American actress Piper Laurie, nominated three times for the Oscars, died Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91 years old.
Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told The Associated Press by email, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.”
Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and quickly landed a contract with Universal-International, a new name she hated, and a series of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis, among others.
She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three separate films: the 1961 billiards drama The Hustler (The Scammer), the film version of Stephen King’s horror classic Carriein 1976, and the romantic drama Children of a Lesser God (The Children of Silence), in 1986.
She has also appeared in several acclaimed roles on television and stage, including in Twin Peaks by David Lynch in the 1990s as the villainous Catherine Martell.
His performance in Days of Wine and Roses, The Deaf Heart And The Road That Led After earned him Emmy nominations.
For many years after her career in front of the camera, Laurie turned her back on acting. She married film critic Joseph Morgenstern, welcomed a daughter, Ann Grace, and moved to a farm in Woodstock, New York.
She later said that the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War influenced her decision to make this change.
“I was disenchanted and looking for a more meaningful existence for myself,” she recalls, adding that she never regretted the decision.
“My life was full,” she said in 1990. “I always loved using my hands and I always painted. »
Laurie has also become known as a baker, with her recipes appearing in the New York Times.