Valerie Perrine, the BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee best known for her role as Eve Teschmacherin Richard Donner’s Superman films, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for her medical care following a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis. According to the GoFundMe page, Perrine has been battling Parkinson’s Disease for a number of years — a struggle documented in Valerie, a documentary film about Perrine’s life and career that was released in 2021. Perrine’s GoFundMe page notes that it was the onset of Parkinson’s that led to her retirement from acting.
The documentary, from director Stacey Souther, featured some big stars, including David Arquette and Jeff Bridges. Richard Donner, who passed away shortly before it debuted, also appeared. Donner directed Perrine in the first two Superman films, and can be seen in Valerie speaking about her dynamic presence onscreen.
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“It was a happy set and she made it happy. It was a fun set, she made it more fun. She became Miss Teschmacher. Guys that had gone off the clock and should have gone home, everybody, the whole stage was jammed not to see Miss Teschmacher, but Valerie Perrine,” Donner shared. “Valerie, there’s only one Valerie, and if you can describe Valerie in one word, it’s ‘Valerie.’ Nobody will ever be Valerie,” the director added.
Eve Teschmacherwas created for 1978’s Superman: The Movie, but has since become a character who has appeared in numerous Superman-related media in comics and onscreen. The character was most recently played by Andrea K. Brooks on Supergirl. Between the two characters, the most instantly recognizable trait is working for a domineering boss (Lex Luthor for Perrine, Cat Grant for Brooks) who would frequently scream “Miss Teschmacher!” when angry.
Perrine, whose Twitter bio describes her as “the thinking man’s sex symbol,” earned her BAFTA and her Oscar nomination for the role of Honey Bruce, the wife of legendary comedian Lenny Bruce, in the 1974 film Lenny from director Bob Fosse. The movie starred Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce, and while it was sympathetic to his status as a free speech icon, it did not hold back from the ways he was a less-than-stellar husband and father, giving Perrine plenty of emotional range to play.
The campaign seemingly launched quite some time ago, but has just started attracting attention this week. It has currently raised about $61,000 of the hoped-for $100,000 to help cover the costs of treatment. You can read more and contribute to the GoFundMe at the link above.
