Current:Home > MarketsActor Piper Laurie, known for roles in 'Carrie' and 'The Hustler,' dies at 91 -MoneyBase
Actor Piper Laurie, known for roles in 'Carrie' and 'The Hustler,' dies at 91
View
Date:2025-04-19 05:49:27
Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a "more meaningful" life, died early Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.
Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told The Associated Press via email, adding that she was "a superb talent and a wonderful human being."
Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others.
She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama The Hustler; the film version of Stephen King's horror classic Carrie, in 1976; and the romantic drama Children of a Lesser God, in 1986. She also appeared in several acclaimed roles on television and the stage, including in David Lynch's Twin Peaks in the 1990s as the villainous Catherine Martell.
Laurie made her debut at 17 in Louisa, playing Reagan's daughter, then appeared opposite Francis the talking mule in Francis Goes to the Races. She made several films with Curtis, whom she once dated, including The Prince Who Was a Thief, No Room for the Groom, Son of Ali Baba and Johnny Dark.
Fed up, she walked out on her $2,000-a-week contract in 1955, vowing she wouldn't work again unless offered a decent part.
She moved to New York, where she found the roles she was seeking in theater and live television drama.
Performances in Days of Wine and Roses, The Deaf Heart and The Road That Led After brought her Emmy nominations and paved the way for a return to films, including in an acclaimed role as Paul Newman's troubled girlfriend in The Hustler.
For many years after, Laurie turned her back on acting. She married film critic Joseph Morgenstern, welcomed a daughter, Ann Grace, and moved to a farmhouse in Woodstock, New York. She said later that the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War had influenced her decision to make the change.
"I was disenchanted and looking for an existence more meaningful for me," she recalled, adding that she never regretted the move.
"My life was full," she said in 1990. "I always liked using my hands, and I always painted."
Laurie also became noted as a baker, with her recipes appearing in The New York Times.
Her only performing during that time came when she joined a dozen musicians and actors in a tour of college campuses to support Sen. George McGovern's 1972 presidential bid.
Laurie was finally ready to return to acting when director Brian De Palma called her about playing the deranged mother of Sissy Spacek in Carrie.
At first she felt the script was junk, and then she decided she should play the role for laughs. Not until De Palma chided her for putting a comedic turn on a scene did she realize he meant the film to be a thriller.
Carrie became a box-office smash, launching a craze for movies about teenagers in jeopardy, and Spacek and Laurie were both nominated for Academy Awards.
Her desire to act rekindled, Laurie resumed a busy career that spanned decades. On television, she appeared in such series as Matlock, Murder, She Wrote and Frasier and played George Clooney's mother on ER.
veryGood! (4444)
Related
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Tennessee nurse practitioner known as ‘Rock Doc’ gets 20 years for illegally prescribing opioids
- Man dies, woman injured after vehicle goes over cliff at adventure park
- See Jax Taylor Make His Explosive Vanderpump Rules Return—and Epically Slam Tom Sandoval
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- Oprah Winfrey denounces fat shaming in ABC special: 'Making fun of my weight was national sport'
- Armed thieves steal cash from guards collecting video machine cash boxes in broad daylight heist
- 'Who Would Win?': March Mammal Madness is underway. Here's everything players need to know
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Supreme Court opens new frontier for insurrection claims that could target state and local officials
Ranking
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- Buddhists use karmic healing against one US city’s anti-Asian legacy and nationwide prejudice today
- Shakira Reveals If a Jar of Jam Really Led to Gerard Piqué Breakup
- Oprah Winfrey denounces fat shaming in ABC special: 'Making fun of my weight was national sport'
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Missing Wisconsin toddler's blanket found weeks after he disappeared
- Joann files for bankruptcy amid consumer pullback, but plans to keep stores open
- Shakira Reveals If a Jar of Jam Really Led to Gerard Piqué Breakup
Recommendation
Travis Hunter, the 2
Women-Owned Brands Our Editors Love: Skincare, Jewelry, Home Decor, and More
Gardening bloomed during the pandemic. Garden centers hope would-be green thumbs stay interested
University of Maryland lifts Greek life ban, hazing investigation into five chapters continues
What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
New eclipse-themed treat is coming soon: What to know about Sonic's Blackout Slush Float
First flight of Americans from Haiti lands at Miami International Airport to escape chaos
Oprah Winfrey Shares Why Her Use of Weight Loss Drugs Provided “Hope”