Gone Too Soon: The Recognizable Face of Mary Ellen Trainor

A favorite ’80s movie-mother, Mary Ellen Trainor has died of complications from pancreatic cancer on May 20th at the young age of 62 in Montecito, California according to The Hollywood Reporter and her close friend Kathleen Kennedy.

She may have never been a Hollywood big shot or superstar, but many will find her face quite recognizable. Mostly, in memory, framed by a halo of wispy blonde feathered hair. Probably because we all mainly know her from movies that made it big during the ’80s and ’90s, beginning by playing the flighty kidnapped sister of Kathleen Turner in the 1984 film Romancing the Stone or the Spanish-deficient mother of Mikey and Brand Walsh in The Goonies. Married to Robert Zemeckis from 1980 to 2000, she also appeared in a few of his movies, one of which was Romancing the Stone of course, but also included bit roles in Back to the Future II, Death Becomes Her, and Forrest Gump.

She’s played aside Bill Murray in Scrooged, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in all four Lethal Weapons, being a close friend of Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner.

Some other movies from which she might be recognized would be Ghostbusters II, Congo, and Little Giants.

We are sorry to see her gone. We know she will live on through her presence in so many memorable films from our childhood. Rest in Peace, Ms. Trainor.