Teresa Graves

Profiled in "Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture" by Yvonne D. Sims (McFarland, 2006).

Firefighters responding to a fire in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles found Graves unconscious in a rear bedroom of her home. She was taken to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in nearby Inglewood, where she died. A faulty portable space heater was determined to be the cause of the blaze. A smoke alarm in the front of the house was activated but Teresa failed to hear it. Neighbors said they didn't know of the highly religious Graves's past life as a TV star. She died of burns and smoke inhalation not long after arriving at the hospital. [October 2002]

Completely abandoned her acting career in 1983 in order to concentrate on her spiritual life as a Jehovah's Witness.

On Get Christie Love! (1974), which ran during the 1974-1975 season, she played the first black woman hired by a big-city police department. She left acting shortly afterward.

In 1973, fellow Laugh-In (1967) cast member Jeremy Lloyd, who wrote the screenplay for Old Dracula (1974), was instrumental in Teresa being cast in the film in the lead role of Dracula's wife, Countess Vampira. This was her first movie lead, which was filmed in England.

She had supporting roles in several films during the 1970s, including Black Eye (1974), That Man Bolt (1973) and Old Dracula (1974), with David Niven.

Teresa Graves started her career as a singer with The Doodletown Pipers. She later turned to acting, appearing regularly on Laugh-In (1967) as the "Mod, Mod World" bikini girl in 1969 and 1970.