Piper Laurie: The Girl Who Ate Flowers

Part of what mesmerizes me about the actresses I love is their distinctive voices. Piper Laurie’s indelible talent is, of course, what attracted me to her initially. But part of what grabs me in the gut is her uniquely soft, velveteen whispery voice that seems to come from a deep and delicate place. Such voices are capable of moving mountains. Piper Laurie may have started out as Universal’s young ingénue but what she manifested after breaking her chains from the studio that held her back, is a monumental ability to express herself with a depth of emotion. She is evocative, calm, almost solitary, and always remarkable in each of her performances.

Universal Studios might have locked her into formulaic romantic comedies and hyperbolic adventures, something Piper Laurie herself felt restricted by, but even those films are still delightful viewing and she shines in each role. Unfortunately, the label stuck to her name and made it impossible for the actress to get serious scripts. Universal forced her to turn down potential break-out dramatic roles with their constrictive servitude. It wasn’t until she took to the stage once again — as she has when first starting out in drama class– and acted in 1950s television shows featuring extraordinary writing and directing, that she was able to shed the stigma of some of Hollywood’s insipid labeling. There were directors and producers who saw something more in Piper Laurie. It is infuriating that she was not given the role director Vittorio DeSica had chosen for her because of Universal’s narrow-mindedness and strangling contract. And it is frustrating that there are remarkable performances from 1950s dramatic teleplays and series that are just not available for viewing. The only performance that I can find is Piper Laurie as Kirsten Arnesen Clay in Playhouse 90’s Days of Wine and Roses directed by John Frankenheimer.

In April 2019 I had the incredible opportunity to sit down and talk with the great actress while at the Chiller Theater Convention here in New Jersey. There, in the midst of enthusiastic fans buzzing around like drones in a spectacle hive excited to see Carrie White’s sinister mother, sat Piper Laurie as beautiful as always. She exudes a gentleness and presence –an aura– that emanates from her smile beneath one of her signature hats. I stood there struck silent for a moment, nervously. I think I might have even trembled a bit, about to meet one of the great actresses I’ve revered for years. Amidst signing autographs and Carrie bobbleheads, her smile greeted me peacefully. She was gracious and welcoming. After I told her that I thought she should have won the Academy Award for her nuanced and provocative performance as the damaged Sarah Packard in Director Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, she invited me to come and sit down and chat with her for a while. I found her to be extremely kind, witty, and in particular, quite feisty and honest.

Just like her incredible life story and eloquently written autobiography Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir (which she proudly informed me was written completely in her own words without the aid of a ghostwriter). While I’ll give some snippets of what you’ll find in Piper Laurie’s captivating autobiography, I’d rather leave you to obtain the book and take the journey with her yourself.

The book details brutally raw and honest expository remembrances of her intense journey as a child, from her early experiences as the reluctant and lovely starlet in 1950s Hollywood to finally finding the voice that she struggled to manifest for so many years because of pathological anxiety. She tells how Universal shackled her to a contract while she slowly grew more courageous wanting to only take good scripts and shatter the image of the vapid Hollywood starlet. The book includes wonderful anecdotes about the days of great actors and directors, the experiences of working in the Hollywood system, and the friendships she established while discovering her creative voice through it all. The book deals with her exploration into love from her first unfortunate encounter with Ronald Reagan to the tumultuous lifelong love affair with director John Frankenheimer.

I told Piper Laurie that I understand why so many people bring up the movie Carrie at these conventions– it stands to reason that there’s a thrill in the mythos of characterizations like that. But it was when I told her how much I loved her work beyond that famous iconic role, she held my hand looked into my eyes, and told me with great and stately sincerity how much that meant to her. This is a piece of time in my life I will always remember with great affection and awe.

Throughout our conversation, her soft eyes look straight into mine and her effervescent smile summoned validation in me and we were having such a real and candid conversation. We talked about her performance in Until They Sail (1957), Robert Wises’ superior underrated film about four sisters during the war. She was thrilled to talk about it, that it was a good film but no one ever mentions it. Piper Laurie’s performance as Delia Leslie is extraordinary filled with layers of self-preservation and boldness.

During WWII the four sisters struggle to survive without the men in their lives. Piper Laurie’s performance as Delia Leslie is extraordinary filled with layers of self-preservation and boldness. Delia is a free spirit who will not bend to others’ will.

Piper remarked about the wonderful actresses she got to work within the film as it also starred Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, and Sandra Dee. She told me how sweet Sandra Dee was and that it was her first film role. They had to build her up with a body suit to make her look older and more developed as her character aged. She was very appreciative to talk about the work she had done that she was proud of. [SPOILER ALERT] I told her how upset I was that they killed her off at the end of the film. In her humorous, feisty manner she responded, “They always seem to be killing me off in these things!”

Of course, we talked a little about the phenomenon that is her comeback role in Carrie (1976). She appreciated hearing that it was her performance as Mrs. White that was the true horror narrative of that film, and not the supernatural subplot. Even her orgasmic death scene where being crucified brought her a certain ecstasy emblematic of iconic death scenes on screen for generations.

Piper Laurie as Ruby Claire in Curtis Harrington’s Ruby (1977)

While fans were mimicking “They’re all gonna laugh at You” from Carrie (1976), I asked her about working with director Curtis Harrington and her work in his extremely atmospheric horror film Ruby (1977) where she plays the sensual torch singer Ruby Claire who ran with gangsters during prohibition and owns a drive-in theater haunted by an angry ghost. She got such a kick out of me bringing that film up and told me she herself loves the film! In Ruby, Piper Laurie’s sultry performance is haunting and sexy, and the film is an off-beat gem. She said working with Harrington was a great experience and that he was wonderful to work with. She also agreed with me that Harrington has a particular sensitivity and sympathetic eye for the vulnerability in women much like Tennessee Williams. His characterizations of women in each of his films are very complex, for example, Simone Signoret in Games 1967, Shelley Winters and Debby Reynolds in What’s The Matter with Helen, Julie Harris in So Awful About Alan, Ann Southern, and Ruth Roman in The Killing Kind and of course Piper as Ruby Claire. “He was a gentle and lovely man during and after.”

