Lara Parker

Lara Parker
Performer1980
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Portrays:	Shirley Blore
Date of Birth:	October 27, 1938
Date of Death:	October 12, 2023
Age at Death:	84
Nationality:	USA
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Lara Parker (born Mary Lamar Rickey; October 27, 1938 – October 12, 2023) was an American actress and author who portrayed Shirley Blore in the two-part Galactica 1980 episode "The Night the Cylons Landed". She is best remembered for her iconic role as the witch Angelique Bouchard Collins on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows from 1967 to 1971.

Early Life and Education

Parker was born Mary Lamar Rickey in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Memphis. She was a descendant of a prominent Southern family, the great-great-granddaughter of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, a revered Southern statesman who served as a United States Supreme Court Justice following the Civil War and was lauded in a chapter of John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage. She was also a third-great-granddaughter of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, an uncle of Confederate General James Longstreet.

Parker attended Central High School in Memphis and won a scholarship to Vassar College, where she roomed with Jane Fonda. She began a major in philosophy at Vassar, which she completed at Rhodes College (then known as Southwestern Presbyterian) in Memphis, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree. At 19, while at Rhodes College, she served as Wink Martindale's assistant on his WHBQ-TV show, Dance Party.

She attended graduate school at the University of Iowa and completed all course work for a Master of Arts degree in speech and drama. During the summer when Parker was supposed to write her thesis, she acted at the Millbrook Playhouse in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, playing five leading roles in six weeks. Rather than returning to Iowa to complete her thesis, she decided to pursue acting professionally in New York City.

Acting Career

Dark Shadows

During only her second week in New York City in 1967, Parker auditioned for Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis, who cast her as Angelique in a story arc that would detail the origin of the tortured vampire Barnabas Collins. The role would define her career. In the series, set in the fictional Collinsport, Maine, Barnabas Collins in 1795 seduced and abandoned a servant girl from Martinique not realizing she was a witch. An enraged Angelique damned Barnabas to eternal life as a vampire, kicking off a battle between the two that would continue through different time periods.

Parker approached the character with depth and sympathy. She explained in a 2016 interview that she played Angelique as a tragic figure desperately in love, whose heart was broken, rather than simply as a mean witch. She felt that Angelique's acts were acts of desperation, not acts of evil.

During the show's run, Curtis would repeatedly kill off Parker's character, only to bring her back due to fan demand. Parker recalled in 2020 that Curtis would call and say, "You've been great, kiddo, but we're going to kill your character. Thanks a lot for everything." About two months later, the producers would call and ask her to return. She and Jonathan Frid were considered the "first team," and fans seemed to watch more when Angelique and Barnabas were fighting it out, which became the most popular part of the show. Parker remained with the series until its cancellation in April 1971.

While still appearing on Dark Shadows, Parker made her Broadway debut in 1968 in Woman is My Idea, written and directed by Don C. Liljenquist. She also appeared in two Off-Broadway productions: Lulu by Frank Wedekind in 1969, where she played the title role, and A Gun Play.

In 1971, 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.

Film and Television

After Dark Shadows ended, Parker moved to Los Angeles in 1972 with her then-husband and two small sons, expecting the phenomenon that had been daytime's first supernatural soap to open Hollywood's doors.

Parker appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 1970 Brian De Palma film Hi, Mom!, but her best known film role came in the Academy Award-winning drama Save the Tiger (1973), directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Jack Lemmon in an Oscar-winning performance. Parker played Margo, a sympathetic prostitute who is devastated when her client Fred Mirrell (Norman Burton) suffers a near-fatal heart attack. In 1975, she played Kelly Marsh, the wife of Peter Fonda's character Roger, in the satanic horror film Race with the Devil, which also featured Warren Oates and Loretta Swit.

In 1977, Parker played Laura Banner in the opening sequence of the pilot for the television series The Incredible Hulk, portraying David Banner's wife who tragically burns to death after an accident that is part of Banner's Hulk origin story.

Parker's extensive television work included guest appearances on numerous popular series. She appeared in episodes of Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man (the second season episode "The Deadly Replay"), Police Woman, Kojak, Alice, Quincy, M.E., Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, Highway to Heaven, Switch, Baretta, Barnaby Jones (the episode "The Price of Anger"), the CBS daytime serial Capitol, and the ABC daytime serial One Life to Live. She also 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 (1981).

In 1975, she played the fashion model-witch Madelaine in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Trevi Collection." She would not remember that job fondly, recalling years later the stinging rudeness of star Darren McGavin, who apparently had no idea who she was when he suggested that she would need practice to learn to play a witch.

Galactica 1980

In 1980, Parker appeared in both parts of the Galactica 1980 two-part episode "The Night the Cylons Landed" as Shirley Blore, the wife of radio station manager Norman Blore (William Daniels). The episodes, which aired on April 13 and April 20, 1980, featured a Halloween costume party attended by the Blores, where the Cylon Andromus (Roger Davis) with his cohort Centuri infiltrate with plans to use Norman's radio station to broadcast Earth's location to the Cylon fleet.

