In Memoriam: Piper Laurie

Piper Laurie, the actress known for The Hustler and Carrie, died on Saturday, October 14, 2023. She was 91 years old.

Laurie was a three-time Oscar nominee whose career began in the late 1940s. She starred in 1961’s The Hustler as Sarah, an alcoholic in a turbulent relationship with lead character Fast Eddie. She disturbed audiences in the 1976 horror film Carrie, as the titular character’s abusive and ultimately murderess mother. Laurie earned her first two Oscar nominations for her work in those movies.

She was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit on January 22, 1932. Laurie signed a contract with Universal Pictures in 1949 when she was still a teenager, and her big screen debut came a year later in Louisa. It was quickly followed by Has Anybody Seen My Gal, The Mississippi Gambler, and Johnny Dark.

Laurie appeared in a few TV shows after The Hustler, returning to film 15 years later to star in Carrie. She played Lady Macbeth in a TV adaptation of Macbeth, did a few episodes of St. Elsewhere, and was in Return to Oz. In ’86, she earned a third Oscar nomination for Children of a Lesser God and won an Emmy for the miniseries Promise.

In the late ‘80s to ‘90s, she was in Dream a Little Dream, played the conniving Catherine Martell in Twin Peaks, appeared in ER and Frasier, and was in The Faculty. Laurie’s later work included an episode of Cold Case, Another Harvest Moon, and her final performance was voice acting for the podcast series Around the Sun.