Biography

Valda Joanne Hansen was born on November 3rd, 1932, in Los Angeles. She is most known for her role as the White Ghost in Ed Wood's "Night of the Ghouls". In 1957, Valda first met Ed Wood backstage at a local theater production entitled "Accidentally Yours". Wood, impressed with her acting, asked if she would act in a TV pilot for a horror, anthology series he was working on called "Portraits in Terror". The pilot was later known as "The Night the Banshee Cried". She never acted in the pilot, but she did act in "Night of the Ghouls", even bleaching her hair for the role. Valda would go on to act in a handful of B-movies from the 1950s-1970s. She retired from acting in 1975. She remained friends with Ed Wood until his death and participated in interviews about his work. She faced financial trouble in her later years. She died on July 21, 1993 from cancer. It spread from a mole on her leg, and due to her financial situation, she couldn't afford the treatments that could have saved her life.