Katherine Victor


Katherine Victor

WEST HILLS, CALIF.-- Kathrin Victor-Leichliter who, as Katherine Victor, appeared in several low-budget sci-fi films, died here October 22 from complications after a stroke. She was 81. MSTies will never forget her cool, dignified performance as masked crimefighter Batwoman in episode 515- THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN.

Born Katena Ktenavea in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, her family later moved to Los Angeles. Despite a stormy family life, she was determined to get a career in the arts. As an adult, she found modeling jobs, which led to theatrical and radio acting work. In the 1950s she at last was offered film roles, mostly in low-budget outings. Her first film was the terrible 1952 adventure "Mesa of Lost Women." In 1957 she made the first of several films with schlockmeister Jerry Warren, "Teenage Zombies." Her most active film period came in the 1960s, when she appeard in "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" (1960), "Curse of the Stone Hand" (1964), "Creature of the Walking Dead" and "House of the Black Death" (both 1965).

But her "day job," for more than 40 years, was in the animation business. She worked, usually in the continuity checking departments, on projects for animation companies Graphic Arts, Snowball, DeTiege, Eagle, Creston, Hanna-Barbera, DePatie-Freleng, Filmation, Don Bluth, Box Office Originals and Disney TV Animation.

She returned to Warren's fold in 1981's "Frankenstein Island" and more recently appeared in "Fugitive Rage" (1996) and "Superguy: Behind the Cape" (2002).