Piper Laurie, Oscar-Nominated ‘Carrie’ and ‘The Hustler’ Actress, Dies at 91

Piper Laurie, the three-time Academy Award-nominated actress whose seven-decade career including starring roles in the classic films “Carrie” and “The Hustler, has died. She was 91.

Laurie’s death was confirmed by her manager, Marion Rosenberg, in a statement to Variety.

“A beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time,” Rosenberg said.

Laurie also starred in 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God,” for which she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role, one of three Academy Award nominations she received in her career. Her first acting credits were for the 1950 films “The Milkman” and “Louisa.”

Her first Oscar nod came for 1961’s “The Hustler,” an iconic poolhall tale in which she starred opposite Paul Newman, playing his love interest. She also received an Oscar nomination for Brian De Palma’s 1976 Stephen King adaptation “Carrie,” in which she played the overbearing mother of Sissy Spacek’s telekinetic protagonist.

After several years working under contract for Universal in the 1950s, Laurie found success only after getting out of the deal, after which she starred in 1957’s “Until They Sail,” with Newman, Jean Simmons and Joan Fontaine.

She then moved from Los Angeles to New York and started working in TV, for which she became a familiar face and eventually won an Emmy, for the 1986 CBS movie “Promise,” a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentation about a schizophrenic played by James Wood and his brother, played by James Garner.

Laurie’s 118 credits span 73 years, up to and including a voice role on the 2023 scripted podcast “Around the Sun,” an episodic drama “that explores human connections, made and missed, with an existential flare,” according to a logline description.

Laurie is survived by a daughter, Anne Grace, and ex-husband Joseph Morgenstern, a writer and film critic. They divorced in 1981.

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