Verna Bloom plays the boozy, horny, up-for-anything illicit college dean’s wife in Animal House, the randy role that alerted multiple generations to the carnal power of all things cougar. It also gave her the immortal line, “You can take your thumb out of my ass now, Carmine!” After some TV work in the late ’60s, specifically on the crime drama N.Y.P.D, Verna Bloom set her sexy sights on filmdom’s bigger screen — all the better to see every inch of this busty brunette’s charms. She debuted in Medium Cool (1969) but was too hot for that part. Verna also appeared in High Plains Drifter (1973) and back on the boob tube in the made-for-TV movie Sarah T. — Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), which helped prep her liver for the party boys of Animal House (1978). In this, her moist famous role, Verna Bloom electrifyingly embodies the permanently soused spouse of John Vernon’s deliciously villainous Dean Wormer and, in fabulous defiance of her killjoy husband, she goes to bed with Tim Matheson as Otter, the lead lothario of the perpetually partying Delta frat. Though Verna Bloom never showed more than her black bra and long legs encased in sheer stockings, it’s one of the sexiest roles in a movie chock full of hottness. Verna has since gone on to other films and TV programs, including The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), in which she played the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of Jesus Christ. If Verna Bloom is enough to bear Son of God, then she’s way more than hot enough for Mr. Skin to fall before on his knees and offer all manner of hosannas her way in wanton worship.
