Carissa Carr (G1)

Carissa Carr is a human from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

That's why they call it acting.

Ethel Stankiewicz, alias Carissa Carr, is a b-movie actress and befriender of giant scary robots.

She has gigantic '80s hair.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Although her mother wanted her to be a nurse, Ethel Stankiewicz instead became an actress, using the screen name "Carissa Carr". Rollie Friendly cast the neophyte as "Celestia" opposite Jake Colton in his latest sci-fi opus Creepozoids of the Crab Nebula, but filming was halted when the Creepozoid suffered a meltdown during filming. Carr, Colton, Ralph, and Fred were subsequently dragged off to the Great Smokies in North Carolina to locate a new monster—the so-called "Bigfoot" which had been terrorizing the locals. The creature, Skullgrin, was hired by Friendly to star alongside Carr and Colton in Monster from Mars, and soon became a media darling. Unlike Colton, who resented Skullgrin's fame, Carr befriended her monstrous co-star.

Ethel is not method.

When prying questions sent Skullgrin into a violent rage at a press conference, Carr managed to calm him down, eliciting the interest of Josie Beller. Beller, who suspected that Skullgrin was a Transformer, tried to sneak into the studio, but was stopped by security. Carr came to her aid, and told Beller, who claimed to be Skullgrin's biggest fan, of their upcoming shoot in the Grand Canyon. During a break from filming in the canyon, Carr revealed her real name to Skullgrin, who then revealed his true nature—that of a Decepticon Pretender. Immediately after exposing his robotic form, he was attacked by Beller, in the guise of the vengeance-seeking Circuit Breaker!

As Carissa tried to flee the battle, Jake Colton wrangled her into acting on the battlefield, as Friendly's cameras were rolling. The battle eventually caused the cliffs to crumble, threatening to send Carr plunging to her death. Her pleas initially elicited no response from Skullgrin, who thought the human had betrayed him to Beller. Luckily for Carissa, the Pretender was convinced to rescue her when Circuit Breaker told him that the actress had not helped her. While Jake continued to try to act, Carissa pleaded with Beller for Skullgrin's life—successfully, as it turned out, as the cyborg settled for destroying Friendly's camera and flying off. Monstercon from Mars!

Notes

• The implication is that Ethel Stankiewicz, like a number of real-world actors, has changed her name for career reasons because it's 'too Jewish'.