I told her how much I loved her performance as Dolly Talbot in The Grass Harp (1995). After reading her autobiography I can see how she manifested the gentle quality of Capote’s ethereal character. In contrast, it’s ironic that a good many people remember the monstrous mother from De Palma’s Carrie –she still frightens horror fans to this day– when Piper Laurie can only think of how funny it was for her to be so mean. Who at first thought the film was supposed to be a comedy and how the director was deadly serious about her playing it utterly satanic right down to getting crucified by kitchen implements? She had to stop herself from laughing during the shooting of that scene.

To be honest, Piper Laurie as Toni Collette’s (Arden’s) mother in The Dead Girl 2006 is far more frightening than Carrie White’s mother could ever be. One is macabre and Grand Guignol and the other is too real and tragic to cause a shudder in your psyche. Having met her it’s even more of a revelation that she is an incredible actor to be able to manifest such horror when she is quite the opposite in true life.

I also mentioned her performance as Mary Highmark in Naked City Howard Running Bear is a Turtle (1963). Naked City is an Emmy Award-winning dramatic television series from the 1960s. Its well-scripted episodes, cinematography, and casting of the finest actors from stage and film were groundbreaking. And while this particular episode is problematic in that actors who were not Native American were miscast in those roles, and they whacked a really awful black wig on Piper, her performance was the one illuminating aspect of the episode. When I reminded her of the show, she remarked, “Didn’t I dance on the table in that?” while she laughed with that distinctive voice of hers. I had to laugh as well and tell her that she was very good in the role, but the wig was frightful. We had a good laugh about it. I joked that perhaps it was the same one they stuck on William Shatner when he played a Balinese man in the other disappointing episode from all 4 seasons. Aside from her dancing –which was really painful to watch as she mimics a Native American dance the partygoers are insensitively asking her to do an offensive impression of– her performance was poignant and powerful. She was surprised that I got that much out of it, in her words, “it didn’t age well” — the wig and the episode.

When I told her that I would be very respectful in the feature about her personal life, she joked about it saying that she would be disappointed if it wasn’t racy! That gentle beaming smile with that sassy sense of humor. I love Piper Laurie even more than I possibly could have before!

As time has moved on her talent has not only diminished she continues to recreate herself and grow even more beautiful with age.

Piper Laurie is a three-time Oscar nominee, nominated by BAFTA as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for best performance by an actress in ‘The Hustler’ with Paul Newman. Her career has spanned 7 decades. Piper Laurie earned three Oscar nominations for her portrayal of the tragic Sarah Packard in director Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961).

PIPER LAURIE INTERVIEW FROM 2012 TALKING ABOUT ROBERT ROSSEN’S THE HUSTLER (1961)

The character of Sarah Packard (The Hustler) is immortalized on the screen by an arresting performance by Piper Laurie (Kim Novak had turned down the role) who should have won the Oscar for Best Actress with her nuanced, and heart-wrenching interpretation of the vulnerable loner and self-loathing Sarah. Director Robert Rossen has often dealt with the intricacies within the psychological landscape of his films. (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers 1946, All the King’s Men 1949, Lilith 1964, Billy Budd 1962).

Sarah Packard is a complicated woman who has a tenuous connection to the world but allows herself to fall in love with Eddie who is driven to succeed and land at the top as the greatest pool hustler. Sarah is a lost soul longing for someone who will love her. She receives a stipend from her wealthy father, but there is no sign of affection or acceptance from him, his is non-existent. Eddie awakens desire in her, but he cannot deliver anything but his hunger and ambition to beat Minnesota Fats and attain the title. Fast Eddie destroys everything he touches. In order to really throw herself into the role of Sarah Packard Piper Laurie actually hung out at the Greyhound terminal at night.

Piper Laurie was also nominated for her portrayal as Sarah’s mother Mrs. Norman in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and quite notably as the fanatical nightmarish mother Mrs. White in Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) But those who remember her best from that role may be surprised to learn that she overcame an equally turbulent childhood, including an anxiety disorder that left her unable to communicate as a child.

Once free of Universal’s iron grip she was able to take on roles in dramatic teleplays, performances in the theater, and in films that would lead her to her signature artistry. Some of her most memorable performances were the stage production of The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, the original Days of Wine and Roses, in the film The Hustler for which she was nominated for the Academy Award.

After a hiatus from acting she reemerged in the iconic horror film Carrie in 1976 and had a major role in David Lynch’s cult television show Twin Peaks, Children of a Lesser God, Tim, and The Grass Harp. Piper Laurie is also a skilled sculptor and director, and one of the industry’s most brave and talented originals.

“I’ve had a tough life sometimes, and a very rewarding one,” Piper exclusively shared with Closer Weekly in 2018. Who is “not frightened often by anything. Either I’ve been through it before, or I just know I will survive!”

There are so many intricate details of Piper Laurie’s journey that it would be impossible to sum it all up in one tribute. Besides I’d like to leave plenty of the morsels and insights that are so well written in her book. I can’t think of a better way to tribute the great actress than by allowing her to tell the full story in her own words. I cannot stress again the importance of getting this amazing autobiography and delving into the weeds with this brilliant woman who has a compelling story to share with us.

