Piper Laurie

Piper Laurie, born Rosetta Jacobs on January 22, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, was an American actress whose career spanned film, television, and stage across more than seven decades. The younger of two daughters born to furniture dealer Alfred Jacobs and his wife, Charlotte Sadie Jacobs, she grew up in a family with Jewish immigrant roots on both sides — her paternal grandparents having come from Poland and her maternal grandparents from Russia. To address her shyness as a child, her parents enrolled her in weekly elocution lessons. She died in Los Angeles on October 14, 2023, at the age of 91.

In 1949, Jacobs signed with Universal Studios and adopted the professional name Piper Laurie. Her first notable screen appearance came in Louisa (1950) alongside Ronald Reagan, whom she briefly dated. A series of lighter studio pictures followed, including Francis Goes to the Races (1951), Son of Ali Baba (1951), and Ain't Misbehavin' (1955). Dissatisfied with the quality of roles available to her in Hollywood, Laurie relocated to New York City to pursue stage work and study acting more seriously. During this period she appeared in television productions including a Hallmark Hall of Fame staging of Twelfth Night, a 1958 Playhouse 90 presentation of Days of Wine and Roses opposite Cliff Robertson — in which she played Kirsten Arnesen — and a 1959 Playhouse 90 production of Winterset.

Paul Newman's offer to co-star in The Hustler (1961) drew Laurie back to Hollywood. Her portrayal of Sarah Packard earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. When substantial film roles again failed to materialize, she and her husband, journalist Joe Morgenstern, settled in Woodstock, New York. Laurie and Morgenstern had met when he interviewed her during the promotion of The Hustler; they married on January 21, 1962, and adopted a daughter in 1971 before divorcing in 1982, after which Laurie moved to the Los Angeles area.

Laurie's Broadway career extended from 1965 to 2002. In 1965 she starred in a revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, appearing opposite Maureen Stapleton, Pat Hingle, and George Grizzard. Nearly four decades later she returned to Broadway for Lincoln Center's 2002 revival of Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven, sharing the stage with Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Frances Sternhagen, and Estelle Parsons. Between those two productions, she appeared in an Off-Broadway staging of The Destiny of Me in 1992.

After a fifteen-year absence from feature films, Laurie accepted the role of the religious fanatic Margaret White in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), a performance that earned her a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress. The film's success revitalized her career. She went on to appear in the Australian film Tim (1979) opposite Mel Gibson, and received a third Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs. Norman in Children of a Lesser God (1986). That same year she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the television movie Promise, co-starring James Garner and James Woods.

From 1990 to 1991, Laurie played the scheming Catherine Martell in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks, a role that brought her renewed visibility with a new generation of viewers. Her television work also included guest appearances on Frasier, Matlock, Will & Grace, Cold Case, and a 2001 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as a recurring presence on ER as the mother of George Clooney's character. She appeared in the miniseries The Thorn Birds in 1983, for which she received a Golden Globe Award. Film appearances in her later career included Eulogy (2004), The Dead Girl (2006), Hesher (2010), and White Boy Rick (2018).

Among her other distinctions, Laurie was named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year in 1962 and received the Spirit of Hope Award in Korea in 2000 for her service during the Korean War. She published an autobiography, Learning to Live Out Loud, in 2011. In addition to her work as an actress, she was a sculptor who worked in marble and clay.