Mark/Friday the 13th

 is a fictional camp counselor and murder victim featured in the Friday the 13th film series. Played by actor Tom McBride, he appeared in the 1981 movie Friday the 13th Part 2.

Biography
Mark was a young man in his mid-twenties, born sometime around the year 1956. As a youth, Mark was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him crippled. The doctors said that he would never walk again. An athlete by nature, Mark did not believe the physician's diagnosis and was determined that he would one day walk again. Oh, how wrong he was.

In the summertime, Mark would occasionally work as a camp counselor in the Wessex County area of New Jersey, occasionally working alongside senior counselor and trainer, Paul Holt. In June of 1984, Mark was one of several counselors hired on to work the summer at Packanack Lodge. Upon the arrival of the seasonal employees, Paul addressed the counselors, including Mark, and gave them a quick breakdown of their job duties and safety issues.

That evening, Paul gathered together all of the counselors around a campfire and told them the legend of Jason Voorhees. Vickie sat right next to Paul as he tried to maintain a reserved, yet serious tone. He spoke of Jason's demented mother, Pamela Voorhees, who only five years earlier had committed a massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, which was located on the opposite side of the lake at Packanack Lodge. As his spooky story came to a close, a fierce savage leaped out from the bushes brandishing a spear. Everyone scattered until they realized that it was just their prankster colleague, Ted, wearing a scary mask. Even Mark managed to roll himself away from the scene to a safe distance. Satisfied that everyone had gotten "Jason fever" out of their system, Holt reminded them that Camp Crystal Lake was off-limits. One of the other counselors, a girl named Vickie, had taken an interest in Mark. She made sure to always be sitting close to him, and assist him in getting his chair across rough terrain. The only time Vickie wasn't in close proximity to Mark was when when Holt made the group jog a mile across the Lake Trail, which Mark clearly could not do. However, this didn't stop him from making fun of the other counselors whom he felt were lagging behind.

On the evening of the second day, Paul Holt gave everyone one last chance to go out for a final "night on the town" before the heavy work season started. Mark, claiming that nobody likes a drunken cripple, elected to stay behind. As such, Vickie chose to stay at the campsite with Mark. With only a handful of counselors to maintain the lodge, Vickie and Mark entertained themselves with some of Ted's electronic games. Vickie lit a marijuana cigarette and offered some to Mark. He declined however, citing that he was "in training", but offered up no more details beyond that. Vickie asked him about why he was in a wheelchair and Mark told her about the motorcycle accident. Her comment segued into a rather obvious question about the rest of his "functionality". The two then shared a kiss with one another.

When it became apparent that sex was in their immediate future, Vickie went back to her cabin to get ready. The only other two in the lodge at the time were Jeff and Sandra, who went upstairs to make love, leaving Mark by himself. Mark learned to his short, yet eternal regret, that there was more to the story of Jason Voorhees than Paul would have had him believe. Voorhees appeared in the cabin armed with a machete, which he drove into Mark's face with such force that it actually sent his wheelchair rolling backwards down the steps outside the lodge into the rain. Mark was killed instantly.

Notes & Trivia

 * Mark (Friday the 13th) redirects to this page.




 * Archival footage of from Friday the 13th Part 2 is included in the 1984 sequel, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.


 * First character in the Friday the 13th film series named Mark.


 * Mark is the first handicapped character featured in the Friday the 13th film series.


 * As with Scott, Mark is shown being struck with the wrong side of the machete.


 * Mark is the seventeenth individual killed in the Friday the 13th film series, and the sixteenth human character (discounting animals) killed in the series. He is the tenth male character killed in the series and the sixth victim of Jason Voorhees. He is the fourth male victim killed by Voorhees. He is the third character to be killed with a machete.


 * Mark never actually tells anyone what he is in training for.


 * Actor Tom McBride was 28-years-old when he began working on Friday the 13th Part 2, making him the second oldest actor within the main cast after John Furey who was 30 at the time of shooting.


 * Actor Tom McBride passed away on September 24th, 1995 in New York City, New York from complications of having the AIDS virus. He was forty-two at the time of his death. This makes Tom the third actor in the series to pass away and the first actor to pass away who played a character who was killed in a film.
 * Playing the role of Mark is actor Tom McBride's first work in film. He makes three movie appearances throughout his lifetime, one of which, White Lies, was released posthumously.