Jamie Lee Curtis May Have A Secret Cameo In This Classic Kurt Russell Movie

The premise of John Carpenter's 1981 dystopian actioner "Escape from New York" is handily explained in its opening narration. In the year 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises by a whopping 400%. To deal with the millions of criminals, the government has walled off the island of Manhattan and turned it into the country's only prison. Guards patrol the walls, and all the waterways and bridges are mined. There are no guards or wardens inside the prison. Food is airdropped in on a regular basis. Once a criminal is dropped within the walls of the Manhattan Prison, they're on their own. "The rules are simple," the narrator explains. "Once you go in, you don't come out." It is now the year 1997.

Although she is not credited, many "Escape from New York" fans recognize Jamie Lee Curtis as the narrator. Curtis had already worked with Carpenter on "Halloween" in 1978 and "The Fog" in 1980, so it stood to reason that they would work together a third time. Curtis also starred in "Halloween II," which Carpenter co-wrote, and had a voice cameo in the Michael Myers-free "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," which Carpenter produced. She was once one of the filmmaker's repertory players.

Both IMDb and Wikipedia have Curtis' "Escape from New York" credit clearly listed ... but they may not be correct. There are conflicting credits on IMDb, claiming that an actor named Kathleen Blanchard actually provided the narration and reprised her role for Carpenter's sequel, "Escape from L.A.," in 1996. Speaking to It Came From Blog in 2021, Carpenter also implied that Curtis may not have been in the film. Of course, his choice of words suggested that Curtis was involved, just not as closely as the production might have warranted.

Here's what Carpenter said:

"There wasn't really a part for Jamie Lee in this. She was in a TV series, as I remember. We had various parts written so we had to fill them up with actors who were good."

Of course, saying "there wasn't really a part" for Curtis merely meant that none of the roles in "Escape from New York" were appropriate for her talents. Indeed, there are only two women with on-screen speaking roles in the whole movie. There's a scene where Snake (Kurt Russell) hides out in a coffee shop and briefly meets a meek young woman named Maureen, who was played by Season Hubley, Russell's wife at the time. More prominently, the character Maggie was played by Adrienne Barbeau, and she was Carpenter's wife at the time. With nepotism in full-effect, there was no place to squeeze in Curtis other than as the narrator.

As for the TV series Carpenter alluded to, Curtis may have been busy playing the titular character in the TV biopic "Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story."  The fact that Curtis narrated "New York" is even listed in that film's trivia section on IMDb. 

So, if it's more or less known that Curtis was the narrator, who is Kathleen Blanchard? It's possible she was selected to be Curtis' replacement in "Escape from L.A.," as that film's low budget might have prevented the famed Curtis from returning. Then, through some crediting errors, Blanchard was back-credited as the narrator for "Escape from New York." Blanchard only has three credits on IMDb, with the third being an episode of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" But beyond that, she's a complete mystery. There's a chance she just sounds like Jamie Lee Curtis, though.