Betty Sturm, who performed a follower of Timothy Carey’s cult chief within the notorious Frank Zappa-scored The World’s Best Sinner, died Sunday of Alzheimer’s illness at her house in Clinton, New Jersey, her son, William Winckler, introduced. She was 89.

Carey wrote, directed, produced and starred as an insurance coverage salesman who transforms himself into the dictatorial God Hilliard in The World’s Best Sinner (1962). The movie has hardly ever been seen in theaters and is probably greatest identified for its Zappa connection. Martin Scorsese is claimed to be a fan.

Within the 2012 making-of documentary Making Sinner, Sturm was interviewed by Romeo Carey, Timothy Carey’s son. She defined that due to The World’s Best Sinner‘s yearlong taking pictures schedule and a monetary dispute, she didn’t return for one final scene, so an additional stepped in for her to play a saxophone.

Raised in Spain and Germany, Sturm got here to Los Angeles within the late Nineteen Fifties and lived on the Hollywood Studio Membership dormitory began years earlier by Mary Pickford. Actresses Kim Novak, Jo Anne Worley and Pat Priest additionally lived there on the time.

In keeping with her son, Sturm went on a double date with Elvis Presley to see Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) at a drive-in, however the {couples} left through the bathe scene as a result of the singer “couldn’t stand the sight of onscreen blood.”

Within the early Nineteen Seventies, Sturm bought customized wigs and hairpieces for park characters at Disneyland — she equipped wigs for The Pirates of the Caribbean journey — and for actors showing in Disney movies. She labored with Pleasure Zapata at Disneyland and Bob Schiffer at Walt Disney Productions in Burbank, her son mentioned.

She additionally ran the Elizabeth Sturm Expertise Company, reserving actors for commercials, movies and tv beginning within the Nineties.

Sturm was married to Robert Winckler, a prolific baby actor turned leisure legal professional who appeared in Little Rascals/Our Gang comedies and movies together with Delight of the Yankees, from 1962 till his demise in 1989.

Along with her son, a producer, director and novelist, survivors embody her daughter, Patricia, son-in-law Jim and grandchildren Michelle and Robert.