Actress Maila Nurmi died peacefully in her sleep on 10 January 2008 at her home in Los Angeles. Born Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi on 21 February 1921 in Petsamo, Finland (though her parents moved her to the US when she was a baby), she is best known as “Vampira,” the horror character and television host, forerunner to Cassandra Peterson’s “Elvira.”
Her film roles include Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and The Magic Sword 1962, but far more numerous were her appearances as Vampira, a character born in 1953 at a masquerade ball and inspired by the works of Charles Addams. Her entry on Wikipedia goes into detail about the character.
She was married for a time to actor/writer Dean Riesner, and was the niece of Finnish track star Paavo Nurmi. She continued to make appearances throughout her life, and was the subject of the 2006 documentary Vampira: The Movie.
Edited 16 January to note that the Los Angeles Times has a much more in-depth obituary here.