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Louise Lasser, star of the cult 70s sitcom Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Woody Allen’s early films (to whom she was married for four years), has died at the age of 87. The New York Times reports that she has died. “home in manhattan”.
Lasser’s role as a downtrodden Ohio housewife on Mary Hartman, a daytime soap opera, made her a national star, landing her on the cover of People magazine and Rolling Stone. The series ran for a year and a half, between January 1976 and July 1977, but thanks to its five-day-a-week schedule it squeezed more than 300 episodes into its two seasons. Lasser’s Hartman, with his signature pigtails, was preoccupied with small domestic matters but found himself in an unstable and confusing situation, including a mysterious death. This film was created to look at what changed everyday life in the US in the 1970s.
Lasser’s work on film with Allen is perhaps best known to non-US audiences; she had small roles in Allen’s 1969 documentary Take the Money and Run, and major roles in Bananas (1971) and Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But You’re Afraid to Ask) (1972). In Bananas, he plays the antagonist that Allen’s Fielding Mellish tries to please by going to the (fictional) Latin American country of San Marcos, which is the problem of change; she finally appears in Allen’s stunning visuals for Italian contemporary cinema, a documentary called Why Do Some Women Have Difficulty Reaching Orgasm?
Lasser was born in 1939, and after studying political science he became a student of the famous teacher Sanford Meisner. In 1962, he studied with 19-year-old Barbra Streisand, who made her Broadway debut in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. In the same year he was cast alongside Alan Alda in The Laughmakers, an ABC pilot about a comedy troupe. It was written by Allen, a rising sports star whom he met twice. The two would marry four years later.
He also appeared in guest roles on television shows such as The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and McCloud. At the same time, he was thrown into the trade list, including the popular NyQuilhow her cold husband tells her: “I’m lucky to be with you”, and she replies: “I know.”
Lasser was cast to Mary Hartman, after Mary Hartman became interested in The creator of the show, Norman Lear, said in an interview: “He came into my office, started reading the lines, and forgot.” There is only one Louise Lasser. However, the show’s injury schedule seemed cumbersome, and Lasser found it difficult to follow.
She later appeared in TV shows including Taxi, It’s a Living, Laverne & Shirley and St Elsewhere. He was later featured in top films including Todd Solonz Happinessclassic comedy Mystery Men, and Darren Aronofsky-director Requiem for a Dream, as Sara Goldfarb’s neighbor Ellen Burstyn. Lasser was introduced to a new generation after being cast in Lena Dunham’s Girls in 2014, as the artist who gives Jemima Kirke’s Jessa a job.
Lasser was married once, to Allen, and had a long-term relationship with Michael Citriniti, who survives him.
