Desiree Gould

Desiree Joan Gould (March 27, 1945 – May 24, 2021) was an American actress. She was known for her role as Aunt Martha in the 1983 slasher film Sleepaway Camp. Early life Desiree Gould was born on March 27, 1945, in New York City. She was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Russian-Italian father. When she was five years old, she took singing and tap-dancing classes, later having vocal training with Harry Garland, Roger Leonard, Herb Greene, developing a mezzo-soprano vocal range for musical theater, while she later took lessons in Ballet at the New York Conservatory of Dance, with Pat Doukodovsky, and, the Ballet Academy East, with Don Paradise. This led to her desire to choose acting as a career path, which did not immediately occur, and she spent over twenty years between several different jobs, before deciding to take acting classes, training with the Gene Feist Theatre Foundation, Barbara Loden Actor's Workshop, Paul Mann Actor's Workshop, Warren Robinson, HB Studio, and, Boston Center for the Arts. Career Acting In the beginning of her acting career, she appeared in commercials and theater productions, and received her first on-screen role at the age of 33, appearing in the 1979 television film You Can't Go Home Again, starring Lee Grant, and based on the 1940 novel of the same name by Thomas Wolfe. She was introduced to casting director Mary Jo Slater, who cast Gould in brief guest roles in television soap operas including One Life to Live, The Edge of Night, and Love of Life.