Cassandra Peterson is an American actress and television personality who created and inhabited the persona of Elvira Mistress of the Dark.

Cassandra Peterson started her career in show business as the youngest show girl in Las Vegas history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.Reality News Online: "The Search for the Next Elvira — A Preview" (09-28-2007) Her visibility led to small roles as show girls and strippers in the movies Diamonds are Forever and Working Girls. An encounter with Italian director Fredrico Fellini resulted in Peterson appearing in the Fellini film Roma]'. The roots of Peterson's campy "Elvira" character stem from her involvement with improvisational comedy groups like Mammas Boys and The Groundlings in the late 1970s. "Elvira" made Peterson famous as the host of a syndicated B-Movie horror series Movie Macabre throughout the 1980s.

• 1974: Working Girls
• 1980 - 1987: Movie Macabre
• 1988: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
• 2007: The Search for the Next Elvira

"...There's nothing wrong with G-rated movies, as long as there's lots of sex and violence."—Cassandra Peterson as "Elvira"IMDb: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

"I was your typical struggling actress. I went to every audition, took a million acting, dancing and singing lessons, and spent years wondering where my next meal was coming from."—Cassandra PetersonIMDb: Cassandra Peterson Biography

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• 1949: Born

• 1970 Fright Night: IMDb

• 1983-1985 Movie Macabre: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1988 Elvira, Mistress of the Dark: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1993 The Elvira Show: IMDb

• 2001 Elvira's Haunted Hills: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2007 The Search for the Next Elvira: IMDb