Piper Laurie was born Rosetta Jacobs on January 22nd, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents, Charlotte Sadie, and Alfred Jacobs, were of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent. It wasn’t easy for her parents to raise two little girls in the middle of the Depression. After years of struggling to survive Rosy’s weary mother took her sister Sherrye, who suffered from a terrible case of Asthma, and Rosy to a Sanitarium in the Mountains called Reslocks a home for children in the northeastern part of the San Fernando Valley. Grandmother and mother dropped the two little girls off without goodbyes as Rosy felt everything go black, she had fainted. She was left there to keep her sister company for 3 years in the cold dormitory-style home where there was no nurturing presence just steel-handed guidance from unemotional guardians who inflicted more harm than good on the children in their care. With no contact with her mother except for a visit or two, otherwise, the girl was left at the mercy of Reslocks.

“As for me, my exile had cultivated an imagination that grew like a giant sheltering flower. It was a lifetime gift.“

Though Rosy, then called Sissy returned home, the desperate love that she originally felt for her mother turned into something dark, and the years away drove a wedge between mother and daughter. “During the long years in the sanitarium, I had felt like a motherless child. Three years after leaving it, my mother consumes my life. For better or worse, my life had become hers, and I didn’t know any other way to live it.”

As a child, Rosy desperately loved her mother and suffered from an acute anxiety disorder that often left her in a fugue state when attentions were upon her. “People’s patient expectations caused me to panic.” The family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1938 where Piper attended Hebrew School and the shy Piper was enrolled in elocution and then acting lessons.

Piper’s passion for performing started as early as 2 years old when she heard a full orchestra play for the first time. Taken by the magnitude of the instrumentation, so moved she climbed onto her mother’s lap, frightened by the sheer vibrations of it, but moved by it at the same time. Another time she saw Jane Withers perform “Out of what cloud had she come? Fantastic How did this happen? It was unfathomable to me that a child could get that kind of attention and adulation.”

Rosy’s first play at age 11 was Guest in the House. It was her mother that suggested she be in the movies. She would devour the Technicolor musicals with Betty Grable and Alice Faye and the black and white comedies starring Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. When she was 14 she was brought by her agent to Howard Hughes’s office as an offering but the two sat quietly, as he decided not to elect to add her to his list of conquest. Through their silence, she began to realize her own isolation. She won a screen test with Warner Bros. took elocution lessons and eventually studied with German actress Hermine Sterler who taught her to lose her ‘tricks’ and find her sense memory to “be ‘specific’ about subtext and to be honest in every moment.”

Piper talks about going to see Judith Anderson in the production of Euripides’ Medea at the Biltmore Theater. “My eyes were opened that night and have yet to close… What moved me was her inner nakedness. I could hear her and feel her power. The whole experience of the play was life-changing for me. It was so clear-the beauty, creativity, and epically the courage of the theater and the actors were what I wanted. My dreams were now being transformed into another vision, completely my own.”

She studied acting with Benno and Betomi Schnider at the Actor’s Lab “My concentration and imagination out of necessity and opportunity had developed so fully during my childhood. It was one of the gifts from those years.” She took classes with these great teachers for almost 3 years. Tony Curtis was the newest member of the acting class. He was under contract at Universal but had only done some bit parts. It was there she met classmate and friend Bob Richards. He directed her in a class in the Tennessee William’s one-act play This Property Condemned. The play seems so “organic’ to her spirit.

She was offered a test option at Warner Bros after they saw her performance in Schneider’s class. It was 1949 when they were ending all their contracts with their big stars. Shortly after she turned 17 her agent Herb Brenner showed the test to Universal. She was called in for an interview and did a performance from This Property Condemned. She came back and did a second performance in front of a crowded class of new actors. The handsome Richard Long was one of them who said “That’s the best piece of work I’ve ever seen in this room”

After, she signed a long-term contract with Universal Studios and changed her name to Piper Laurie. It was her first manager Ted Raden who came up with the name. Her breakout role was in Louise with Ronald Reagan. With Universal, she made over 20 films starring opposite actors like Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power, and Tony Curtis. To build up a mystique around the young actress, Universal Studios claimed she bathed in milk and ate flower petals. But failing to get serious roles, she broke her contract with Universal and moved to New York City. Two years there working in theatre and live television turned her career around. During this time she appeared in live television performances of Twelfth Night, Days of Wine and Roses, and Winterset, both presented by Playhouse 90.

The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951) Tony Curtis, Everette Sloane, and Piper Laurie.

Piper Laurie in The Mississippi Gambler.

Universal thrust their brightest new star into a regime with stylists and chaperones and cast in leading roles, sent on dates with some of the most handsome Hollywood actors for publicity. Her popularity and fresh allure attracted a myriad of fans and men like Ronald Reagan Howard Hughes, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis, and Roddy MacDowall including dozens of significant directors. Piper Laurie’s name appeared on movie marquees across America starring in hit Hollywood films of the 1950s like The Prince Who Was s a Thief, The Mississippi Gambler, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1955).

She started to feel her confidence growing inside. Kirk Douglas was preparing to produce a movie and was looking for a young girl to co-star opposite him. Piper would be under contract with Kirk Douglas. Being an inexperienced seventeen year old she was advised to wait for Universal. Perhaps this was a missed opportunity. But Piper Laurie says she regrets very little in her life, even her mistakes.

She was locked inside a prison away from her creativity, not realizing that Universal made low-budget B westerns and programmers. She was given gems of advice like this beauty from the judge who witnessed her signing her contract. “Don’t ever let men know that you are smart.” She was thrown into a ‘boot camp’ of training to become their latest ingenue. Changing her clothes, hairstyles, and makeup.

From the young dreams of a silent little girl, Piper Laurie struggled to break free of the oppressive culture of the studio system with its inherent objectification of their female stars and holding them back from more substantive roles. She was uncomfortable and embarrassed by the shallowness of the quality of the scripts she was given and finally, The courageous actress found her voice and sought out the artistic vision she had longed for since she was a child.

In her first picture Louisa, the entire cast embraced Piper warmly it was a charming part to play Spring Byington’s granddaughter who acted more like a teenager than she did. Edmund Gwenn would visit her in her dressing room to sing little songs with her. Charles Coburn would sit out on the soundstage puffing on his cigars and coaching Piper on her role.

