Dawn Wildsmith is probably one of the most under-rated scream queens of the 80’s. She spent quite literally her entire ten year career in horror and science fiction movies, all except for three out of her twenty-five credits. Born in June of 1963, Dawn started working in the industry as a model before transitioning to the world of acting. Her first credited role came at age twenty-two with a bit part in Evils of the Night (1985). This would be the start of many small roles in our favorite genres, followed by Prison Ship (1986), The Tomb (1986), It’s Alive 3: Island of the Alive (1987) and Cyclone (1987). Many of these roles were fueled by her marriage to b-movie director Fred Olen Ray, whom she met years earlier while working as a print model.
Near the end of 1987 she proved herself to be a capable actress and started receiving bigger parts in movies including back to back second female lead roles as Eva in Surf Nazis Must Die (1987), Evelyn in Evil Spawn (1987) and Lori in Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988). This all would culminate in her first starring roles as Eddy in The Phantom Empire (1988) and as Danny in Warlords (1988). For whatever reason, Dawn started taking smaller parts again and can briefly be seen in B.O.R.N. (1988), Deep Space (1988), Beverly Hills Vamp (1989) and Future Force (1989).
So, where is Dawn Wildsmith now?
The 90’s saw a massive slow-down in her career. She booked a supporting roles in Alienator (1990) and in Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991) as well as bit parts in Diggin’ Up Business (1990) and Dark Romance (1990). Her last credited role was in 1995 with another bit part in Jack-O. For reasons not yet known to anyone, Dawn retired from acting to pursue other expressions of thought and became a surrealist artist. She started traveling the world and selling her original creations across most of The United States. As luck would have it, Wildsmith is returning to acting for the first time in twenty-two years with a supporting role in Lake of Shadows. Lake of Shadows is currently filming and can be expected to release in late 2017 or early 2018.
Also, it appears that Wildsmith was in a very serious car accident several months ago. With mounting hospital bills, she has created a GoFundMe campaign to try and help with paying those bills off. Her fans and supporters can find the campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/wildsmith-green-rush-fund.
