Piper Laurie obit

Piper Laurie, Actress in ‘The Hustler,’ ‘Carrie’ and ‘Twin Peaks,’ Dies at 91

The three-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner also starred in the original 'Days of Wine and Roses' and in 'Children of a Lesser God.' 

She was not on the list.

Piper Laurie, the three-time Oscar-nominated actress known for her performances in The Hustler and Carrie and for her outlandish two-character, two-gender turn on the original Twin Peaks, died Saturday morning in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Laurie had not been well for some time, her rep, Marion Rosenberg, told The Hollywood Reporter.

An Emmy winner who was nominated nine times during her career, Laurie spent three years as a child in a sanatorium, broke free from her original contract at Universal Pictures, once went 15 years without making a movie and starred in the original production — for live television — of Days of Wine and Roses.

In Learning to Live Out Loud, her frank 2011 memoir, she revealed that she lost her virginity to Ronald Reagan and that she had slept with Mel Gibson when she was twice his age. Laurie wrote the book because “my life had many secrets, and it was wearing,” she said in a 2011 interview with the Archive of American Television.

After Laurie’s unscrupulous Catherine Martell of the Packard Sawmill presumably had perished in a fire during the first season of ABC’s Twin Peaks, series co-creator David Lynch called her and said he wanted the actress to return for season two — to play Martell disguised as a man.

“‘What kind of man is going to be up to you,'” she said he told her. “‘You could be a Mexican, a Frenchman, whatever you think.’ I was beside myself with the power to be able to pick my part like that. I decided I would be a Japanese businessman because I thought it would be less predictable.”

Incredibly, the cast and crew were kept in the dark about this. Laurie was told not to tell anyone — not even her family — that she was back on Twin Peaks, and her name was kept out of the credits. And so, sporting a black hairpiece, Fu Manchu mustache and dark glasses, Laurie arrived on the set as actor Fumio Yamaguchi, there to portray the character Mr. Tojamura.

“The cast would never come very close to me,” Laurie said. “They were told to be respectful to this actor who had come over from Japan specifically for the show and had only worked with [Akira] Kurosawa.”

She said that, eventually, some in the cast began to realize something was amiss — but Peggy Lipton, Laurie noted, thought Yamaguchi was actually Isabella Rossellini in disguise.

The actress earned Emmy noms in 1990 and 1991 for her work on the show.

Earlier, the Detroit native received a best actress Oscar nom for portraying the broken and tormented love interest of pool shark Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) in Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961), then landed supporting mentions for playing Sissy Spacek’s religious-fanatic mother in Brian De Palma‘s Carrie (1976) and Marlee Matlin’s mom in Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God (1986).

At the Academy Awards, she lost out to Sophia Loren (Two Women), Beatrice Straight (Network) and Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters), respectively. Laurie, though, said she never believed in judging performances or awards for actors.

More recently, Laurie appeared as the grandmother of a real-life, teenage FBI informant turned drug dealer in White Boy Rick (2018), starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane.

She was born Rosetta Jacobs on Jan. 22, 1932, the youngest of two daughters. Her father, Alfred, worked as a furniture dealer, and her mother, Charlotte, was a housewife. When she was 6, the family came west, and she spent three years in a children’s asylum outside Los Angeles accompanying her sister, who was there for health reasons.

That experience made her extremely quiet, “changed my life and gave me the great gift of imagination because I relied on myself,” she said in her TV Archive interview. When she finally was allowed to leave, she “wanted to create, be brave, do something wonderful in the world.”

In grammar school, she entertained classmates with a comedy routine she had memorized for an elocution class and decided she wanted to be an actress. At age 9, she won a talent contest, and with it a screen test at Warner Bros. It didn’t go well, but she got another one at Universal Studios in 1949 (with Rock Hudson) and earned a contract there while still a senior at Los Angeles High School.

Her manager rechristened her Piper Laurie, and she made her movie debut in Louisa (1950), playing Reagan’s daughter. She was 18, and he was 39. Universal told the press that the fresh-faced ingenue bathed in milk and ate flowers for lunch.

Laurie then appeared in other films like Francis Goes to the Races (1951), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952) opposite Hudson, No Room for the Groom (1952) — one of four movies she did with Tony Curtis — The Mississippi Gambler (1953) and Ain’t Misbehavin‘ (1955).

