Lorna Thayer

Character actress Lorna Thayer will probably remain in good standing in the Hollywood cult movie annals for decades to come, due to one scene and one scene, alone. In the critically-acclaimed "generation gap" film, Five Easy Pieces (1970), Jack Nicholson plays a rebellious, disgruntled musician-cum-oil rigger with "loose cannon" tendencies who takes his frustrations out on an uncooperative roadside hash-slinger, played by Lorna, who refuses to allow him food substitutes while ordering a meal. This memorable movie vignette, now referred to as the "chicken salad sandwich-scene," has tended to overshadow all of Lorna's other productive work on stage, TV and film. Born Lorna Patricia Casey in Boston on March 10, 1919, her mother, actress Louise Gibney, brought the family to California in 1923 to escape the cold winters and settled in Venice Beach, eventually securing a permanent residence in Hollywood. From 1952, Lorna could be glimpsed here and there in a handful of humorless working-cl