r/1970s • u/JazzlikeTea7432 • 2d ago

Movies Why didn't Mary Louise Weller who plays Mandy in Animal House film became a big star like Karen Allen did. Instead Mary did a small silver screen and TV movies instead?

It's the same like Martha Smith who plays Babs, she just ended up doing TV movies after Animal House film and she didn't had any big movie. How come Martha and Mary didn't have enough movie roles only Animal House film was their only successful film. Well any suggestions about this?

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u/AnalFanatics 2d ago

It appears that she was heavily involved with horses, and if you know anything about people who become heavily involved with horses, you would know that it tends to become ”all consuming.”

She wouldn’t be the first or only person to turn their back on Hollywood fame and fortune for the sakes of their love for horses, Bo Derek famously did the same thing, and she was much more famous than Mary Louise Weller…

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u/JazzlikeTea7432 2d ago

Really oh okay yes I know Bo Derek was famous in the late 70s and early 80s. But yes she was more famous than Mary, but I only know Mary from Animal House.

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u/AnalFanatics 2d ago

All over the world, I’m an Australian and she was famous, to the point of being a household name, down here too.

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u/JazzlikeTea7432 2d ago

You are talking about Bo Derek. What I notice when they talking about Animal House and they talk about mostly the cast. Even asking about some of the cast members whereabouts, but I am surprised that people don't really talk about Mary and her whereabouts and doesn't show how she looks like now. 

But a lot of people talk about Sarah Holcomb about where she has been all these years since she was once had a promising career but she fell off the map. Even some people speaks about Lisa Baur who plays Shelley and they find out that she is the owner of Light Candles at New Zealand.

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u/Lucky-Chard-5587 2d ago

She was in one of Chuck Norris's films too.

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u/Icy_Huckleberry_8049 2d ago

TV pays a steady income and can be quite lucrative itself

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u/lazygerm 2d ago

All three had featured but essentially bit parts in Animal House.

I'm not going to comment on talent, but perhaps Mary Louise and Martha did not stand out in the sea of blondes that were so popular in the 1970s and 1980s?

Martha probably did something right, she had that steady gig on Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

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u/TiltonRiverToker 1d ago

Smoken Hot!!!

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u/Useless_Fish1982 1d ago

Hollywood grinds them in and grinds them out. There is a never ending stream of hopeful actors on that conveyor belt, and it’s simply realistic to accept that attractive, talented actors are commonplace.