Louise Lasser - Details

Biography

An extraordinary comedic actress, Louise Lasser has the rare ability to make people laugh and cry at the same time and has done so on the Broadway stage, in motion pictures and on television.

Lasser began her career as a New York stage actress. She then appeared in Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex and Stardust Memories with then-husband Woody Allen. But it was playing the title role in the television phenomenon "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" that catapulted Lasser into the national consciousness within a matter of days. Immediately following "Mary Hartman," Lasser wrote and starred in a movie commissioned by NBC, Just Me and You.

Lasser returned to the New York stage in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce and followed that with A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. She also made numerous memorable television guest appearances, acting on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," hosting "Saturday Night Live" and playing Judd Hirsch's ex-wife on "Taxi."

In recent years, Lasser has concentrated on independent films, including the critically acclaimed Happiness, written and directed by Todd Solondz, which won the Critics Choice Award at Cannes. This year, in addition to Requiem for a Dream, Lasser's upcoming film Fast Food, Fast Women was at Cannes.

Lasser was the first actress to win a Clio award; she garnered an Emmy nomination for "Mary Hartman" and the National Board of Review's award for Best Ensemble Cast for Happiness. Her face has appeared on the cover of Time, Newsweek, People, Ms. and numerous other national magazines. She studied with two legendary teachers, Sanford Meisner and Robert X. Modica.

Events

  • 11th April 1939 - Birth