Late Iconic actress Lara Parker was married to her husband Jim Hawkins after a failed marriage to her ex-spouse Tom Parker and has three children. Her family details explored.
Born Mary Lamar Rickey, Lara Parker was a legendary actress with a number of iconic movie roles.
She was best known for her role as Angelique on the ABC-TV serial Dark Shadows, which aired from 1966 to 1971.
She played Angelique Bouchard, a witch who was the love interest of protagonist Barnabas Collins, a vampire.
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, actress Lara Parker was confirmed dead. She reportedly died in her sleep at the age of 84, in her Los Angeles home.
Following her death, many want to know more about her family and personal life. Here’s what we know about her husband, marriages, children, and more.
Who was Lara Parker married to?
Dark Shadows star Lara Parker was married twice in her life when she was alive. The names of her current and ex-spouse are building contractor Jimmy Hawkins and artist Thomas “Tom” Parker.
At age 21, Lara Parker had her first marriage to her first husband, Tom Parker, in 1959.
Details about Lara and Tom’s love life, including how they met, where they held their wedding ceremony, and the special moments they shared together, were never known.
Lara stayed tight-lipped about her marriage and rarely talked about it in her interviews.
After more than a decade of marriage, Tom Parker and Lara separated and had their divorced in 1974.
The actress then stayed more than six years unmarried but in 1980, when she was 42, she found another lover in a man named Jimmy Hawkins.
Lara and Hawkins got married in 1980 and they stayed as husband and wife since. They were together for over 40 years until her tragic passing in 2023.
How many children did Lara Parker have?
Lara Parker was a mother at the time of her death. She had three children; two sons and a daughter.
The names of her kids are Rick Parker, Andy Parker, and Caitlin Elizabeth Hawkins.
She shares her sons, Rick and Andy, with her first husband, Tom Parker from their 15 years of marriage.
About her daughter, Caitlin, she welcomed her during her over 4 decades of marriage to her second spouse, Jim Hawkins.
Rick was a successful record producer, and Andy a contractor.
Caitlin Hawkins is a set designer and stylist for videos and commercials. She was the first to share news about the actress’s death.
Lara’s son Rick is married to singer Miranda Lee Richards. They have one son, Wesley.
In addition, Parker is survived by her dog Pearl.
Lara Parker had an impressive career
Lara Parker was an iconic actress best known for her role on the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows.
The thespian played Angelique Bouchard, a witch who was the love interest of protagonist Barnabas Collins, a vampire.
The Tennessee native got an audition with Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis just days after arriving in New York City in 1967.
In the show, Angelique was a servant girl whom Barnabas seduced and abandoned in 1795.
But the character played by Jonathan Frid didn’t realize she was a witch.
Angelique cursed the man to eternal life as a vampire, kicking off a major plotline in the second year of the show, which took place in several different time periods.
“He just dallied with her and then dismissed her, and she was not to be dismissed,” Parker said in an interview for a Dark Shadows home release tape.
“I played her as somebody who was much more of a tragic figure, who was desperately, desperately in love,” Parker told Den of Geek in 2016.
“Her heart was broken. That’s much more sympathetic than just being a mean old witch. I felt that her acts were acts of desperation, not acts of evil.”
The actress is also remembered for her roles in the 1973 drama film Save the Tiger and the 1975 horror flick Race With the Devil.
After leaving the film industry to get a creative writing degree, she penned four Dark Shadows novels: 1998’s Angelique’s Descent, 2006’s The Salem Branch, 2013’s Wolf Moon Rising, and 2016’s Heiress of Collinwood.