Kim McGuire, who played Mona 'Hatchet-Face' Malnorowski alongside Johnny Depp in the 1990 cult musical comedy Cry-Baby, has died aged 60.
McGuire's husband, Eugene Piotrowsky, told TMZ the actress died yesterday in a Florida hospital after suffering two heart attacks following a difficult battle with pneumonia.
According to a GoFundMe page set up by friend Suzy Hixson, McGuire was an accomplished theatre actress, lawyer, and author.
"Anyone who met her knew she lit up a room the second she walked in," Hixson wrote.
McGuire and her husband, an Emmy-winning television producer, lost their home when Hurricane Katrina hurtled through New Orleans in 2005.
"They actually had to swim out of their home!" Hixson wrote. "As one could imagine, this took a toll on both Kim and Gene mentally and physically. They lost all things dear to them and had to rebuild their life together from square one."
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The couple moved to Mississippi before settling in Naples, Florida, according to Hixson.
"Everyone who came in contact with Kim couldn't help but smile. Please help pass this optimism on in Kim's legacy," she wrote on GoFundMe.
Hixson said that "all funds donated will go to funeral costs and maintaining day to day life for Gene."
McGuire rose to fame with her role as the boisterous and strange-looking Hatchet-Face in Cry-Baby, written and directed by John Waters.
Her facial features were greatly exaggerated with prosthetics for the cult movie.
The story centred on a gang of delinquents (who called themselves "drapes") and their interactions with the "squares" in 1950s Maryland.