Lara Parker, best known for her role as the Witch Angelique Bouchard onDark Shadows, has died.
Parker died in her sleep on Thursday morning in her Los Angeles home, herDark Shadowscostar Kathryn L. Scott confirmed onFacebookMonday. She would have been 85 years old next week.
“For more than 50 years, our lives were intertwined through our mutual love of literature, writing, and acting,” wrote Scott. “We could not have been more unalike, and therein lay the magic of our enduring friendship. My thoughts are with her family in this sad time of grief and remembrance."
Parker’s daughter, Caitlin Hawkins, confirmed her mother’s passing in a statement toThe Hollywood Reporter.
Born Mary Lamar Rickey on Oct. 27, 1938, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the actress got her start after heading to New York where she auditioned in her second-ever, professional audition, which landed her the role of Angelique in the ABC soap series.
Actress Lara Parker in a scene from the movie ‘Night of Dark Shadows.Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty
Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty
Ahead of beginning her professional career, Parker attended Vassar College in New York, where she roomed withJane Fonda. Then, she completed her undergraduate degree at Southwestern at Memphis, which is now Rhodes College. The native Tennessean then earned her master’s degree in drama from the University of Iowa.
After she completed her education, she married her first husband, Tom Parker, with whom she shared two sons, Rick and Andy Parker. But after residing in Wisconsin with her children, she traveled to N.Y.C. to join Dan Curtis’ series,Dark Shadows.
The series aired from 1966 to 1971 and followed the founding family of the fictional Maine town, Collinsport. At the start of the series, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) rejects the advances of Parker’s Angelique and the witch curses Barnabas, turning him into a vampire. After she strikes her revenge, the two engage in a centuries-long tumultuous love-hate relationship.
“We realized [the show] was popular,”the actress saidof the show in 2022. “Everywhere we went [the cast was] recognized. There was a huge crowd outside the [Manhattan] studio when we finished in the afternoon of autograph seekers. People would show up, the same people every single day, day after day. They worshipped some of us and would walk us to the subway."
“[Angelique] was coming in at the beginning of the women’s movement and she was very independent,”added Parker.
Lara Parker in Dark Shadows’ episode April 7, 1969.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
During herDark Shadowstenure, the actress later starred in a film based on the series,Night of Dark Shadows, in 1971, and the year prior starred inHi, Mom!,a Brian De Palma film alongsideRobert De Niro.
Soon after the series wrapped, she relocated to Los Angeles and continued her career on the West Coast. By 1975, she divorced her first husband and then met her second husband, Jim Hawkins, whom she married in 1980. The couple later welcomed their daughter, Caitlin, in 1985.
The actress also starred in the 1973 Oscar-winning feature,Save the Tiger,as well asRace with the Devil,alongside her old roommate’s brother,Peter Fondain 1975.
Lara Parker in Stranded pilot from 1976.CBS via Getty
CBS via Getty
More recently in 2013 and 2014, the actress joined twoDoctor Mabusefilms. Prior toDoctor Mabuse, she made a cameo inTim Burton’s 2012 remake,Dark Shadows, which starredJohnny Deppas Barnabas andEva Greenas Angelique.
As she continued her acting career, the performer also turned to writing and expanded theDark Shadowsuniverse, more than 25 years after the series wrapped. Parker first wroteDark Shadows: Angelique’s Descentin 1998, and then in 2006, 2013, and 2016, she wroteDark Shadows: The Salem Branch,Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising,andDark Shadows: Heiress of Collinwood, respectively.
Lara Parker appearing in the ABC tv movie ‘My Darling Daughter’s Anniversary’.American Broadcasting Companies via Getty
American Broadcasting Companies via Getty
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source: people.com
