TOPANGA CANYON, LOS ANGELES: Mary Lamar Rickey, better known as Lara Parker, who starred in ABC’s gothic soap opera ‘Dark Shadows’, has passed away.
The American actress was 84 years old.
Her daughter, Caitlin, told the Hollywood Reporter, that the former actress had passed away in her sleep at her residence in Topanga Canyon on Thursday, October 12, mere weeks before her 85th birthday.
Her co-star in the daytime serial, Kathryn Leigh Scott, took to Facebook on Monday, October 16, to share the disheartening update.
“I have sad news . . . my beautiful, beloved friend Lara Parker passed away Thursday, October 12. I’m heartbroken, as all of us are who knew and loved her,” Scott wrote.
Lara Parker's early years
Parker was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 27, 1938, and later grew up in Memphis.
Lara attended Central High School in Memphis and won a scholarship to Vassar College. While at Vassar, she began her philosophy major which she finished at Rhodes College earning her a degree in Bachelor of Arts.
She completed her Master of Arts in speech and drama from the University of Iowa.
Parker married Tom Parker, an artist, in 1959. They had two sons, Rick and Andy. However, the couple separated in 1975.
In 1980, Parker married her second husband, Jim Hawkins, who was a building contractor. She had her daughter Caitlin with him.
After retiring in 1999, she became a high school English teacher and earned an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University.
Lara Parker’s late start in Hollywood
Parker’s foray into acting happened after she got married and became a mother of two.
In an interview with Mid-South magazine in 1972, she revealed “By the time the children were 6 and 7 years old, I knew that I just couldn’t sit there and look at those fields for the rest of my life."
So, she left her family at home in Wisconsin, to make something of herself as an amateur actress in New York City.
In only her second professional audition she was cast for ‘Dark Shadows’. She won the part of Angelique Bouchard, a vengeful witch in a century-long love-hate relationship with Jonathan Frid’s character, Barnabas Collins.
The series ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 and spawned several follow-up movies from creator Dan Curtis.
Parker made her Broadway debut in 1968 in ‘Woman is My Idea’.
In 1969, she played the titular role in an off-Broadway production of Frank Wedekind's ‘Lulu’. She also appeared in the off-Broadway production of ‘A Gun Play’.
She appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 1970 Brian De Palma film ‘Hi, Mom!’
Parker reprised the role of Angelique in the 1971 film ‘Night of Dark Shadows’, the second feature film based on the show ‘Dark Shadows’.
Her best-known film role came in 1973, in the Oscar-winning drama ‘Save the Tiger’, starring Jack Lemmon and herself.
She played a sympathetic prostitute who is devastated when her client suffers a near-fatal heart attack. Lemmon won an Oscar for his role in the drama.
1975 saw her return to the fright genre in ‘Race with the Devil’ starring Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit, and Warren Oates. She played Peter Fonda’s wife in the movie.
The actress spent a good portion of her career appearing in single episodes of popular programs such as, ‘The Incredible Hulk’, ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’, ‘Emergency’, ‘Kung Fu’, ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’, ‘Police Woman’, ‘Kojak’, ‘Quincy, M.E.’, ‘Hawaii Five-O’, ‘The Rockford Files’, ‘Highway to Heaven’, ‘Switch’, ‘Baretta’, ‘Galactica 1980’, and ‘Alice’.
In 1998, she published her first book ‘Angelique's Descent’, telling the back story of her most recognizable and reprised character, followed by other ‘Dark Shadows’ franchise lore including ‘The Salem Branch’, ‘Wolf Moon Rising’, and ‘Heiress of Collinwood’.
She teamed up with her ‘Dark Shadows’ co-stars Jerry Lacy and Kathryn Lee Scott for 2013's ‘Dr. Mabuse’, and 2014's ‘Doctor Mabuse: Etiopomar’.
Her last role was in 'The Great Nick D' with longtime friends Kathryn Lee Scott and David Selby, which is expected to be released next year.
Parker is survived by her second husband, Jim Hawkins, and their daughter Caitlin along with her sons, Rick Parker and Andy Parker from her first marriage.
