Piper Laurie

Piper Laurie, born Rosetta Jacobs on January 22, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, became one of American cinema and television’s most distinctive character actors. Her parents moved the family to Los Angeles when she was young, and she was signed by Universal-International in the early 1950s. The studio gave her the name Piper Laurie and cast her in films including *Louisa* (1950), *Francis Goes to the Races* (1951), and *The Mississippi Gambler* (1953). Publicity often emphasized her appearance, but she later sought more challenging parts than the decorative roles initially offered to her. Her breakthrough arrived with Robert Rossen’s 1961 drama *The Hustler*. Laurie played Sarah Packard, the troubled alcoholic girlfriend of Paul Newman’s pool player “Fast Eddie” Felson. Her intense, vulnerable performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. After the film, she stepped away from acting for several years, living in Woodstock, New York, and concentrating on family life. She married film critic and writer Joe Morgenstern in 1962; they had a daughter, Anne Grace, before divorcing in 1982. Laurie returned to major prominence as Margaret White in Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s *Carrie*. As Carrie’s fanatically religious and abusive mother, she created one of horror cinema’s most memorable parental figures. Her performance, balancing rigid conviction, fear, and cruelty, brought her a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress. The role included the famous climax in which Margaret’s apparent death is followed by her hand bursting from the grave in Carrie’s nightmare. She received a third Oscar nomination for playing Mrs. Norman, the mother of a deaf student portrayed by Marlee Matlin, in *Children of a Lesser God* (1986). Her television work was equally substantial. Laurie won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1987 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for *Promise*, in which she played the mother of James Garner’s character. She also became widely known to television audiences as Catherine Martell on David Lynch and Mark Frost’s *Twin Peaks*. Catherine, a calculating businesswoman who survives a mill explosion and later disguises herself as a Japanese businessman, was one of the series’ most eccentric recurring characters. Later credits included *The Faculty*, *The Dead Girl*, *Eulogy*, *ER*, *Will & Grace*, *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, and *Orange Is the New Black*. In 2011, she published the memoir *Learning to Live Out Loud*. Piper Laurie died in Los Angeles on October 14, 2023, aged 91.