Louise Lasser died Monday at her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side at the age of 87. Her friend Susan Charlotte confirmed the death to the New York Times. The cause was natural causes.
Lasser was born in New York City in 1939 and began her acting career on Broadway in the early 1960s, understudying for Barbra Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale before Streisand left the show.
She met Woody Allen on a double date, married him in 1966 and became his first on-screen leading lady, appearing in Take the Money and Run, Bananas and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.
They divorced in 1970. She remained a working actress through guest roles on The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi before Norman Lear called.
What Lasser is most remembered for is Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the Norman Lear-produced soap opera satire that aired five nights a week in syndication starting in January 1976 and ran for 325 episodes across two seasons.
She played the frazzled, materialistic Midwestern homemaker at the center of a show that tackled adultery, serial killers, impotence, religious cults and a man drowning in a bowl of chicken soup with the deadpan calm of someone reading the weather.
The show earned her an Emmy nomination and put her face on the covers of Newsweek, People and Rolling Stone simultaneously.
She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1976. her performance becoming SNL lore when she appeared to have a genuine nervous breakdown during her opening monologue. She later had a recurring role in Lena Dunham's Girls and appeared in Todd Solondz's Happiness. She is survived by her partner, Michael Citriniti.