10 Things You Didn't Know About Jason Voorhees

1. He (Almost) Shares A Birthday With Donald Trump

Jason Voorhees
Ross D. Franklin/AP

It sounds absurd, but if the novelizations, comic books and fan sites all agree on one thing, it’s that Jason was born to Elias and Pamela Voorhees on June 13th 1946 – a Thursday, according to the Gregorian calendar. Had he been born on the same date a year later he would’ve been delivered into this world on Friday The 13th.

However, if Jason had been born on Friday June 14th 1946, he would’ve shared a birthday with the equally notorious (but far more verbose) Donald Trump. Unlike Mr Trump, however, Jason wasn’t born into a family flush with cash and his father wasn’t one of the biggest real estate developers in New York City.

Elias Voorhees worked for most of his life as a coal miner, his low intellect ensuring that he never found work in more comfortable surroundings. A mean drunk, he took his despair out on his son, who he openly hated for his disfigurement and learning disability. The family was so poor (to say nothing of dysfunctional) that by 1957 Pamela Voorhees was working as a cook at Camp Crystal Lake and, unable to afford a babysitter, she asked the camp counsellors to look after Jason.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'