Twin Peaks actress Piper Laurie has died at the age of 91

Piper Laurie, whose impressive work in the films Carrie and The Hustler made her a screen icon, died Saturday morning in Los Angeles. She was 91 years old and had been ill for some time. Laurie's representative confirmed the death. Nominated nine times for an Emmy and three times for an Academy Award, Laurie finally broke through in the live TV drama The Days of Wine and Roses.

The actress was also known for her role as Catherine Martell in the television drama Twin Peaks. The actress earned Emmy nominations in 1990 and 1991 for her work on the series. Laurie won an Oscar for her role as Paul Newman's broken love interest in Robert Rossen's The Hustler (1961).



Laurie (pictured) is also remembered for her terrifying performances as Sissy Spacek's ultra-religious mother in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976) and Marlee Matlin's mother in Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God (1986). Laurie's last film role was in the film White Boy Rick (2018), starring Matthew McConaughey.

Born Rosetta Jacobs on Jan. 22, 1932, she was the youngest of two daughters. When she was 6, the family moved to Los Angeles, and she spent three years in a children’s asylum outside Los Angeles accompanying her sister, who was there for health reasons.

At age 9, she won a talent contest, and with it a screen test at Warner Bros. That didn’t result in a job, but she got another one at Universal Studios in 1949 and earned a contract while still a senior at Los Angeles High School.

Her manager renamed her as Piper Laurie, and she made her movie debut in Louisa (1950), playing Ronald Reagan’s daughter.

Her resume then expanded to include Francis Goes to the Races (1951), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), No Room for the Groom (1952), The Mississippi Gambler (1953) and Ain’t Misbehavin‘ (1955).

She then moved to New York and began a long stint in television. She did not do another film for 15 years. She interspersed that time by appearing on Broadway in The Glass Menagerie.

Her many television roles throughout her long career include well-known titles such as the 1960s medical drama series The Eleventh Hour, the television film The Bunker (1981), in which she played Magda Goebbels and for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, the miniseries The Thorn Birds, the eighties series St. Elsewhere, Hotel, Murder, She Wrote, The Twilight Zone (1985) and Matlock.

After her role in David Lynch's Twin Peaks in the early 1990s, she continued mainly with guest roles in series such as ER, Diagnosis Murder, Frasier, Will & Grace, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and MacGyver (2016). That was also her last television role, but between 2022 and 2023 Laurie could still be heard in Around the Sun, a scripted podcast series.