Parker recalled in a 2013 interview that she remembered the production featuring many costumes, including a costume party. She noted her friendship with co-star Roger Davis from Dark Shadows, mentioning that Davis had become a builder and that her husband Jim Hawkins was also a builder, so Davis would frequently call him. She also noted that Galactica 1980 producer Glen A. Larson used her in several productions, as well as using Roger Davis in multiple projects.

Later Career

In 2012, Parker had a cameo role in Tim Burton's movie version of Dark Shadows, which starred Johnny Depp as Barnabas and Eva Green as Angelique. She was reunited with her Dark Shadows co-stars Jerry Lacy and Kathryn Leigh Scott in two feature films about Doctor Mabuse written and directed by Ansel Faraj: Doctor Mabuse (2013) and Doctor Mabuse: Etiopomar (2014). Her final film, The Great Nick D (shot in 2023), was co-written and co-directed by Ansel Faraj and Nathan Wilson and co-starred her Dark Shadows co-stars Kathryn Leigh Scott and David Selby.

Parker reprised the role of Angelique for a new series of Dark Shadows audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions from 2007 to 2017. Big Finish writer and producer Stuart Manning noted that Lara Parker's laugh was the very first thing recorded on the very first day of the company's Dark Shadows audio stories, with Parker slipping back into Angelique as if no time had passed.

Writing Career

After stepping away from full-time acting, Parker became a high school and college English teacher and earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2004. In 2006, she was invited to New York University, where she conducted a two-day workshop titled "Heart of Horror," discussing the process of horror writing.

Dark Shadows Novels

Parker was pursued by HarperCollins Publishing and Dan Curtis Productions to write a backstory of her Dark Shadows character, Angelique. She published four novels based on the Dark Shadows universe. These works represented a significant contribution to the Dark Shadows literary canon, which had previously consisted primarily of the 32 novels by Dan Ross (writing under the pen name Marilyn Ross) published between 1966 and 1972.

Angelique's Descent (1998)

Parker's debut novel explores the origin story of the witch Angelique, delving into her background in Martinique and the events that shaped her into the powerful and tragic figure from the television series. The novel provides readers with an understanding of Angelique's motivations and the development of her supernatural abilities.

Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch (2006)

This novel connects the Collins family history to the Salem witch trials, incorporating historical elements with the supernatural mythology of the Dark Shadows universe. The story explores new dimensions of the Collins family curse and introduces additional layers to the ongoing saga of Collinsport.

Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising (2013)

Parker's third novel continues to expand the Dark Shadows mythology, focusing on werewolf lore and its connection to the Collins family. The book weaves together past and present storylines, incorporating familiar characters while introducing new supernatural threats to Collinwood.

Heiress of Collinwood (2016)

Parker's final Dark Shadows novel centers on a new generation at Collinwood, exploring themes of inheritance, legacy, and the enduring nature of the Collins family curse. The book serves as a continuation of the Dark Shadows saga while honoring the gothic traditions established by the original series.

Parker was also the reader of the unabridged audiobook recordings of her first three novels. Her narration allowed fans to experience the stories in her own voice, bringing an authentic connection to the character of Angelique that she had portrayed for so many years.

Other Publishing Work

Following the publication of her books, Parker embarked on cross-country book tours to publicize her novels, appearing on several talk shows, more than fifty radio shows, and performing dozens of readings at libraries and bookstores.

In 1999, Parker founded Old Canyon Press to publish Bugs & Critters, I Have Known, an illustrated collection of poetry for children written by her mother, Ann Heiskell Rickey, and illustrated by her mother's sister, Ardeane Heiskell Smith. The book won several children's book awards.

Personal Life

Parker was first married to artist Tom Parker, with whom she had two sons: Rick and Andy. Rick became a successful record producer and is married to singer Miranda Lee Richards. Andy became a contractor.

In 1980, Parker married Jim Hawkins, a building contractor. They had a daughter, Caitlin Hawkins, who became a set designer and stylist for videos and commercials. Parker and Hawkins lived in a house they designed and built on a mountaintop in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Parker died in her sleep at her home in Topanga Canyon on October 12, 2023, at the age of 84, following a battle with cancer. Her death was announced by producer Jim Pierson of Dan Curtis Productions, on behalf of Parker's family. Her Dark Shadows co-star and longtime friend Kathryn Leigh Scott said in a statement: "I'm heartbroken, as all of us are who knew and loved her. She graced our lives with her beauty, talent and friendship, and we are all richer for having had her in our lives."

Parker is survived by her husband Jim Hawkins, daughter Caitlin, sons Rick and Andy, their wives Miranda and Celia, and grandson Wesley.

References