Piper
Laurie, who has died aged 91, was a three-time Oscar nominee who began her
career as a vivacious, russet-maned starlet, before reinventing herself in
roles that reminded an indifferent industry of her versatility and durability:
as Paul Newman’s lover in The Hustler (1961), the unforgettably
monstrous matriarch in Carrie (1976) and a sublimely scheming
businesswoman in Twin Peaks (1990-91). Born
Rosetta Jacobs, she had been rechristened Piper Laurie by Universal execs;
publicity material suggested this teenage discovery snacked on petals to
maintain her rosy glow. Initially deployed to glam up such filler as talking
mule comedy Francis Goes to the Races (1951), Laurie rebelled upon
reading her desultory part in one Audie Murphy Western. She tore up the script
in her agent’s office, telling him: “They can throw me in jail, sue me, I don’t
care what... I’m never working again until I can do something that I have some
respect for.”
Extricated
from contractual obligation, she demonstrated a new maturity in The Hustler,
earning her first Oscar nod as Sarah Packard, the doomed alcoholic who catches
pool shark Paul Newman’s eye – but warns him “I’ve got troubles and I think
maybe you’ve got troubles. Maybe it’d be better if we just leave each other
alone.” Laurie stayed home on Oscar night, wrestling with a longstanding
amphetamine dependency; the award went to Sophia Loren for Two Women
(1960).
For
a decade, she dropped out, moving to Woodstock with her family, kicking the drugs
and supporting the civil rights movement (“Being an actor just seemed rather
insignificant then”). A New York Times profile of 1972 caught her
contentedly baking dill bread. But she would make an arresting comeback – landing
her second Oscar nomination – as Margaret White, the heroine’s oppressively
devout mother, in Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie.
There
was some confusion as to what role and project entailed: “I read the script and
I thought it was just not very good. My husband said that Brian De Palma has a
comedic approach to what he does. I thought, oh, I misread the whole thing... it’s
satiric. It’s going to be a comedy.” The enduringly chilling results proved
otherwise.
Finding
comparably dynamic parts few and far between, Laurie travelled to Australia to
make Tim (1979), romancing younger co-star Mel Gibson on and off-camera.
She also made strides into TV, playing Rachel Ward’s confidante Anne Mueller in
The Thorn Birds (1983). The latter provided her with one of nine Emmy
nominations: she won once, a Best Supporting Actress gong for the family drama Promise
(1986).
She
gained her third Oscar nod as Marlee Matlin’s mother in the premium-grade
tearjerker Children of a Lesser God (1986). But arguably her choicest role
followed when David Lynch cast her as the devious sawmill owner Catherine
Martell in Twin Peaks.
The
cult drama’s first season saw Martell cheating on her pushover husband and
apparently suffering a fiery demise; in season two, Catherine returned in
disguise as the mysterious Japanese businessman Mr. Tojamura. Lynch urged
Laurie to make the role her own, and the deception was carefully maintained on
set: Laurie’s co-stars were informed the newcomer with the Fu Manchu moustache was
a revered Japanese performer who had previously worked with Kurosawa.
Gleefully
running rings around scene partners, Laurie earned the Golden Globe for Best
Supporting Actress in a Series, and a renewed sense of the possibilities that come
from true creative freedom. Twin Peaks, she recalled, “was a period when
I truly found myself in the craft I have always loved”.
Piper
Laurie was born on January 22, 1932, one of two daughters to Detroit furniture
dealer Alfred Jacobs and his wife Charlotte (née Alperin). A shy child,
she was enrolled for elocution lessons and plied with amphetamines in a bid to
control her weight. Aged five, she was sent to a sanatorium alongside her
asthmatic older sister Sherrye, an experience that “gave me the great gift of
imagination”; upon leaving, she realised she wanted to “create, be brave, do
something wonderful in the world”.
She
was signed to Universal in 1949 after screen-testing opposite Rock Hudson, and
made her debut in the family comedy Louisa (1950), playing Ronald
Reagan’s daughter. In her characteristically frank 2011 memoir Learning to
Live Out Loud, Laurie described losing her virginity to Reagan (“completely without grace… no gentleman between the sheets”).
In
later life, Laurie worked regularly, guest-starring on E.R. (1995-96)
and Frasier (1999), and reuniting with Spacek for the big-screen
adaptation of The Grass Harp (1995). She made her directorial debut in
her seventies with the short Property (2006); she made her musical
theatre debut at 81 in a 2013 production of A Little Night Music; her
final performances were for the podcasts Carcerem (2020) and Around
the Sun (2022-23).
Revisiting
her contract starlet roots, Laurie reflected: “Nobody thought of me as an
actress. They just remembered that publicity story about my munching flower
petals for breakfast. I even thought of giving up the name Piper Laurie because
I felt there was a stigma attached to it. I never could figure out just how
many parts I lost and how many parts I won because of this name. I know some
producers and directors said, ‘Well, maybe she can act even if her name is
Piper Laurie!’”
She
married the film critic Joe Morgenstern, whom she met while promoting The
Hustler, in 1962; they divorced in 1982. She is survived by their daughter
Anne Grace.
Piper
Laurie, born January 22 1932, died October 14 2023.
