Piper Laurie’s three Oscar nominations, for
The Hustler,
Carrie and
Children Of A Lesser God, demonstrated the Detroit native’s range as a performer. Born in 1932 as Rosetta Jacobs, when she arrived in Hollywod in 1949 she was renamed — to her chagrin — Piper Laurie, and quickly given a contract with Universal-International. She quickly landed a string of starring roles opposite Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and, less glamorously, Francis the talking mule. Fed up, she walked out on her $2000-a-week contract in 1955, vowing she wouldn’t work again unless offered a decent part. Laurie moved to New York and worked in theatre and television, earning Emmy nominations along the way. She also became noted as a baker, with her recipes appearing in
The New York Times. Director Brian De Palma coaxed her back to Hollwood to play the deranged mother of Sissy Spacek in
Carrie. Her desire to act rekindled, Laurie resumed a busy career that spanned decades, and on television, she appeared in such series as
Matlock,
Murder, She Wrote and
Frasier and played George Clooney’s mother on
ER. Laurie died on October 14 aged 91.