All her roles were lightweight, and Laurie wanted more. She informed her agent, “‘They can throw me in jail, sue me, I don’t care what it is. I’m never working again until I can do something that I have some respect for,'” she told People magazine in 1990.

He got her out of her contract at Universal, and Laurie moved to New York.

The parts she was longing for were on live television. On Studio One‘s “The Deaf Heart” episode, directed by Sidney Lumet, she portrayed a girl who loses her hearing because of an emotional calamity. That resulted in her first Emmy nom.

In October 1958, Laurie played the alcoholic Kirsten opposite Cliff Robertson in the original production of Days of Wine and Roses, done for director John Frankenheimer for Playhouse 90. She visited drunks in the Bowery, at AAA meetings and at Bellevue Hospital to prepare for the role.

“Miss Laurie is moving into the forefront of our most gifted young actresses,” Jack Gould wrote in his review for The New York Times. Meanwhile, after working with Frankenheimer, she “had fallen madly in love with my director, and he was in love with me,” she said in her TV Archive chat.

After The Hustler, Laurie did not do another film for some 15 years as she moved to Woodstock, New York, to study sculpture and raise her daughter, Anne, with her then-husband, entertainment journalist Joe Morgenstern. She also appeared in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway.

Laurie said she was surprised when De Palma courted her for Carrie, and after reading the script, she thought the horror film was a comedy. “I had the opportunity to play-act as children do. I could be the mean lady,” she said.

Her film résumé also included Son of Ali Baba (1952), the Australian drama Tim (1979) — that’s where she first met and had her liaison with her co-star Gibson — Storyville (1992), Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993), The Grass Harp (1995), The Crossing Guard (1995), Saving Grace B. Jones (2009) and Hesher (2010).

Laurie captured her lone Emmy for portraying James Garner‘s old flame in the revered 1986 Peabody Award-winning telefilm Promise. She also was nominated for playing the wife of Nazi Joseph Goebbels and for work on The Thorn Birds, St. Elsewhere (as a stroke victim and Alan Arkin’s wife) and Frasier (as Christine Baranski’s mother).

Survivors include her daughter, Anna

 

Filmography

Film

 

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1950    Louisa            Cathy Norton Film debut

The Milkman            Chris Abbott

1951    Francis Goes to the Races   Frances Travers

The Prince Who Was a Thief     Tina     

1952    No Room for the Groom Lee Kingshead       

Has Anybody Seen My Gal?            Millicent Blaisdell         

Son of Ali Baba            Princess Azura of Fez / Kiki     

1953    The Mississippi Gambler            Angelique "Leia" Dureau

The Golden Blade            Khairuzan        

1954            Dangerous Mission            Louise Graham           

Johnny Dark            Liz Fielding           

Dawn at Socorro            Rannah Hayes  

1955    Smoke Signal   Laura Evans  

Ain't Misbehavin'            Sarah Bernhardt Hatfield           

1957    Kelly and Me            Mina Van Runkel     

Until They Sail            Delia Leslie Friskett  

1961    The Hustler Sarah Packard            Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress

Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress

Nominated—Golden Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance (2nd Place)

Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (3rd Place)

1976    Carrie            Margaret White            Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

1976    The Woman Rebel            Margaret Sanger         

1977    Ruby            Ruby Claire  

1979    Tim            Mary Horton

1981    The Bunker Magda Goebbels         

1985    Return to Oz    Aunt Em      

1986            Children of a Lesser God     Mrs. Willa Norman            Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

1988            Appointment with Death   Emily Boynton          

Tiger Warsaw            Frances Warsaw          

1989    Dream a Little Dream            Gena Ettinger

1991    Other People's Money Bea Sullivan

1992            Storyville            Constance Fowler      

Rich in Love            Vera Delmage          

1993    Trauma            Adriana Petrescu            Nominated—Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway            Georgia           

1995    The Grass Harp            Dolly Talbo            Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress

The Crossing Guard   Helen Booth  

1998    The Faculty Mrs. Olson  

2004    Eulogy            Charlotte Collins         

2006    The Dead Girl            Arden's mother 

2007            Hounddog            Grammie         

2009    Saving Grace B. Jones            Marta Shank  

2010    Hesher            Madeleine Forney       

Another Harvest Moon            June    

2012    Bad Blood   Milly Lathtrop          

2018            Snapshots        Rose Muller 

White Boy Rick     Vera Wershe            Final film role

 

