From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv



Louise Lasser, Star of TV's 'Mary Hartman,' Is Dead at 87
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She began her screen career in Woody Allen movies (he was also
her husband), but she was best known for her portrayal of the
Ohio housewife in the pigtails and puffed sleeves.

Louise Lasser, the deadpan comedic actress who began her screen
career in Woody Allen movies and became a star as the
wrenchingly sympathetic title character of "Mary Hartman, Mary
Hartman," Norman Lear's off-center 1970s comedy, died on Monday
at her home in Manhattan. She was 87.

Her death was confirmed by Susan Charlotte, a friend.

"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" was a phenomenon, a syndicated
parody of midcentury soap operas that ran Mondays through
Fridays after the late news in most major markets. It followed
a befuddled Ohio housewife as she tried to hold herself
together amid mass murders, sex scandals and everyday consumer
anxieties. She wore pigtails, puffed sleeves and gingham (while
real American women were in Dorothy Hamill bobs and designer
denim); fretted about waxy yellow buildup on her kitchen floor;
and was emotionally abused by her conveniently impotent
blue-collar husband (Greg Mullavey).

"She's a survivor," Ms. Lasser said of her put-upon character in
a 1976 interview with The New York Times. "But that makes me sad.
Because she's a survivor in a world I wonder if it's worth
surviving in." (The character did eventually have a nervous
breakdown.)

Articles about the series proliferated, and Ms. Lasser - somehow
simultaneously neurotic and girlish - appeared on the covers of
major magazines, including People, Newsweek, Ms. and Rolling
Stone. The show ran only a year and a half, from January 1976 to
July 1977, but that was 325 episodes.

Louise Lasser was born in Manhattan on April 11, 1939, the only
child of Sol Jay Lasser, a tax accountant and author, and Paula
(Eisenreich) Lasser, a designer. (Louise had no middle name but
later chose one: Jane.)

She spent her childhood in the Bronx, where she attended
Fieldston, the prestigious private school. At Brandeis
University, she majored in political science but also appeared
in shows that friends wrote. She dropped out during her senior
year and began acting lessons with Sanford Meisner.

Living with her parents in Manhattan, she worked in theater and
cabaret, and appeared in television commercials, notably for
NyQuil and Excedrin. She was the first actress to win a Clio
Award, the advertising industry's highest honor. In 1962 she
understudied a rising star, the 20-year-old Barbra Streisand, in
the Broadway musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale," and
briefly took over the role when Ms. Streisand left.

She met Woody Allen on a double date - he was with the other
woman - and made her screen debut in "The Laughmakers," a 1962
pilot he wrote. Set at a comedy club, it never became a series
but was broadcast as a special. The two began dating and married
in 1966.

After an uncredited part as a masseuse in the Peter Sellers
comedy "What's New Pussycat?" (1965), written by Mr. Allen, and
a voice-over in "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" (1966), Mr. Allen's
directorial debut, Ms. Lasser had full-fledged roles - with
character names and screen time - in Mr. Allen's next three
auteur efforts, which he wrote, directed and starred in.

In "Take the Money and Run" (1969), she was a bank robber's
neighbor, impressed by his fame. In "Bananas" (1971), she was
the hero's activist girlfriend who drops him because he shows no
political leadership skills. The next year, in "Everything You
Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)," she
played a woman who could achieve orgasm only in public. In the
middle of all that filmmaking, in 1970, the Allens divorced.

Ms. Lasser spent a few years doing guest roles on sitcoms
("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart Show") and drama
series ("Medical Center," "McCloud") and television movies like
"Coffee, Tea or Me?" (1973), a comedy about a flight attendant.
Then Mr. Lear called.

Critics, including John J. O'Connor of The Times, were initially
skeptical of "Mary Hartman." But Mr. O'Connor admitted, in a
January 1976 preview article, that Ms. Lasser had "an uncanny
ability to touch as well as tickle."

In May that year, Ms. Lasser was charged with cocaine possession
in a highly publicized case that began at an antiques store where
she was shopping. In her tote bag, police officers found
80 milligrams of the drug, which she always contended was a fan's
gift she had forgotten about. She received six months' probation
on the condition that she continue seeing her psychiatrist.

That July, when she hosted "Saturday Night Live," drugs and
breakdowns were the comic topics. Viewers had trouble telling
whether some skits were scripted or were showing a desperate
performer crumbling in front of a nationwide audience. The
episode was long kept out of reruns.

Ms. Lasser stayed busy, writing and starring with Charles Grodin
in "Just Me and You" (1978), a television movie about two
strangers driving cross-country, and doing one season (1981-82)
of "It's a Living," a sitcom about waitresses.

She appeared in Mr. Allen's "Stardust Memories" (1980), in a
cameo as his secretary; Todd Solondz's film "Happiness" (1998),
for which the ensemble cast won a National Board of Review
award; and Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" (2000). And
she taught acting in New York.

She appeared in three episodes of HBO's "Girls" (2014-15),
playing an elderly artist who has been rediscovered. But she
always said her favorite project was a part in "The Lie," a 1971
BBC movie written by Ingmar Bergman. Its American broadcast won
three Emmys.

She is survived by her longtime partner, Michael Citriniti.

The "Mary Hartman" questions never ended. Asked in 2013 if there
had been a withdrawal period after the show's end, Ms. Lasser
told Interview magazine, "I'm still withdrawing."

That same year, she assured the website The Toast that Mary never
felt like an outsider. Then how did you explain this small-town
Midwesterner's decided New York accent?

"You don't," Ms. Lasser said, adding: "It's a typical existential
dilemma to try to make sense of something that has no sense.
I think that's what makes it work."



<https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/arts/television/louise-lasser-dead.html>





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