[Deathwatch] Lorna Thayer, actress, 85

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Thanks to a long-time reader for this submission - Ed.

'Five Easy Pieces' waitress dead at 85

Monday, June 20, 2005

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Actress Lorna Thayer, the waitress who
memorably refused to let Jack Nicholson order toast in the 1970 movie
"Five Easy Pieces," died June 4 at the Motion Picture and Television
Fund retirement home after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She
was 85.

Her career spanned 40 years during which she appeared in more than 40
motion pictures and had dozens of guest roles on television shows. Most
of her work, however, consisted of bit parts. She often was cast in
movies credited only as "flower vendor," "warden" or "suntan lady,"
although she co-starred in the 1956 horror cult favorite "The Beast
With a Million Eyes."

It was her testy exchange with Nicholson's character, Bobby Dupea, that
made movie history.

The trouble starts when Dupea tries to order wheat toast, which isn't
included with the omelet he wants. After trying repeatedly to get
around the diner's "no substitutions" policy, he finally tells Thayer's
increasingly annoyed waitress to bring him a chicken salad sandwich on
wheat toast and to hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise and the
chicken.

When she asks him sarcastically, "You want me to hold the chicken,
huh?" he replies, "I want you to hold it between your knees" and sends
everything on his table crashing to the floor.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary