Cinema: ‘Animal House’ actress Mary Louise Weller dies at 79

American actress Mary Louise Weller, known especially for her role as Mandy Pepperidge in the cult comedy “Animal House”, has died at the age of 79, corriere.it writes.

Weller died on Thursday, October 1, a day before her birthday, after a short illness. The news was announced by her partner, Michael Roy Curtis, American specialist media report.

The role that made her known

1978 marked an important moment in Weller’s career, when she appeared in “Animal House”, the comedy film directed by John Landis.

She played Mandy Pepperidge, a girl linked to a student sorority and the girlfriend of Gregory Marmalard, the arrogant president of one of the student fraternities, a role played by James Daughton.

One of the film’s best-known scenes is the one in which John Belushi, in the role of John “Bluto” Blutarsky, climbs a ladder to spy on Mandy while she was changing in her room.

At the end of the film, through the description of the characters’ fates, it is revealed that Mandy and Bluto would marry and live in Washington, where Blutarsky would become a United States senator.

In an interview for the “Los Angeles Times” in 1986, Weller had spoken with humour about the kinds of roles offered to her: she often played “the beautiful girl in difficulty” or “the rich man’s daughter who has a Porsche and pays you no attention”.

The actress will remain in the public’s memory especially for the role of Mandy Pepperidge in one of the best-known American comedies of the 1970s.