Mary Louise Weller, ‘Animal House’ Actress, Dies at 79

Mary Louise Weller, the actress who played Mandy Pepperidge in the 1978 comedy Animal House, died Thursday, October 1, at 79, according to an announcement by her longtime partner, Michael Roy Curtis. Curtis said she died after a brief illness, one day before her 80th birthday. Her cause of death has not been disclosed in the available information. Weller was born October 2, 1946, in New York City and was raised in Westwood, California. In Animal House, directed by John Landis, she played a member of the Pi House sorority whose character becomes romantically involved with John Belushi’s Bluto. The film’s closing sequence shows the pair driving away together and identifies them as Senator and Mrs. Blutarsky. The role became Weller’s best-known screen appearance. In a 2012 interview, she recalled expecting the film to succeed and said ABC executive Brandon Stoddard had also anticipated a hit, while warning her that it might become the work for which audiences would remember her. The movie’s continuing recognition kept her brief screen career in public view. Weller appeared in films and television productions before and after Animal House.