Louise Lasser, the acclaimed actress best known for starring in Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, has died at the age of 87.
Lasser died of natural causes on Monday at her home in Manhattan.
She earned widespread recognition for her portrayal of the anxious and materialistic Midwestern homemaker Mary Hartman in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The short-lived series became known for its surreal humour and sharp satire of consumerism and suburban life. One of its most memorable storylines featured a man drowning in a bowl of Mary’s chicken soup.
Lasser began her acting career on Broadway, making her debut in the 1962 musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. She married Woody Allen in 1966 and became his first leading lady, appearing in his early films Take the Money and Run and Bananas. The couple divorced in 1970.
A respected comic performer, Lasser hosted Saturday Night Live in 1976 and appeared in several popular television series, including The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Laverne and Shirley and St. Elsewhere.
Later in her career, she took on roles in dark comedies, including Todd Solondz’s 1998 dramedy Happiness and Owen Kline’s 2022 coming-of-age film Funny Pages.
Lasser also had a recurring role in the third and fourth seasons of Lena Dunham’s HBO series Girls. She played the wheelchair-bound artist Beadie, who hired Jemima Kirke’s character Jessa as her personal assistant before asking her to help end her life with an overdose. In a darkly comic twist, Beadie changed her mind after taking the pills, prompting Jessa to call paramedics in an attempt to save her.
Lasser’s career spanned more than six decades, with memorable performances across theatre, film and television that established her as one of American entertainment’s distinctive comic talents.
