We have some sad news to report as we head into the weekend: Rosemary’s Baby star Mia Farrow has confirmed that her younger sister Tisa Farrow, who genre fans may remember as the star of Lucio Fulci’s 1979 classic Zombie and Joe D’Amato’s 1980 gross-out slasher Anthropophagus, has passed away at the age of 72.
Yesterday, Mia Farrow took to social media to write, “If there is a Heaven, undoubtedly my beautiful sister Tisa is being welcomed there. She was the best of us – I have never met a more generous and loving person. She loved life & never complained. Ever. She was a nurse for 27 years, a wonderful sister to Steffi, Prudence and me, a devoted mother to Jason, who died in Iraq, Bridget and little grandson Kylor – the lights of her life. She died unexpectedly yesterday morning (January 10th). Apparently in her sleep. This is a hard time for all of us who admire and love her so deeply.“
Tisa and Mia are two of seven children born to actress Maureen O’Sullivan and film director John Farrow. Born on July 22, 1951, Tisa (whose full name was Theresa Magdalena Farrow) was the youngest of the bunch. She followed her parents and sister into the film industry, but told The New York Times it was difficult to get work because “I would always run into some career woman who disliked me right away because she didn’t like my sister Mia.”
Still, Tisa was able to make her screen acting debut in the 1970 drama Homer, and followed that with the crime drama And Hope to Die, the drama Some Call It Loving, the comedy Only God Knows, the crime drama Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, the horror TV movie The Initiation of Sarah, the James Toback drama Fingers, the thriller Search and Destroy, the TV drama The Ordeal of Patty Hearst, and the mystery Winter Kills. She also had a cameo appearance in the Woody Allen comedy Manhattan. Then came Zombie and Anthropophagus. Her last screen acting credit was in the 1980 Vietnam thriller The Last Hunter.
Our sincere condolences go out to Tisa Farrow’s family, friends, and fans.
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