About the film Louisa… “I couldn’t find any reality in what my character did in the script or in the words she used. Every line and moment for the girl seemed like a cartoon. It seemed to me that a real girl would be amused and appreciate her grandmother’s behavior. Perhaps in a more clearly stylized screenplay, I could have found a way to make this caricature of a teenager live. I kept trying to think of ways to make her real for myself, but it was a constant struggle on the set.”

The relentless publicity campaign. Fred Banker was the publicity man for Louisa. He had this idea based on one of the scenes in the film where Edmund Gwenn prepares a salad for the family. He tosses marigold petals from a centerpiece on the table into the salad. When Fred studied the scene he got the flash and called the wire services. “Universal’s new contract player-Piper Laurie-eats nothing but flowers,” and arranged exclusive interviews with the flower-eating girl. She had to play along. At the commissary there she sat eating a meal that was an assortment of edible flowers prepared artistically on a plate. Piper said it was more interesting than her role in the movie! “Oh yes, they’re really delicious.” Ultimately she would go home dejected about pushing this lie every day. “My expectations to make art were beginning to crumble.”

Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie in No Room for the Groom (1952)

In the 1950s universal paired newcomers Piper Laurie and Tony Curtis old classmates from Benno and Bertomis acting classes they were in four movies together. Make Room For the Groom, The Prince Who Was a Thief, and Johnny Dark 1954. Curtis had been very unkind publicly about his co-star’s performances saying that he was the real draw. This was very hurtful to Piper Laurie and the two actors never became friends after that. 1950 Louisa is a delightful romantic comedy starring Spring Byington in the lead role as the Grandmother Louisa Norton who allows herself to be wooed by two gentlemen Edmund Gwenn and Charles Coburn. In Piper Laurie’s first role, she plays Louisa’s granddaughter Cathy with a feisty spirit bringing plucky charm to her film debut.

1950 The Milkman, 1951 Francis Goes to the Races as Frances Travers, 1951 The Prince Who Was a Thief as Tina, 1952 No Room for the Groom as Lee Kingshead, 1952 Has Anybody Seen My Gal as Millicent Blaisdell, 1952 Son of Ali Baba as Princess Azura of Fez / Kiki, 1953 The Golden Blade as Khairuzan- she has wonderful chemistry with Rock Hudson, the two are quite funny together, it showcases Piper Laurie’s comedic sensibilities and IMO the affinity between Hudson and Laurie is far more cohesive than all her pairings with Tony Curtis together, Dawn at Socorro (1954) as Rannah Hayes, Johnny Dark (1954) As Liz Fielding, 1954 Dangerous Mission as Louise Graham. Again the chemistry between Rory Calhoun and Victor Mature is tenable in both Dangerous Mission and the surprisingly good Western Dawn at Socorro and the romantic comedy Ain’t Misbehavin’. Both male stars make a great pairing with Piper Laurie.

Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie in Has Anybody Seen My Gal.

Piper Laurie and Rory Calhoun in Dawn at Socorro (1954).

Victor Mature and Piper Laurie in Dangerous Mission (1954).

Piper Laurie in The Golden Blade (1953) with Rock Hudson.

In 1953 The Mississippi Gambler Piper Laurie plays the beautiful Angelique ‘Leia’ Dureau She possesses a great vitality and a driving hunger to live life. In 1854, Mississippi riverboat honest card gambler Mark Fallon (Tyrone Power) wins young Laurent Dureau’s (John Baer) diamond necklace family heirloom. Fallon pairs up with Kansas John Polly (John McIntire) who goes on a mission to clean up gambling and push an honest game on the river boats. At first, he hires Angelique whose brother loses her diamond necklace in a poker game but she cannot deny the fiery chemistry between them.

Angelique: “May I ask you one question before I leave you abruptly , knowing how I feel about you why did you humiliate yourself by asking me to dance?”
Mark: “Oh a matter of courtesy If a man is going to ask a woman to humiliate herself then he should be willing to accept it first.”
Angelique: “I don’t understand”
Mark: “You and I are in love with each other. We always will be. We’ve known it since that first moment we met in St. Louis. I want you and your happiness. But you’re not ready for marriage yet and I won’t be until you can truly be happy with a man.

The Mississippi Gambler ended Tyrone Power’s marriage to Linda Christian. The film was originally a vehicle to pair the couple, but Universal Pictures pushed for their starlet Piper Laurie to be cast in the role of Angelique.

Piper Laurie plays a good-time gal who marries the wealthy Rory Calhoun. This puts high society onlookers enraged that he should marry a showgirl. She should be a lady of quality. So she tries to stop causing scandals for her wonderful husband and get some culture. Piper Laurie is witty and does a great job fending off the old hen set on putting her down. Rowdy Club girl including Mamie Van Doren crashes high society when a wealthy older man falls for her (1955) Ain’t Misbehavin‘ as Sarah Bernhardt Hatfield. Piper was very proud of her singing and dancing. Her character shined and Piper was a natural at being very humorous, and graceful with quick comebacks.

I’ve seen people ask her about Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson but I think that her chemistry with Rory Calhoun is romantic sweet, sharp witty, and a sexy delight to watch. They were able to shift gears in Dawn in Socorro and bring out a more serious deeper emotional connection in that picture. I for one enjoy seeing them act together. in Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1955). Rory Calhoun plays Kenneth Post who loves Sarah for who she is, but she tries to fit into the role of high society girl. Painting to understand the old masters etc. Reginald Gardiner as Anatole Piermont Rogers is hilarious. And Jack Carson is obsessed with protecting his friend from bad publicity is at his polished gruff best for this romantic comedy.

Kenneth Post- “Have you ever been to a psychiatrist?”
Sarah- “Just once, he gave me fifty dollars not to come back.”

