Piper Laurie, the Oscar-nominated actress of “Carrie” and “Twin Peaks,” has died at the age of 91.

CNN
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Actress Piper Laurie, best known for her portrayal of a fanatical religious mother in “Carrie” and playing Paul Newman’s humble girlfriend in “The Hustler,” has died at the age of 91, her manager said.

Lori died early Saturday in Los Angeles, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, confirmed to CNN. No cause of death was provided.

Rosenberg said Laurie will be remembered as “one of the best actresses of her generation and a wonderful human being.”

Turner Classic Movies, which like CNN is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, called Laurie “one of the most iconic and fascinating actresses of the last half-century.” The network praised her “complete performance as a flawed and often ferocious woman.”

Although she started out as a teen star in the 1950s, she… Laurie took a long hiatus from Hollywood after becoming She was disappointed with the industry’s treatment of her as a young actress and the superficiality of the female roles she was offered. When it re-emerged more than a decade later, it quickly re-established itself Amazing representations of complex – and sometimes tormented – women.

Critics and colleagues took notice: Laurie received Academy Award nominations for her stirring performance in “The Hustler” (1961) and “Carrie” (1976). Her third nomination was for her portrayal of the role of a remorseful mother in the film “Children of the Lesser God” (1986).

She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance as a vengeful mill owner in the television series “Twin Peaks,” as well as two Emmy Award nominations.

Born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit in 1932, she took the name Piper Laurie at the request of a manager when she began acting professionally, writing in her memoir Learning to Live Out Loud.

After signing with Universal-International (now Universal Studios) at the age of 17, Laurie starred with other actors including Newman, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Ronald Reagan.

“It will be a very long time before life teaches me that it’s okay to fight for what I want. At seventeen, I still thought that being a good person and working hard were enough,” she wrote in her memoir.

The disappointment began almost immediately, she recalled.

In her first role, as the teenage daughter of the character Reagan in Louisa (1950), Lurie wrote that “every line and moment for the girl seemed like a caricature.” “I kept trying to think of ways to make it real for myself, but there was constant conflict in the group,” she added.

“Every role I played was the same girl, no matter if my star was Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, or Rory Calhoun,” Lori said. He told the New York Times 1977 in reference to the films she produced under the contract. “She was innocent, attractive, simple – the less intelligent the better, sophistication was forbidden – and she was always slim.”

In the mid-1950s, Laurie broke her contract with Universal, but struggled to get the Hollywood roles she wanted. Instead, she turned to films and television series.

“It was one thing to finally be free of the studio that had owned me since I was 17. It was quite another to put the image that Universal had created behind me,” she wrote in her memoir.

She returned briefly to the silver screen in 1961 with The Hustler, before withdrawing from Hollywood films for more than a decade, finally returning in 1976 with her tortured portrayal of Margaret White, the fanatical evangelical mother in Carrie.

Laurie said that filming “Carrie” was the first time she felt like she would actually have fun while filming the movie.

“It was a very beautiful and emotional time for me. I felt very welcome by the crew, some of whom I knew before. I felt embraced by everyone, and especially free to do this work,” Laurie wrote in her memoir.

Laurie married film critic Joe Morgenstern in the early 1960s, but they later divorced. They share a daughter.