Piper Laurie, a three-time Oscar nominated actress who starred in “Carrie,” “The Hustler,” and “Twin Peaks,” has died at the age of 91.
Laurie was “a beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time,” said her manager Marion Rosenberg, who confirmed the news to Variety on Saturday.
The actress had been ill for some time, said Rosenberg, although the exact cause of death is not yet known.
Born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit in 1932, Laurie’s family moved to Los Angeles when she was 6-years-old. Her parents sent her to a children’s asylum with her sister, who was there for health reasons, for three years.
Laurie reflected on the experience as one that “changed my life and gave me the great gift of imagination because I relied on myself,” she said in a TV Archive interview. When she finally left, she “wanted to create, be brave, do something wonderful in the world.”
Leaving high school at the age of 17, she signed a contract with Universal Pictures for $250 a week and was given the stage name “Piper Laurie” by her manager.
Her first role came as Ronald Reagan’s daughter in the 1950 film “Louisa.” She later starred in a series of Universal comedies and musicals.
After getting out of her contract and moving to New York, she garnered her first Oscar nomination for her role in the 1961 drama “The Hustler,” acting opposite Paul Newman.
She retired briefly, moving to Woodstock, N.Y. with her husband, writer Joe Morgenstern, to focus on raising her daughter, Anna.
Laurie returned to acting in the mid-1970s, and was nominated for Oscars for her work in the films “Carrie” and “Children of a Lesser God.”
Two of her nine Emmy nominations came from her role as Catherine Martell in David Lynch’s TV series “Twin Peaks.”
Into the 200s, she guest-starred on “ER,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Will and Grace” and “Law and Order: SVU.”
Film critic Guy Lodge remembered Laurie on X as “an actor who so often made films a little stranger, bristlier and more interesting for her presence, and who deserved better than what the industry gave her at the peak of her powers.”