During this time Piper Laurie met director John Frankenheimer in Los Angeles. She was dating Gene Nelson they had dinner with John and his wife Carolyn. He was a new director at that point, but he was up and coming right out of New York. She was told by Millie Gussie to go and observe John in action. She sneaked into a booth and watched John Frankenheimer direct with an “incredible display of an artist’s intelligence, combined with the speed and power of a tornado. Watching him was like seeing a thunder and lightning storm conducted by a musician.” He winds up directing her in The Ninth Day for Playhouse 90. It was one of Piper’s favorite live shows. Written by Dorothy and Howard Baker, with a beautiful script, ‘lots of humor and humanity’ The cast was Mary Astor, James Dunn, Victor Jory, John Kerr, Elizabeth Patterson, and Nehemiah Persoff. This was the first time John and Piper worked together.

In 1955 she was in Robert Montgomery Presents (TV Series)
 Stacey Spender
- Quality Town (1955).

All the exciting dramatic performances were happening on live television now. She then got a script for Robert Montgomery Presents it was an hour-long dramatic broadcast from New York. It was a great script called Quality Town This would be a substantial and challenging role for Piper Laurie. Rehearsing for the live television show was a lot like preparing for a play.

Joseph Mankiewicz had seen the performance and deemed it some of the best acting he had seen on television. The two had a little memorable tryst back in those early days of Piper’s budding dramatic television career. Scripts for live television were coming in.

(1955) The Best of Broadway (TV Series) 
Billie Moore- Broadway (1955) … Billie Moore, 1956 The Ninth Day (TV Movie), 1956 Kelly and Me as Mina Van Runkel, (1956) The Road that Led Afar G.E. Theater, (1956) Front Row Center (TV Series) as Judy Jones, (1957-1958) Playhouse 90 (TV Series)
 Kirsten Arnesen Clay / Ruth McAdam – Days of Wine and Roses (1958) … Kirsten Arnesen Clay – The Ninth Day (1957) … Ruth McAdam, (1957) The Seven Lively Arts (TV Series)- The Changing Ways of Love (1957) 
(1957) Studio One in Hollywood (TV Series) as Ruth Cornelius- The Deaf Heart (1957). Director Robert Wise’s film (1957) Until They Sail
 as Delia Leslie Friskett, (1959) Winterset (TV Movie) as Miriamne, (1959) Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (TV Series) as Eileen Gorman- The Innocent Assassin. (1959).

Piper Laurie goes to New York. “We can’t afford to have a Piper Laurie and what she stands for in the play.” Humiliated she flew back to L.A.

She appeared in Studio One’s The Deaf Heart (1957) directed by Sidney Lumet, a poignantly beautiful one-hour play centered around psychosomatic illness written by Mayo Simon about a woman who is the sole caregiver in a family of nonhearing people. The play co-starred Vivian Nathan, William Shatner, Richard Shepard the great Ruth White, and Fritz Weaver.

The next show directed once again by Sidney Lumet was challenging in that Piper Laurie would be playing three different roles in one play. The show was called —The Changing Way of Love. The first was Awake and Sing! By Clifford Odets co-starring Jason Robards Jr. The next vignette would co-star Rip Torn in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams.” The third act was called Three Empty Rooms by Reginald Rose co-starring Dick York.

By that time Piper was working on simultaneous projects including her role as Viola in Maurice Evan’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

With all of Piper’s extraordinary anxiety around performing “Sometimes my anxiety was eased when I was bold. I found my greatest strength and power when things were tough.”

“I had finally shed my life as a harem cutie and didn’t think twice when I expressed my outrage for the love of art.”

During the late 50s and early 60s Piper worked on Studio One in Hollywood’s The Deaf Heart 1957, The Seven Lively Arts’ The Changing Ways of Love (1957), Playhouse 90 The Ninth Day 1957 and Days of Wine and Roses (1958), Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse The Innocent Assassin (1959), Play of the Week’s Legend of Lovers (1960), as Phoebe Durkin in G.E. Theater’s The Road That Led Afar (1956), Caesar and Cleopatra (1959), A Musket for Jessica (1961), Westinghouse Presents Come Again to Carthage, The United Stated Steel Hour Mission of Fear (1963), You Can’t Have Everything (1960).

Despite her growing reputation for being difficult, she was still receiving offers for challenging roles. Director Mitch Leisen offered her the part in George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra for G.E. Theater. She had another encounter with Maurice Evans who had referred to Piper as a pariah the year before. Evans didn’t remember the debacle with Twelfth Night and was fine working with Piper again. “He was like a charming kitten.” Piper was gracious and made the effort to be open to working opposite him for a 30-minute straight run-through.

After being complacent at Universal Piper started to swing out at anything that didn’t feel right to her, even if it was not seemingly important, it was the principal. She regrets having given director Ralph Nelson such a hard time on his Play of the Week show called Legend of Lovers Piper playing Eurydice starring Robert Loggia and Sam Jaffe. Piper Laurie was now empowered to speak her mind. She might have been earning a reputation in the industry as a difficult actress to work with but she had years of being compliant to make up for. Universal had unleashed a woman whose voice would not be silent. As Piper says in the title of her brutally honest autobiography, to speak out loud.

Frustrated, wanting to meet directors and producers who would take her seriously. Their perceptions came from the publicity, never even having seen her films. Finally, her agent gave her a script, one he had to steal because the producers just thought she was a ‘glamorous bimbo’ It was a drama for G.E. Theater. The Road That Led Afar (1956) written by Hagar Wilde. And adapted from an original story by Lula Vollmer. She had to keep pushing her agent to fight with the producer who did not want to even consider her for the part of a young rural girl. She showed up for the reading wearing old jeans and no makeup. That night the producers called and said they were mistaken about her and she got the part. The show was directed by Herschel Daugherty. She co-starred with Dan Duryea who would play the older man who takes her for his bride and to live with his motherless children. The preacher is played by Edgar Buchanan who marries them. The role would be an entirely different role than anything from her past career, it would be a break from being her past. She felt blessed to have this role. She received her first Emmy nomination as Best Actress for The Road that Led Afar.

