Lorna Thayer, who died June 4 at 85 after 40 years before the camera, was remembered for one brief appearance: the waitress on “Five Easy Pieces.” In that memorable moment in the 1970 film, as the voice of authority opposite Jack Nicholson’s rebellious Bobby Dupea, a classical pianist turned oil rigger, the middle-aged Thayer proved to be a formidable foil in what has come to be known as the “chicken salad scene.” The scene, in which Thayer’s character refuses repeatedly to change the house rules, is considered quintessential Nicholson and has had a long afterlife — no Nicholson tribute or compilation of memorable Hollywood lines does without it. Thayer died at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills after battling Alzheimer’s disease for five years, the Los Angeles Times said Friday. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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