LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Three-time Oscar nominee and Primetime Emmy Award-winning star of ‘The Hustler’ and ‘Carrie’, Piper Laurie died on Saturday, October 14 in Los Angeles. She was 91.
Laurie’s manager confirmed her death by writing to Variety, “A beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time.”
Piper Laurie's extensive career was peppered with several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She also received three Oscar nominations and a BAFTA nomination.
Early life of Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie, whose birth name was Rosetta Jacobs, was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 22, 1932, to furniture dealer father Alfred Jacobs and mother Charlotte Sadie (nee Alperin) Jacobs.
Since she was a shy child, her parents enrolled her in weekly elocution classes, which ultimately led her to small roles at Universal Studios.
In 1949, she signed a contract with Universal Studios that led her to change her name to Laurie Piper.
When she was 18, Laurie made her film debut with ‘Louisa’ (1950) where she played Ronald Reagan’s daughter.
She also dated the actor and future President Reagan. In her 2011 autobiography, ‘Learning to Live Out Loud’, Laurie wrote that she lost her virginity to Reagan.
Rise to stardom
Following her debut, she appeared in films like ‘Francis Goes to the Races’ (1951), ‘Has Anybody Seen My Gal’ (1952), ‘No Room for the Groom’ (1952), ‘The Mississippi Gambler’ (1953) and ‘Ain’t Misbehavin‘’ (1955).
However, she was unsatisfied with her roles and broke her contract with Universal Studios to move to New York to study acting.
There she acted in ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Days of Wine and Roses’, among others.
She came back to Hollywood in 1961 with ‘The Hustler’, where she played the role of Paul Newman’s girlfriend Sarah Packard, which earned Laurie her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
During the promotion of ‘The Hustler’, she met her future husband Joe Morgenstern, New York Herald Tribune entertainment writer and Wall Street Journal movie critic.
The couple dated for nine months before getting married on January 21, 1962. Since Laurie did not come across enough substantial roles, she and her husband moved to New York.
After appearing in two medical dramas, ‘My Door Is Locked and Bolted’ and ‘The Summer House’, in 1964, she starred in the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' ‘The Glass Menagerie’.
Due to a dearth of good roles, she took a semi-hiatus from her acting career, until she starred as Margaret White in Brian De Palma‘s horror classic ‘Carrie’ (1976), which got her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
She also acted in the Australian movie ‘Tim’ opposite Mel Gibson in 1979.
Later in her autobiography, the veteran actress wrote that she slept with Gibson when she was twice his age, per The Hollywood Reporter.
In 1982, she got divorced from her husband and moved back to California.
1986 proved to a fruitful year for her as she received her third Oscar nomination for her role of Mrs Norman in ‘Children of a Lesser God’. She also received an Emmy Award for her role in ‘Promise’.
Laurie starred as Catherine Martell in David Lynch's television series 'Twin Peaks' in 1990-91, which earned her an Emmy nomination.
She also starred in the off-Broadway production of ‘The Destiny of Me’ in 1992, before returning to Broadway for the revival of Paul Osborn's ‘Morning's at Seven’ in 2002.
In the ‘90s, she appeared in Dario Argento's first American film ‘Trauma’ (1993), ‘A Christmas Memory’ (1997), and ‘The Faculty’ (1998).
Laurie had a prolific career throughout the ‘00s as she appeared in independent films like ‘Eulogy’ (2004), ‘The Dead Girl’ (2006), and ‘Hesher’.
In 2018, she played a grandmother to the titular character of ‘White Boy Rick’.
Born in Los Angeles, Laurie led a glamorous and artistic life where she will be remembered for her memorable roles.