Then came a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” (1956) directed by Ralph Nelson and co-starring Anthony Perkins filmed for CBS studios in Los Angeles. She was playing real people not contrived shallow characters.

Participating in the USO in Korea opened her heart and her eyes. “My empty person was starting to be filled. The Korean trip opened my heart and my eyes. But when I go home and returned to the business of show business, it seemed I was wasting my life. The efforts made by my agent to get me some freedom to work at other studios, or on television or on the stage, were rejected. Even my requests for time off to work in Betomi’s class were denied. Universal kept refusing to loan Piper out to other studios though the press was unkind to her, she felt like she had ‘signed her life away.

Upon finishing Ain’t Misbehaving Piper Laurie was sent a new script for a low-budget Western starring Audie Murphy. This was the last straw! She felt so unappreciated at this point that she had finally hit the wall. She had endured enough. She told her agent Mike Zimring that she’d rather go to prison than work for Universal any further. Even though the studio offered her more money she wanted out. Universal finally released her from the contract but imposed a penalty of $25,000 per movie, and she’d have to do one a year for three years. But now how was she going to put the image that Universal imposed on her, behind her and recreate her public identity?

Piper was asked to do a screen test for The Goddess (1958) but she turned down the part it wasn’t the right timing for her as she was now pregnant, of course, the part went to the inimitable Kim Stanley.

STAGE WORK:

Pat Hingle, Maureen Stapleton, George Grizzard, and Piper Laurie in The Glass Menagerie.

After that, Piper Laurie became extremely selective about her work. After arriving in New York Piper’s first experience in Theater was two, one-act plays written by Molly Kazan called Rosemary and The Alligators (1960) at the York Playhouse. Then she did The Glass Menagerie (1965). Tennessee Williams considered Piper to be one of the greatest actresses of all time. Piper was accepted into Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse. She appeared in The Destiny of Me at The Lucille Lortel Theatre (1992), Biography at Stage 73 (1980), Mornings at Seven (2002), and Zero Hour 2009/2010.

CLASSIC FILM & TV CAFE 2014 by Rick

Café:  You starred in several live TV dramas like the Playhouse 90 production of The Days of Wine and Roses with Cliff Robertson. How did live television compare to being on the stage?

PL:  It’s similar, but live television is much more extreme. It’s really walking on the high wire. I don’t think people today understand that when you did the show, not only could you not do it again, but it was going out on the air at that moment to everyone in the country. And whatever mistakes you made, that was it. You would live with it for the rest of your career. It was really chancy. It was a daredevil act. I was terrified and forced myself to do it, because I thought I should and thought I could. And it was very rewarding.

Frankenheimer was the ideal director for her newfound sensibilities, brutally honest but sensitive, and utmost he was imaginative. He then directed her in The Days of Wine and Roses (1958).

“On broadcast day we had a late call so I drove several hours away, through the rolling hills of the Valley, almost to the ocean. I was trying to deal with the terror that threatened to overwhelm me. I drove so far that I could not go farther without being late for the dress rehearsal. I was tempted to keep driving and miss the whole thing, this thing we’d been rehearsing and dreaming about for so many weeks. I looked around at the hills, breathless at the beauty of the world, and prayed for strength and guidance that my work could be part of it. The broadcast was that night. The countdown to air for a live show never gets easier. This was the time actors clung to whatever spiritual belief they had. I looked at Cliff across the room, in position for the first scene, and, with all the intensity I possessed, sent my energy across to him and asked him silently to play with me And I answered. The miracles of this show: Cliff opened himself so beautifully to me and on air we played together for the first time.”

New York Times review by Jack Gould-

“It was brilliant and compelling work…Miss Laurie’s performance was enough to make the flesh crawl, yet it always elicited deep sympathy. Her interpretation of the young wife just a shade this side of delirium tremens–the flighty dancing around the room, her weakness of character and moments of anxiety and her moments of charm when she was sober–was a superlative accomplishment. Miss Laurie is moving into the forefront of our most gifted young actresses.”

Piper Laurie was cast in the stage play Handful of Fire (1958) opposite good friend Roddy MacDowall produced by Bob Lewis. Piper was eventually replaced which was devastating to her. Her good friend Roddy came over to comfort her. John Frankenheimer had worked well with Piper on The Ninth Day, he asked her to do Days of Wine and Roses (1958). She had never played a drunk scene in all of her acting classes. She visited AA meetings to research the mindset of being an alcoholic. Her performance in Frankenheimer’s teleplay is nothing short of raw and astounding.

Emmy TV Legends interview Piper Laurie about Days of Wine and Roses

When John’s marriage to Carolyn was over, he asked Rosie (Piper) to marry him. “Rosie I want to marry you! I’ve been in love with you for such a long time. I want us to be together.” Piper-“Slowly at first, and then completely, John became the love of my life.”

Though Montgomery Clift was one of the actors she would have most liked to perform with she turned down the film Miss Lonelyhearts filmed as Lonelyhearts (1958) a story by Nathaniel West. Monty Clift was friends with Roddy MacDowall whom Piper also knew at the time. Monty sought out Piper for the role even coming to her home. He tried to convince her to take the romantic lead opposite him in the movie. Piper wasn’t interested in the script, and Monty agreed but he was counting on both their performances to lift the script and elevate it to a high level. The film was considered a failure, she does often wonder if it was a missed opportunity. But there was no more compromising for Piper Laurie.

