Louise Lasser, who became an unlikely television icon as the bewildered title character of Norman Lear's boundary-pushing serial "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died at 87. She died on Monday at her home in Manhattan, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
The role that defined her
From 1976 to 1977, Ms. Lasser starred as Mary Hartman, a suburban homemaker adrift in a world of consumer jingles and daytime-soap melodrama, in a syndicated series that ran five nights a week and skewered the conventions of both television and middle-American domesticity. The show was a phenomenon, and her flat, guileless performance was its center of gravity. She received an Emmy nomination for the role, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Woody Allen's early films
Before that, Ms. Lasser was closely tied to the early career of Woody Allen, to whom she was married from 1966 to 1970. She appeared in some of his first films, including "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" (1966), "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Bananas" (1971) and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972), Variety reported, holding her own in his loose, anarchic comedies.
A long and varied career
Ms. Lasser was born on April 11, 1939, in New York City, and worked in theater early on, including as an understudy to Barbra Streisand in the Broadway musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale." At the height of her fame, she hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1976. In the decades that followed she took guest and character roles across television, and she introduced herself to a new generation with a recurring part on the HBO series "Girls."
Remembered
Ms. Lasser's death was confirmed by a friend, Susan Charlotte, The Wrap reported. Her Mary Hartman remains a touchstone of 1970s satire, a performance that found the deadpan comedy, and the quiet desperation, in a woman trying to make sense of a world that no longer quite made sense. She is survived by her longtime partner, Michael Citriniti.
