Lara Parker, Star of Soap Opera Drama Dark Shadows, Dead at 84 

Lara Parker, best known for her role as the witch Angelique Bouchard on Dark shadowsdied.

Parker died in her sleep Thursday morning at her home in Los Angeles Dark shadows Costar Kathryn L. Scott confirmed on Facebook on Monday. She would have turned 85 next week.

“For more than 50 years, our lives have been intertwined through our shared love of literature, writing and acting,” Scott wrote. “We couldn’t be more different, and that was the charm of our lasting friendship. My thoughts are with her family at this sad time of grief and remembrance.”

Parker’s daughter, Caitlin Hawkins, confirmed her mother’s death in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Born Mary Lamar Rickey on October 27, 1938 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the actress got her start after moving to New York where she auditioned for her second, professional audition, which landed her the role of Angelique on the ABC soap opera.

Actress Lara Parker in a scene from the movie ‘Night of Dark Shadows’.

Stanley Bielecki Film Collection/Getty

Before starting her professional career, Parker attended Vassar College in New York, where she lived with Jane Fonda. She then completed her undergraduate studies at Southwestern in Memphis, which is now Rhodes College. The native Tennessean then earned a master’s degree in drama at the University of Iowa.

After graduating, she married her first husband, Tom Parker, with whom she shared two sons, Rick and Andy Parker. But after living in Wisconsin with her children, she traveled to NYC to join the Dan Curtis series, Dark shadows.

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The series ran from 1966 to 1971 and followed the founding family of the fictional Maine town of Collinsport. At the beginning of the series, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) fends off attacks by Parker’s Angelica and the witch curses Barnabas, turning him into a vampire. After she takes her revenge, the two begin a centuries-long stormy love-hate relationship.

“We understood [the show] was popular,” the actress said of the 2022 series. “Everywhere we went [the cast was] admit. There was a huge crowd in front [Manhattan] study when we finished an afternoon of autograph seekers. People would show up, the same people every day, day after day. They adored some of us and escorted us to the subway.”

“[Angelique] came at the beginning of the women’s movement and was very independent,” Parker added.

Lara Parker in the April 7, 1969 episode of Dark Shadows.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

During it Dark shadows term, the actress later starred in a film based on the series, Night of dark shadows1971, and the year before he acted in Hello mom! Brian De Palma’s film with Robert De Niro.

Shortly after the series ended, she moved to Los Angeles and continued her career on the West Coast. By 1975, she had divorced her first husband and then met her second husband, Jim Hawkins, whom she married in 1980. The couple later had their daughter, Caitlin, in 1985.

The actress also starred in the Oscar-winning feature film in 1973. save the tiger as well as Race with the devil, together with the brother of his old roommate, Peter Fonda in 1975.

Parker has also starred in several TV series including Jessica Novak, Medical Center, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Policewoman, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Incredible Hulk.

Lara Parker in the Stranded pilot from 1976.

CBS via Getty

More recently, in 2013 and 2014, the actress joined the two Doctor Mabuse movies. Ago Doctor Mabuseshe played a cameo role in Tim Burton’s 2012 remake. Dark shadowswhich starred Johnny Depp as Barnabas and Eva Green as Angelique.

As she continued her acting career, the performer also turned to writing and expanded Dark shadows space, more than 25 years after the end of the series. Parker wrote first Dark Shadows: Angelique’s Descent In 1998, and then in 2006, 2013 and 2016, she wrote Dark Shadows: Salem Chapter, Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising, and Dark Shadows: Heiress of Collinwoodrespectively.

Lara Parker appears in the ABC TV movie ‘My Darling Daughter’s Anniversary’.

American Broadcasting Corporation via Getty

Parker is survived by second husband Jim Hawkins, children Caitlin, Rick and Andy; her daughters-in-law Miranda and Celia and her grandson Wesley.

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