American actress Piper Laurie, a three-time Oscar nominee for The Hustler opposite Paul Newman, then for her role in Carrie the Gaze of Satan and finally as the mother of Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God, has died at the age of 91 at her home in Los Angeles. This was announced by spokeswoman Marion Rosenberg. Real name Rosetta Jacobs, Piper had been ill for some time, Rosenberg said.
An Emmy Award winner (having racked up a total of nine nominations), Laurie had spent three years as a child in a sanatorium, broke her first contract with Universal Studios, and at one point was, by her own choice, nearly 15 years without making a film. She had returned to film and television in the mid-2011s.
Starring in David Lynch's iconic television series, Twin Peaks, earned him two of his Emmy nominations (she received the statuette for her role in the CBS film Promise about schizophrenia).
In 18, she wrote the memoir Learning to Live Out Loud in which she said she lost her virginity at age 39 to 1950-year-old Ronald Reagan on the set of her first film Louise in 17. A reluctant starlet of the studio system, Piper had been signed to a seven-year contract by Universal at the age of 1951: she had appeared in films such as Francis Goes to the Races (1952), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952) with Rock Hudson, No Room for the Groom (1953 one of four with Tony Curtis), The Mississippi Gambler (1955) and Ain't Misbehavin' (1961). All light films and she wanted something more: "If I had continued to shoot these insipid roles I would have killed myself", she said a few years later. He convinced his agent to break the contract and moved to New York, working for four years in live TV and theater while waiting for the right film.
After Hustler in 15, Laurie did not make any more films for almost <> years, having moved to Woodstock to study sculpture and raise her daughter Anna with her then-husband Joe Morgenstern, an entertainment journalist. She had returned to the cinema with Carrie after succumbing to pressure from Brain De Palma.
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