Piper Laurie, who blossomed as an actress only after breaking free from the studio system and earning three Oscar nominations, has died. She was 91.
Laurie’s manager Marion Rosenberg confirmed the news to Variety, writing, “A beautiful human being and one of the greatest talents of our time.”
Laurie received her first Oscar nomination for her work opposite Paul Newman in the classic 1961 pool hall drama The Hustler, in which she played an alcoholic who memorably tells Newman’s character, “Look, I’ve got problems, and I think maybe you have problems too.” Problems. Maybe it would be better if we just left each other alone.”
Although she retired informally for more than a decade to raise a family, she returned to film and television in the mid-’70s and amassed an impressive list of character roles, including Oscar-nominated roles in Carrie and Children of a.” Lesser God,” in which she played Marlee Matlin’s icy mother. Laurie was genuinely scary in Carrie, as the mother of the shy telekinetic girl of the title who, in the words of Roger Ebert, “translated her own psychotic fear of sexuality into a twisted personal religion.”
Her performance as the scheming, power-hungry Catherine Martell in David Lynch’s groundbreaking TV series “Twin Peaks” earned her two of her nine Emmy nominations. The actress won her only Emmy for her role in the powerful 1986 Hallmark Hall of Fame film Promises, which starred James Wood as a schizophrenic and James Garner as his brother, with Laurie’s character offering help to the pair.
Her last Emmy nomination was in 1999 for a guest role on the sitcom “Frasier,” in which she played the mother of a radio psychologist played by Christine Baranski, clearly Dr. Laura Schlessinger was modeled on her.
The actress ran out of her contract with Universal in the mid-’50s after playing a series of brilliant roles in mediocre films, and delivered an impressive supporting role in Robert Wise’s Until They Sail (1957), starring Jean Simmons, Paul Newman and Joan Fontaine.
Then she set off east; in New York she appeared in television productions of “Twelfth Night” and “Caesar and Cleopatra”. She received Emmy nominations for the original drama “The Deaf Heart” on “Studio One in Hollywood” and “Days of Wine and Roses” with Cliff Robertson on “Playhouse 90.” Director Robert Rossen discovered her while working at the Actors Studio and offered her the role of crippled alcoholic Sarah Packard in the drama The Hustler, which earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress in 1961.
Soon after, she married the writer Joseph Morgenstern, later a film critic, left show business to raise a family and lived in Woodstock, NY
By the mid-’70s, she was back to work, appearing in a Broadway revival of “The Glass Menagerie” and in an episode of the PBS science series “Nova” as family planning pioneer Margaret Sanger.
Laurie found Brian De Palma’s Carrie almost fun. But her tongue-in-cheek but terrifying performance in the horror film earned her a second Oscar nomination in the supporting actor category. This was followed by the Australian drama “Tim” starring a young Mel Gibson, as well as films such as “Ruby”, “The Boss’s Son” and “Return to Oz”.
She also began working regularly on television in television films such as In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan; the Judy Garland biography “Rainbow”; 1981’s “The Bunker,” in which she played Magda Goebbels to Anthony Hopkins’ Hitler and received an Emmy nomination; “The Thorn Birds,” which earned her another Emmy nomination; and 1986’s “Promise,” for which she won an Emmy for supporting actress. She also made guest appearances on television series and received an Emmy nomination in 1984 for her work on “St. Elsewhere.”
Movies of the late ’80s and ’90s included Appointment With Death, Other People’s Money, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, Storyville, Rich in Love and The Crossing Guard. In the acclaimed historical dramedy “The Grass Harp,” she reunited with her “Carrie” co-star Sissy Spacek, this time playing her sister (both also appeared in the 2001 television series “Midwives”).
In the 1990s and 2000s, she made guest appearances on series such as “ER,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Will and Grace,” and “Law and Order: SVU.” She appeared regularly in a number of telepics.
Her most recent film appearances included “Eulogy” (2004), in which she starred as the matriarch of a dysfunctional family; “The Dead Girl,” in which she played another cruel mother, this time bedridden; “Hounddog” as the strict grandmother of rape victim Dakota Fanning; and “Hesher,” in which she memorably shared a bong with the stranger, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who infiltrates her household.
Born Rosetta Jacobs on January 22, 1932 in Detroit, she was taken out of Los Angeles High School at age 17 and given a universal contract for $250 a week, which increased to $1,750 after seven years per week would amount to.
She made her debut as Ronald Reagan’s daughter in the 1950 film “Louisa” and went on to star in a number of low-profile comedies and musicals, including a foray into the “Francis the Talking Mule” series called “Francis Rises.” the racers”. A genius, she was the love interest of up-and-coming artists such as Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson, as well as established stars such as Tyrone Power and Victor Mature.
Early memorable films included Johnny Dark, Dangerous Mission, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and No Room for the Groom.
“I hated what I was doing,” she later told a journalist. But she also admitted that regular work helped her develop and move forward with more enjoyable projects.
Laurie and Morgenstern divorced in 1981. She leaves behind a daughter, Anne Grace.