Piper Laurie, the three-time Academy Award-nominated actress whose career in Hollywood spanned seven decades, has died. She was 91.
Laurie died of old age on Saturday, her manager Marion Rosenberg confirmed to the Associated Press. In an email to the outlet, Rosenberg described the star as a “”a superb talent and a wonderful human being.”
In 1961, Laurie earned her first Oscar nomination for her turn as Paul Newman’s alcoholic girlfriend Sarah Packard in the poolhall drama “The Hustler.” Laurie and Newman had previously appeared in 1957’s “Until They Sail” but the actress told Fox News Digital in 2022 that they never really interacted until they starred together in “The Hustler.”
Three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie has died at the age of 91. (Greg Doherty/Getty Images)
“That’s when I was really confronted with that beauty, those spectacular eyes,” she remembered.
Laurie shared that “it was a great gift to be part of a wonderful film” and she “enjoyed every moment of it.”
In her interview with Fox News Digital, Laurie said that she didn’t attend the Academy Awards that year since she didn’t expect to win. She recalled that she watched the ceremony over dinner with her husband and mother-in-law in New York City.
“I was thrilled I didn’t go,” she said. “And of course, I didn’t win. Not with Sophia Loren’s performance. I mean, my goodness, was it even a debate?”
Laurie starred as Sissy Spacek’s fanatically religious, abusive mother Margaret in the 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel “Carrie.” (Getty Images)
Laurie’s next Oscar nomination came in 1976 when she starred as Sissy Spacek’s fanatically religious, abusive mother Margaret in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel “Carrie.”
“I think it was a terrific movie,” she told Fox News Digital in 2022. “At first, I didn’t know if it was a comedy or what. I remembered I tried some things during rehearsal, and I was told, ‘Piper, I don’t think you could do that. You’re gonna get a laugh!’”
She continued, “We were all supposed to take this seriously. But I played my role very big and flashy. And I guess in some ways, it still turned out to be funny.”
“I will say, my daughter’s friends were very young and easily frightened. When they would come to visit, they would not look at me in the face! They would just go straight to her room,” Laurie recalled with a laugh.
The actress received her second Academy Award nomination for her performance in “Carrie.” ((Photo by United Artists/Archive Photos/Getty Images))
Laurie scored her third Academy Award nomination for her performance as a young deaf woman in the 1986 romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God.”
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In addition to her film work, Laurie earned accolades for her roles in television series and TV movies. She received nine Emmy Award nominations, including two for her performance as the villainous lumber mill manager Catherine Martell in David Lynch’s series “Twin Peaks.” In 1991, she won a Golden Globe Award for her role as Martell.
Laurie won her only Emmy Award after starring alongside James Woods and James Garner in the 1986 TV movie “Promise.” She was last nominated for an Emmy Award in 1999, when she appeared as a guest star in the sitcom “Frasier.”
Laurie starred opposite Paul Newman in the 1961 poolhall drama “The Hustler.” ( (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images))
Born Rosetta Jacobs, Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 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.
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.”
Dissatisfied with the roles that she was being offered, Laurie walked out on her $2,000-a-week contract in 1955.
She scored her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Newman’s alcoholic girlfriend. ( (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images))
She moved to New York, where she found the roles she was seeking in theater and live television drama.
After earning Emmy nominations for her roles in “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Deaf Heart” and “The Road That Led After,” Laurie made her return to film when director Robert Rossen cast her in “The Hustler.”
However, Laurie stepped away from acting for several years after “The Hustler.” 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.
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“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 stepped away from acting for several years after “The Hustler.” (Photo by Universal/Getty Images))
Laurie also became noted as a baker, with her recipes appearing in The New York Times.
In 1964, Laurie made guest appearances in the TV series “The Eleventh Hour” and “Breaking Point.” She went on to star in the 1965 Broadway revival of “The Glass Menagerie.”
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Laurie returned to the big screen after director Brian de Palma approached her to star in “Carrie.” After earning an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the movie, which became a box office smash, Laurie’s desire to act was rekindled, and she resumed her career for the next several decades.
She made her return to the big-screen with “Carrie” and worked steadily for the next several decades. ( Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
Her other television credits included roles on “Matlock,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Murder, She Wrote” “Touched by an Angel,” “Law and Order: SVU” and “Will and Grace.” She played George Clooney’s mother Sarah Ross on “ER” in 1995.
Laurie also starred in a number of films including “Appointment With Death,” “Other People’s Money,” “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway,” “Storyville,” “Rich in Love,” “Trauma,” “The Crossing Guard.” “The Grass Harp,” “The Faculty,” “Eulogy,” “The Dead Girl” “Houndog” and “Hesher.”
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She played Grandma Verna Wershe in the 2018 crime drama “White Boy Rick,” which would become her final film role.
Laurie and Morgenstern divorced in 1982. The actress is survived by her daughter Ann Grace.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
