Mary Louise Weller, Animal House star, dies at 79
Mary Louise Weller, who played Pi House sorority sister Mandy Pepperidge in the 1978 comedy classic Animal House, has died at 79. Weller’s longtime partner, Michael Roy Curtis, announced that she died Thursday, one day before her birthday, following a brief illness, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Weller was born in New York on Oct. 2, 1946, and raised in Westwood from around age 10. Her godfather was actor Danny Kaye, a friend of her father, Alex, who worked as a doctor. Her mother, Annette, was a homemaker.
What happened: Mary Louise Weller’s death confirmed
Curtis confirmed Weller’s death to The Hollywood Reporter, saying she died the day before her birthday. The outlet reported no additional details about the illness she faced in her final days.
Before acting, Weller worked as a Ford model and served as a longtime spokesperson for the Jean Naté fragrance brand, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
What it means for fans of Animal House
Weller’s turn as Mandy Pepperidge remains her most recognizable role. In the John Landis-directed Animal House, her character dates the arrogant Omega House president Gregory Marmalard, played by James Daughton, while catching the eye of John Belushi’s Bluto.
The film’s famous “Where are they now?” epilogue reveals that Mandy and Marmalard eventually marry and settle in Washington, with Blutarsky going on to serve in the U.S. Senate. Asked in 2012 whether she expected the movie to become a hit, Weller said she “was pretty sure,” recalling that she showed the script to then-ABC head Brandon Stoddard. “He also knew it would be an enormous hit … but he warned me that it would be the movie I would always be known for,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Background: a career beyond Animal House
The year 1978 proved busy for Weller beyond Animal House. In 1978, she portrayed a marine biologist in the NBC telefilm Hunters of the Reef and appeared as a college student opposite Andrew Prine in the horror film The Evil, per The Hollywood Reporter.
She later appeared in the Larry Peerce-directed adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1979) as a Southern guest editor at a New York fashion magazine, and played Chuck Norris’ love interest in the Hong Kong-set action film Forced Vengeance (1982). She also had a small role in Larry Cohen’s supernatural fantasy Q (1982).
On television, Weller appeared in episodes of Baretta, Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Supertrain, Vegas, Fantasy Island and CHiPs. Her final onscreen credit came in a 1983 episode of Quincy, M.E. Reflecting on her acting career in a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Weller said, “I was the beautiful girl in trouble or the rich guy’s daughter who owns a Porsche and won’t give you the time of day,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Weller also worked in New York theater and wrote a play, Four Alone, performed at the Greenhouse Theater in Pasadena with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Before leaving show business, she worked to produce a film centered on the life of jockey Mary Bacon. A teenage equestrian who trained with the U.S. Equestrian team, Weller shared her love of horses with Curtis, who designs courses for equestrian events, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Her survivors include her cousin, author Sheila Weller, whose books include the 2003 memoir Dancing at Ciro’s: A Family’s Love, Loss, and Scandal on the Sunset Strip and 2008’s Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and the Journey of a Generation.
Reporting from The Hollywood Reporter contributed to this story.