Lara Parker

Lara Parker
Born Mary Lamar Rickey
(1938-10-27) October 27, 1938
Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Occupation Actress, author
Years active 1967–1991, 2012
Spouse(s) Tom Parker (1959–74; divorced)
Jim Hawkins (1980–present)
Children 3
Website http://www.laraparker.com

Lara Parker (born October 27, 1938) is an American television, stage, and film actress known for her role as Angelique on the cult ABC-TV serial Dark Shadows which aired from 1966 to 1971.

Early life

She was born Mary Lamar Rickey in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Memphis. 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. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes College and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa.

Career

Parker played the role of "Laura Banner" in the opening sequence of the pilot for the television series The Incredible Hulk (1977), and the fashion model/witch "Madelaine" in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Trevi Collection". Her other television work includes appearances on Kung Fu, Police Woman, Kojak, Alice, Quincy, M.E., Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, Highway to Heaven, Switch, Baretta, Galactica 1980 ("The Night The Cylons Landed", Parts I & II), the CBS daytime serial Capitol and the ABC daytime serial One Life to Live. She played secretary Wanda in the 1977 television miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors and had a recurring role in the short lived television series Jessica Novak.

Ms. 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.[1] She appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 1970 Brian De Palma film Hi, Mom!, but 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. In 1975, she played the wife of Peter Fonda's character in Race with the Devil.

Later work

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.[2] She also appeared in the off-Broadway production of A Gun Play.

In 1998, Parker published a novel, Angelique's Descent. Its sequel, Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch, came out in July 2006, and Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising was released in August 2013. She has recently 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. In 2012, she had a cameo role in Tim Burton's movie version of Dark Shadows. In 2013, she was reunited with her Dark Shadows co-stars Jerry Lacy and Kathryn Leigh Scott in the feature film Doctor Mabuse, written and directed by Ansel Faraj. The film will be released in 2014.

Bibliography

Personal life

Parker is married to Jim Hawkins, a building contractor. The couple have a daughter, Caitlin. Parker has two sons, Rick and Andy, both from her first marriage to artist Tom Parker.

References

  1. ↑ Scott, Kathryn Leigh; Pierson, Jim, editors. The Dark Shadows Movie Book. Pomegranate Press, Ltd., Los Angeles and London, 1998; pp. 23 & 26.
  2. ↑ Willis, John. Theatre World, Volume 26, 1969–1970. Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1970, pp. 127 and 255.
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