Zelda Rubinstein is born in Pittsburgh in 1933. After years as a lab technician in a blood bank, her second career as an actress kept her working steadily from the 1980s to the 2000s. She is known primarily for her roles in Poltergeist, Poltergeist II, Poltergeist III, Sixteen Candles, and the TV show Tales from the Crypt. She died in 2010.
This Day in Halloween: Former blood bank technician Zelda Rubinstein -- featured in "Poltergeist" -- is born in Pittsburgh in 1933. / Illustration by Henry Ploch