Mary Louise Weller, the actress best known for playing Mandy Pepperidge in the 1978 comedy Animal House, has died aged 79.
Weller died on Thursday, 1 October, after an illness, according to her longtime partner, Michael Roy Curtis. Her death came a day before her 80th birthday.
Mary Louise Weller’s career
She became widely recognised as Mandy, a Pi House sorority member whose character is watched by John Belushi’s fraternity troublemaker, John “Bluto” Blutarsky, in one of the film’s most memorable scenes.
Directed by John Landis, Animal House also featured Tim Matheson, Kevin Bacon and Karen Allen, and became one of the defining American comedies of the late 1970s. Its closing sequence revealed that Mandy and Bluto would eventually marry, with Blutarsky going on to become a US senator.
Before turning to acting, Weller worked as a model for Ford and served as a spokesperson for Jean Naté fragrance. Her other film credits included The Bell Jar, Forced Vengeance, The Evil and Q.
She also appeared on television in series including Starsky & Hutch, Kojak, Baretta, Fantasy Island and CHiPs. Her final on-screen credit was an episode of Quincy, M.E. in 1983.
Outside acting, Weller was an accomplished equestrian who had trained with the US Equestrian Team as a teenager. She later wrote the play Four Alone, which was staged at the Greenhouse Theater in Pasadena.
Weller’s friend David Marks paid tribute to her on Facebook, describing her as an actress, model and equestrian who had “passed away quietly”.
