While still living with her parents, Louise Lasser left her studies in Political Science at Brandeis University to pursue acting and met Woody Allen on a double date, who was seeing another woman while savoring his success as a comedy writer. Acting was still a challenge for her at the time.
Over time, Louise appeared in five of Allen's films. On July 6th, she passed away in her apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan at the age of 87 surrounded by loved ones, including her last partner, Michael Citriniti.
The actress, who grew up around Fifth Avenue and Central Park, confessed in an interview with the New York Times in 1971 that when she and Woody Allen met, they would go "for long walks in the park and talk about art, philosophy, life, and all those things that we later discovered neither of us enjoyed doing."
At the beginning of their romance, there were a series of situations as serious as they were comical, as Louise's parents lived in an elegant building where every time the doormen saw Woody, they usually wouldn't let him up because of his classic corduroy pants and worn-out polo. On more than one occasion, they would send him to the service elevator.
In 1962, she made her small screen debut in the pilot The Laughmakers, written by Allen, which ultimately did not become a television series. That was the actress's first collaboration with the man who would become a reference in auteur filmmaking.
During her courtship with Allen, she experienced one of the worst experiences of her life when her mother, who had mental health issues throughout her life, took her own life in 1964. Her father followed suit later on.
The Lasser-Allen duo reunited in the filmWhat's New, Pussycat? (1965), written by him, in which she made a brief appearance as an uncredited masseuse. This was followed by Lily, la tigresa (1966), the first film directed by the New Yorker.
After five years of courtship, Louise and Woody married in 1966. During their time together, chaos filled the air due to the director's frenetic pace: "He has this need to work, an absolute need more than a discipline. Even on vacation, he has to get up in the morning and write," Lasser stated in an interview. She added: "He is a very serious person, probably more than anyone else I have ever met."
The marriage ended in 1970, but they continued collaborating on other films such as Bananas (1971) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), among others. From 1976 to 1977, she reached the peak of her popularity with the 325 episodes of the series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
From then on, her face appeared in some of the most well-known magazines such as People, Rolling Stone, and Newsweek. When the series was released on DVD, the actress shared in Interview that being married to Woody Allen did not intimidate her, but rather she "loved" it because "I always thought it was great when people meet someone they can learn from and want to be better with."
In 2000, Darren Aronofsky hired her for Requiem for a Dream. After enjoying decades as an actress, she founded the Louise Lasser Acting Studio in the Upper East Side for young people interested in studying acting.