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1955    The Best of Broadway            Billie Moore            Episode: "Broadway"

Robert Montgomery Presents            Stacey Spender            Episode: "Quality Town"

1956    Front Row Center            Judy Jones            Episode: "Winter Dreams"

1956–1961            General Electric Theater            Various            3 episodes

1957    Studio One      Ruth Cornelius            Episode: "The Deaf Heart"

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Actress – Best Single Performance – Lead or Support

Playhouse 90            Ruth McAdam            Episode: "The Ninth Day"

1958    Kirsten Arnesen Clay            Episode: "Days of Wine and Roses"

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actress

1959            Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse            Eileen Gorman            Episode: "The Innocent Assassin"

1960–1963            The United States Steel Hour            Edna Cartey  2 episodes

1963    Naked City      Mary Highmark            Episode: "Howard Running Bear Is a Turtle"

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Lee Wiley            Episode: "Something About Lee Wiley"

Ben Casey            Kathleen Dooley            Episode: "Light Up the Dark Corners"

1964    The Eleventh Hour            Alicia Carter            Episode: "My Door Is Locked and Bolted"

Breaking Point            Alice Marin            Episode: "The Summer House"

1977    In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan Julie Quinlan            Television movie

1978            Rainbow         Ethel Gumm            Television movie

1980    Skag            Jo Skagska            6 episodes

1981    The Bunker Magda Goebbels            Television movie

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special

1982    Mae West    Matilda West            Television movie

1983    The Thorn Birds            Anne Mueller 3 episodes

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special

St. Elsewhere            Fran Singleton            3 episodes

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

1985    Hotel            Jessica            Episode: "Illusions"

Murder, She Wrote  Peggy Shannon            Episode: "Murder at the Oasis"

Tender Is the Night    Elsie Speers            Episode: "1925"

Love, Mary            Christine Groda            Television movie

Toughlove            Darlene Marsh            Television movie

1985–1986            The Twilight Zone            Aunt Neva            Segment: "The Burning Man"

Gramma (voice)            Segment: "Gramma" (uncredited)[39]

1986            Matlock          Claire Leigh            Episode: "The Judge"

Promise            Annie Gilbert            Television movie

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film

1988    Go Toward the Light     Margo            Television movie

1989    Beauty and the Beast            Mrs. Davis            Episode: "A Gentle Rain"

1990–1991            Twin Peaks            Catherine Martell /

Mr. Tojamura (credited as Fumio Yamaguchi)            27 episodes

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1990)

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1990)

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (1991)

Nominated—Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Actress – Prime Time (1991–1992)

1993    Lies and Lullabies            Margaret Kinsey            Television movie

1994    Traps            Cora Trapchek            5 episodes

Frasier            Marianne (voice)            Episode: "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast"

Shadows of Desire  Ellis Snow            Television movie

1995    Fighting For My Daughter            Judge Edna Burton            Television movie

1995–1996            ER            Sarah Ross     2 episodes

1996            Diagnosis: Murder            A.D.A. Susan Turner            Episode: "The ABC's of Murder"

1997            Intensity          Miriam Braynard            Television movie

Touched by an Angel   Annie Doyle            Episode: "Venice"

A Christmas Memory            Jennie            Television movie

1999            Brother's Keeper            Jane Waide            Episode: "Everybody Says I Love You"

Frasier  Mrs. Mulhern            Episode: "Dr. Nora"

Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

Inherit the Wind    Sarah Brady            Television movie

2000    Will & Grace   Sharon            Episode: "There But for the Grace of Grace"

Possessed            Aunt Hanna            Television movie

2001            Midwives         Cheryl Visco            Television movie

The Last Brickmaker in America            Ruth Anne            Television movie

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit            Dorothy Rudd            Episode: "Care"

2002    State of Grace   Aunt Sophie            Episode: "Where the Boys Are"

2004    Dead Like Me            Nina Rommey            Episode: "Forget Me Not"

2005    Cold Case    Rose 2005            Episode: "Best Friends"

2018            MacGyver       Edith            Episode: "Skyscraper - Power"

2022–2023            Around the Sun            Grandma / Alien Maude Audio drama