1962–1975: Collaborations with Woody Allen and acted in several of his films She began her career acting in
Greenwich Village coffee shops and bars and performed in improvisational revues before understudying
Barbra Streisand as "Miss Marmelstein" in the Broadway musical
I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her other 1970s comedic turns in cinema include
Such Good Friends (1971) and
Slither (1973). On television, she earned credits on
Love, American Style (1971),
The Bob Newhart Show (1972), and
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973). She also appeared in the 1973 TV-movie version of
Ingmar Bergman's
The Lie and was featured as Elaine in an episode of the NBC romantic anthology series
Love Story.
1976–1982: Breakthrough and other roles Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in a 1976 press photo for
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Lasser's breakthrough role came as the unhappy, neurotic titular character in the
soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which aired five nights a week for two seasons from January 1976 until July 1977. Some markets aired it at different times of the day and night and also in a block format which showcased all the week's episodes in a row. During the program's run, Lasser became a household name and appeared on the covers of
Newsweek,
People, and
Rolling Stone. In his biography, producer
Norman Lear said that the casting of Lasser took less than a minute after
Charles H. Joffe told him that there was only one actress to play the part of Mary Hartman. Lasser initially refused the role but later acquiesced. Lear says that "when she read a bit of the script for me, I all but cried for joy ... Louise brought with her the persona that fit Mary Hartman like a corset." Of her brief yet memorable time on the series, Lasser surmises: "I could go into anyone's kitchen in America and have dinner. It was the best and worst of times."
Saturday Night Live host On July 24, 1976, Lasser hosted the
penultimate episode of
Saturday Night Live's first season. Her performance is best known for her opening monologue in which she re-creates a Mary Hartman-esque nervous breakdown and locks herself in her dressing room. She is then coaxed out by
Chevy Chase/Land Shark and the promise of appearing on the cover of
Time. Some reports claim that Lasser's erratic behavior on the show led to her being the first person banned from
SNL. Chase accused her of "solipsism", and SNL writer
Michael O'Donoghue called her "clinically berserk" and allegedly walked off that week's installment in disgust. O'Donoghue did concede that Lasser "was a nice woman going through a few problems, but I wanted to force her to eat her goddamn pigtails at gunpoint." Lasser denies that she was ever forbidden to come back. Lasser also asserts that her
SNL antics, which include stream-of-consciousness rambling (typical of her Mary Hartman character), were "on purpose" and that
Lorne Michaels pulled repeats of the broadcast only at her manager's request because her manager was not fond of the whole affair, including the final segment in which the actress sat onstage to discuss her rise to fame and the dollhouse incident. According to Lasser, "For me to threaten to walk off the show, I would never do that for spite. Banned—that's a horrible thing to have said."
1983–present: Later roles Lasser had a recurring role on
St. Elsewhere in the mid-1980s as Victor Ehrlich's Aunt Charise, a neurotic comic character. Her 1980s film appearances included
Stardust Memories (1980),
In God We Tru$t (1980),
Crimewave (1985),
Blood Rage (1987),
Surrender (1987),
Rude Awakening (1989) and as the mother of the main character in
Sing (1989). In 2014, she directed the Off-Off-Broadway production of
Ira Lewis'
Chinese Coffee. In 2021, she was reunited with her
Mary Hartman co-star
Greg Mullavey in a 16-minute film short called
Bliss. In 2022, she appeared in
Funny Pages, her first role in a theatrical feature film in almost 20 years. Chris Feil of
The Daily Beast wrote, "Louise Lasser makes for what is surely the most hilariously bizarre, yet downright frightening one-scene-wonder". == Personal life ==