So sad to see that Kouise Lasser has passed away.
The comic genius of an actress was 87 and died of natural causes here in New York.
Lasser was most famous for starring in Norman Lear’s offbeat nightly droll satirical soap opera, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” in the mid 1970s.
Mary Hartman was a midwestern wife with a lot of problems including a cheating husband a father was who was a flasher in their little town of Fernwood, Ohio. The show was a divisive send up of middle American values, way ahead of its time. Mary was played by Lasser as alternately clueless and wily.
Just to say, I was addicted to “Mary Hartman” for two seasons before it became “Fernwood Tonight” with Martin Mull and Fred Willard, which was equally hilarious.
Louise Lasser came to “Mary Hartman” from three Woody Allen movies. The couple was married from 1966 to 1971. She was featured in “Bananas,” “Take the Money and Run,” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.” Her comic delivery and presence were something from the future and the past simultaneously. She was brilliant.
Lasser was very eccentric, and into the 1980s her career had no particular trajectory. She has a lot of credits on the imdb including “Girls” on HBO, but nothing could rival her work in the 70s.
