.
On the personal front, Raver had a long-term partnership with radio writer-producer Yuri Rasovsky; they were together for 25 years until his death in 2012. That relationship, reported in obituaries and industry pieces, points to a steady private life kept mostly out of tabloid flashbulbs.
Let’s not get sloppy with glorification: Raver’s Mrs. Ganush will live forever in GIFs and late-night horror marathons, but her larger body of work is what industry folks will cite when they tally her craft. SAG-AFTRA’s memorial note is the official anchor here, corroborated by entertainment reporting and the union’s documentation. It’s tight, it’s factual, and it ends the debate on when and how her passing became public knowledge.
So what now? Expect retrospectives and viral clips of that one face-scrunching, throat-tearing scene to make the rounds. Fans will revisit Raimi’s film and audio listeners will dig up her narrations. That’s the cycle: brief outrage at an actor’s typecasting, then an overdue appreciation for a versatile career.
And yes, you can be nostalgic without being naive. Raver earned her place in horror lore and in the acting community, and now she’s gone. That’s the news. Be kind to performers for once — they do the work you binge and then forget to credit.
Final thought, cheesy but true: go rewatch the scene, but maybe don’t do it alone at night. You’re welcome.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, SAG-AFTRA Summer 2025 Magazine
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