She came back to Hollywood to co-star with Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961), playing Newman’s girlfriend, Sarah Packard. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She thought The Hustler would bring more substantial roles, and when they did not she moved back to NYC with her husband and daughter, Anna. She took a 15-year break from Hollywood to focus on her raising her daughter and on the growing Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. There, she appeared in television roles such as the medical drama The Eleventh Hour and Breaking Point. Back on Broadway, she appeared in the 20th Anniversary production of The Glass Menagerie with Maureen Stapleton.

“That night I watched it, the hard work was all I could see, not Fast Eddie and Sarah. Through my distorted eyes, it appeared that Paul and I were just Paul and I, struggling. I was much too close to it. It took fifteen years to pass for me to see the genius of what was done, of editor Dede Allen’s brilliant work. How perfect the movie is. I saw how wrenchingly sensitive Paul’s Fast Eddie was and how brave. He made me weep over my own (Sarah’s ) death. It’s a pity it took me so long to see it.” — Piper Laurie

Some of the television series of the 1960s include: Mary Highmark in Naked City Howard Running Bear is a Turtle (1963), Kathleen Dolley in Ben Casey’s Light Up The Dark Corners (1963), Alicia Carter in The Eleventh Hour’s My Door is Locked and Bolted (1964), as Alice Marin in Breaking Point’s The Summer House (1964).

In the 1960s she played Amanda Potter in The Long Hunt of April Savage (1966), and in dramatic teleplays (1963) Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (TV Series) as Lee Wiley- Something About Lee Wiley (1963), The United States Steel Hour (TV Series) – Mission of Fear (1963) & -as Edna Cartey- You Can’t Have Everything (1960), Westinghouse Presents: Come Again to Carthage (TV Movie) as Sister Mary Joseph
 (1956-1961), General Electric Theater (TV Series) Jessica Galloway / Cleopatra / Phoebe Durkin- A Musket for Jessica (1961) & – Caesar and Cleopatra (1959) as Cleopatra, (1960) Play of the Week (TV Series) as Eurydice- Legend of Lovers (1960).

Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre’s Something About Lee Wiley (1963-1967), with an extraordinary performance by the edgy Piper Laurie as the torch singer and the supportive cast including Ruth White, Claude Rains, and Alfred Ryder. Two years after The Hustler, without any significant parts, she received a script written for TV by David Rayfiel, a film to be directed by a very young Sydney Pollack. It centered around a jazz singer who was a popular artist from the 1940s- early 1960s who had gone blind during a period of her life. The film was cast with stellar actors, Claude Rains, Alfred Ryder, Ruth White, and Steven Hill.

After the intensity of doing Something About Lee Wiley, Piper met the cult singer and the two became friends.

“It turned out to be a terrific and really interesting show. Sydney was extremely good to work with and had a light touch with the actors. Her deservedly was nominated for an Emmy. The best part for me was working with Ruth White again and with that warrior Claude Rains, whose body of work continues to thrill me…{…} I decided no tricks; I would be focused on the specifics of the work, intense in my thought processes, listening purely, “using” everything he gave me. Not a moment would be dishonest.”

Piper then got offered the part of Laura in Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie (1965). Which would be going to Broadway. It started at The Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. Maureen Stapleton would play Amanda and it would co-star George Grizzard and Pat Hingle. Laura was based on William’s schizophrenic sister who had been stereotyped as weak and fragile Piper Laurie summoned the courage to play this complex character with the convictions of who she thought she really was. To play an almost nonverbal shy girl was very close to her own childhood. She played it with a desire to be heard. “I reasoned, what was left of my work would stand on its own, and I would be proud of it. I found the actual experience of working with him exhilarating and fun, though it was a very serious scene. Claude was truly wonderful, and I think I held my own.”

“I was terrifically excited, I was on my own! I was so high, and filled with self-esteem and God’s grace, that when places were called, I knew I was no longer a prisoner and soared through the performance, and then another one the next day and another. I have sailed and sometimes fought, through performances and through life for forty five years now. I believe I did my best work after this, and it was all me, good and bad.”

When the production of the play was to be presented on Hallmark live, there were so many cuts to Shakespeare’s great dialogue and work, Piper held her ground and would not compromise her integrity, leaving the production until they added back vital parts. But they called her bluff and replaced her with Rosemary Harris. Maurice Evans blasted Piper in the press. This left Piper not wanting to resort to the name-calling that Evans had waged against her, this fiery actress had found the fight in her spirit and would no longer compromise her art. Ironically When it was finally broadcast the reviews were dire except for one that stood out, “How courageous and intelligent Piper Laurie was to have walked away from this travesty.”

When she started working in Hollywood again, it was to play Sissy Spacek’s mother in Carrie (1976), a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. Her co-star, Sissy Spacek, praised her acting skill: “She is a remarkable actress. She never does what you expect her to do—she always surprises you with her approach to a scene.” After her divorce in 1979, she moved back to California. In 1979 she appeared with Mel Gibson in Tim, an Australian film. She was nominated again for best supporting actress for her 1986 role in Children of a Lesser God with Marlee Matlin. She was nominated for an Emmy for best actress and best supporting actress in Twin Peaks and won a Golden Globe for her role in David Lynch’s cult favorite.

From Classic Film & TV Cafe Interview:

Café:  In your autobiography, you credit Carrie with giving you a “third career.” It’s a compelling film that has aged wonderfully. How did you come to be cast in it?

PL:  I was living in the country in Woodstock, New York, and they had been looking for someone to play the mother. I hadn’t worked in fifteen years in a movie and some people I knew mentioned my name to Brian De Palma. An old agent sent me the script. I read the script and I thought it was just not very good. My husband (film critic Joe Morgenstern) said that Brian De Palma has a comedic approach to what he does. I thought, oh, I misread the whole thing…it’s satiric. It’s going to be a comedy. On that basis, I took the train into New York City and met De Palma, whom I liked enormously. I guess he liked me. By the time I got back to Woodstock, I heard he wanted me to do the movie. Weeks later, when I went out to rehearse, I had comedic things I had worked out. During rehearsals, De Palma said: “Piper, if you do that, you’re going to get a laugh.” That really floored me. So, I changed my interpretation slightly. At any rate, that’s how I got the part.

