Celebrity Nooz: Lara Parker

Lara Parker (Actress) - Dark Shadows

Updated: 10/17/23

Name: Lara Parker

Birth Name: Mary Lamar Rickey

Born: October 27, 1938 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Died: October 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)

Claim To Fame: Lara Parker was an American television, stage, and film actress known for her role as Angelique on the ABC-TV serial Dark Shadows which aired from 1966 to 1971.

Family Life: Parker was married to Jim Hawkins, a building contractor. The couple have a daughter, Caitlin. Parker had two sons, Rick and Andy, both from her first marriage to artist Tom Parker, the lead singer of the bands "Lions and Ghosts" and "Sparkler".

Info: Was always called "Lamar" by her family while growing up.

Descendant of a prominent Southern family, she was a great-great-granddaughter of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II and a third-great-granddaughter of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, an uncle of Confederate General James Longstreet.

Graduated from Central High School in Memphis, Tennessee in 1955.

She began a philosophy B.A. at Vassar College before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes College (then known as Southwestern) and a Master of Arts degree in speech and drama from the University of Iowa.

Trivia: Was roommates at Vassar with Jane Fonda. She appeared with Jane's brother, Peter Fonda, in one film titled Race with the Devil (1975).

Appeared in television commercial for Prell Concentrate shampoo.

Parker reprised the role of Angelique in Night of Dark Shadows, the second feature film based on Dark Shadows. She was joined by her Dark Shadows castmates Kate Jackson, David Selby, Grayson Hall, Nancy Barrett, John Karlen and Thayer David. This film was more loosely based on the series than House of Dark Shadows was, and it did not fare as well at the box office as the first film.

Her best known film role came in the Oscar-winning drama Save the Tiger (1973), starring Jack Lemmon, in which she played a sympathetic prostitute who is devastated when her client suffers a near fatal heart attack.

She's written four novels based on the Angelique character she plays on "Dark Shadows": Angelique's Descent" in 1998. Its sequel, "Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch," came out in July 2006, "Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising" was released in August 2013, and "Dark Shadows: Heiress of Collinwood" was released in 2016.

She reprised the role of Angelique for a new series of Dark Shadows audio dramas, and is the reader for the audiobook recording of Angelique's Descent.

Parker made her Broadway debut in 1968 in Woman is My Idea, written and directed by Don C. Liljenquist. In 1969, she played the title role in an Off-Broadway production of Frank Wedekind's Lulu. She also appeared in the off-Broadway production of A Gun Play.

In the mid-2000s, she returned to the NY stage for the first time since 1970 in the play, Mrs. Scrooge, starring in the title role for a Charity pediatric AIDS benefit for Help Is On The Way Today.

In 2012, she had a cameo role in Tim Burton's movie version of Dark Shadows.

Where Are They Now: Parker died on October 12, 2023 in Los Angeles. She was 84. Her last on-screen appearance, in the comedy-drama The Great Nick D, is currently in post-production. No release date has been announced, but I'm sure that fans of Parker will anxiously await her posthumous appearance. RIP Lara Parker.

If you'd like to see Lara Parker in the series that made her famous you can order Dark Shadows Complete Original Series Deluxe Edition DVD Set. This limited edition boxed set contains every eerie episode of the original Gothic suspense series DARK SHADOWS (1966-1971) plus a wealth of bonus interviews with the stars and creative members that made the supernatural thriller a cult favorite and an enduring television classic.

And if you're a fan, and you're on a budget, there's the Dark Shadows 50th Anniversary Special Collector's Set Edition on DVD. This special set features six DVDs containing 38 of fans' favorite episodes. And to round out this must-have collection are the Special Features. These include episode introductions by David Selby (Quentin), Lara Parker (Angelique) and Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie), exclusive video interviews with Jonathan Frid and David Selby. Plus the delightful and campy Dark Shadows promos.

This is how I'm going to pay tribute to a tremendous talent.

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