R.I.P. Lara Parker: ‘Dark Shadows’ Star Dead At 84

Lara Parker, best known for her role as the witch Angelique Bouchard Collins on the late ’60s horror TV series Dark Shadows, died on Thursday, Oct. 12, Extra TV reports. She was 84.

Parker was born Mary Lamar Ricke in Knoxville, Tennessee on Oct. 27, 1938. Her death was announced and mourned by her friend and Dark Shadows co-star Kathryn Leigh Scott, who posted about the “sad news” on Facebook.

“My beautiful, beloved friend Lara Parker passed away Thursday, October 12,” Scott wrote. ” I’m heartbroken, as all of us are who knew and loved her. She graced our lives with her beauty and talent, and we are all richer for having had her in our lives.”

She noted that to Parker, “family meant more than anything,” and that “they have wanted these few days since her passing to themselves.”

“Rest in peace, my cherished friend,” she continued.

The ABC gothic soap opera that starred Parker became most popular ten months after its June 1966 debut, when Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a vampire who escaped from its coffin after being in there for 200 years. The series ran for five seasons, and aired its final episode on April 2, 1971. According to her IMDb, Parker appeared in 269 episodes throughout the show’s run.

Her first TV credit was an appearance in one episode on N.Y.P.D. in 1968. Other notable TV appearances of hers included one episode of The Incredible Hulk as Bruce Banner’s wife, Laura (1977) and two episodes of Hawaii Five-O (1978 and 1980).

In terms of movies, Parker’s film debut was alongside Robert De Niro in 1970 in Hi, Mom! She then reprised her role of Angelique Collins in Night of Dark Shadows (1971). In 1973, she acted in Save The Tiger with Jack Lemmon, and then played Peter Fonda‘s wife in the 1975 horror action film Race with the Devil. She made an appearance in Tim Burton‘s 2012 Dark Shadows, a film adaptation of the TV series starring Johnny Depp.

Outside of TV and film, Parker performed on Broadway in Woman Is My Idea in 1968, but the show only lasted five performances, per The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the outlet, Parker eventually wrote four novels based on Dark Shadows: Angelique’s Descent (1998), The Salem Branch (2006), Wolf Moon Rising (2013), and Heiress of Collinwood (2016).

Parker is survived by her second husband Jim Hawkins, her three children, her two daughters-in-law, grandson, and her dog, Pearl, per THR.

Dark Shadows is streaming on Freevee.