Louise Lasser, star of 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' and Woody Allen films, dies at 87

Louise Lasser, the actress who rose to fame playing the title role in the satirical 1970s sitcom "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and appeared in several early Woody Allen films, has died at 87. The New York Times reported that she died at her home in Manhattan.

Lasser became a national star for her portrayal of a housewife in suburban Ohio in a show designed as a parody of daytime soap operas. The series aired from January 1976 to July 1977, but its five-days-a-week schedule yielded over 300 episodes across two seasons. Lasser's character, recognizable by her pigtails, was preoccupied with domestic details yet found herself in unsettling situations, including bizarre deaths. The show aimed to explore the changes sweeping ordinary American life in the 1970s.

Internationally, Lasser is perhaps most recognized for her film work with Woody Allen. She had a small role in Allen's 1969 mockumentary "Take the Money and Run" and larger parts in "Bananas" (1971) and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972). In "Bananas," she played an activist whom Allen's character tries to impress by traveling to a fictional Latin American country; in the latter, she appeared in Allen's parody of modernist Italian cinema.

Born in 1939, Lasser studied political science before training under famous acting coach Sanford Meisner. In 1962, she understudied a 19-year-old Barbra Streisand in her Broadway debut. The same year, she was cast alongside Alan Alda in an unaired pilot written by Woody Allen, whom she had met on a double date. They married four years later.

Lasser also guest-starred on TV shows like "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "McCloud," and appeared in commercials, notably for NyQuil. After "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," she found it difficult to follow up the show's success. Creator Norman Lear recalled: "She came in my office, started to read the lines, and forget it. There's only one Louise Lasser."

Her later career included roles on "Taxi," "Laverne & Shirley," "St. Elsewhere," and films such as Todd Solondz's "Happiness," the superhero comedy "Mystery Men," and Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream," where she played the neighbor. In 2014, she was introduced to a new generation with a role on Lena Dunham's "Girls" as an artist who employs Jemima Kirke's character.

Lasser was married once, to Allen, and had a long-term relationship with actor Michael Citriniti, who survives her.