According to Stephen King’s book and the script, Carrie’s mother’s hair was described as being worn in a tight bun. One day at rehearsal Sissy’s husband Jack Fisk, who was doing the set design, stopped to speak to Brian when they saw Piper’s hair all naturally curly and big “Look at her hair! They’re great together!” Jack asked, “Would you mind wearing it like that in the movie, as it is now curly and big?” Piper thought to herself that the bun was to cliche anyway. It was easy for her to play the part with the unleashed hair.

Carrie was a huge hit and is still raking in millions of dollars. But, Piper Laurie only made ten thousand dollars for her role as Mrs. White.

“I went into the rehearsal period they flew me out to California for a couple of weeks to rehearse the scenes and I had worked out I thought some really terrifically funny physical bits of comedy like in that scene (mother and daughter looking out the window waiting for her prom date) waiting for the boy to show and I said you “He’s not coming” And in this version you see Margaret pulling her hair but I did it in what I thought was a comical way. And I really pulled myself across the room back and forth with my hair. And Brian stopped me after the second time he said “Hey you can’t do that you’re gonna get a laugh. And that’s the first time I realized that he really didn’t think of what I though of the story was supposed to be so I changed what I did though I changed it more in my head rather than superficially I still did the physical think but not quite as broadly and I made it more of an inner real thing. And also when I finished that rehearsal period I went back to New York , I went to see Phantom of the Paradise which I’d never seen and it had just come out and I saw how Operatic it was how big and I thought well he likes that so maybe I could make Margaret really BIG. And so that’s what I did. I didn’t know how else to play those scenes because they were to me a little cliche as written so I felt why not go a little deeper. And so that’s what I did.” —Piper Laurie 2016 interview {source}

Then she asked to star in another horror film directed by auteur Curtis Harrington called Ruby. “It was a strange script, with a couple of genuinely original scenes, in which I would play a woman who runs a drive-in theater and always dresses in red. But it was not what I wanted to be doing. It would, however, pay a lot of bills.” Harrington paid Piper a much higher salary than Brian De Palma.

(1979) Tim as Mary Horton, (1978) Rainbow (TV Movie) as Ethel Gumm, 
(1978) The Boss’ Son as Elaine, (1977) In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan (TV Movie) as Julie Quinlan,
(1977) Ruby as Ruby Claire, (1976) The Woman Rebel as Margaret Sanger, (1976) Carrie as Margaret White.

Piper Laurie in The Thorn Birds

Then actor and Director Michael Pate adapted Colleen McCullough’s (who also wrote The Thorn Birds) Tim 1979 all shot in Australia. Piper stars as Mary Horton a successful businesswoman who plays across a new actor Mel Gibson. Gibson plays a developmentally disabled young man, the gardener. The two form a strong bond and eventually fall in love. Alwyn Kurts and Pat Evison as Tim’s mom and dad are extraordinary in their roles. Piper gives a performance that is smart and deeply moving as she explores the love she is feeling for this special and kind young man.

She renewed her friendship with Jean Simmons from their film Until They Sail when they were both cast in The Thorn Birds (1983), a wonderful role for her as Anne Mueller, the sympathetic wife of sugar cane magnate Earl Holliman. Both actresses were nominated for Emmys for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. She was regularly offered miniseries and movies of the week on television. Piper regards the role as being fun, that her character was ‘salty and direct’ and necessary to the story. Afterward, she and Earl Holliman, who played her husband, became great friends.

1981 Piper played Lady Macbeth opposite Jeremy Brett directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. Off-Broadway, she appeared in Larry Kramer’s ‘The Destiny of Me’ (1992) and then in Lincoln Center’s 2002 revival of Paul Osborn’s Mornings at Seven.

Also in 1981 she was the TV movie The Bunker, Mae West (1982) and appeared on St. Elsewhere, Murder She Wrote, and Hotel, to star as a regular in a failed television series called Skag starring Karl Malden about a steel mill worker in Pittsburgh TV movie Love, Mary (1985), TV movie Toughlove (1985), The Twilight Zone tv series (1985-86), Matlock (1986), TV movie Promise with James Garner, Go Toward the Light (1988), and episode of Beauty and the Beast in (1989), ER.

In the mid-80s she had a small part playing Aunt Em in the darkly envisioned Return to OZ (1985).

Feature-length films In 1986 she starred in Children of a Lesser God as Mrs. Norman, Dream a Little Dream (1989), Tiger Warsaw 1988, and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway 1993.

In the early 1990s, Piper Laurie appears in big feature films such as Other People’s Money (1991) and Storyville (1992). She was in Other People’s Money with Danny Devito and Gregory Peck, and Dario Argento’s film Trauma (1993). In 1997 she played George Clooney’s mother on ER and in A Christmas Memory with Patty Duke. In 1998 she was in the science fiction film The Faculty and went on to make guest appearances in shows like Matlock, State of Grace, and Will & Grace. She appeared in a 2001 episode of Cold Case and in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She returned to the big screen for independent films, such as Eulogy (2004) and The Dead Girl (2006), opposite actress Toni Collette.

Piper Laurie as Catherine Martell in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks

Then came Twin Peaks 1990-1991 The cult television show that rivaled Rocky Horror Picture Show with devoted followers. 
“it was a pleasure working with David. He had a low-key, quiet style on the set, sounding, I thought a little bit like Jimmy Stewart. One had to listen closely or they might miss the flashes of great wit. His mind was fearless and creative, like a child who has never experienced the dark.”

Piper’s role as Catherine Martell is a revelation as she manifests a manipulative self-serving cunning sexual being who wants to maintain her power, even as Mr. Tojamura the Japanese business that was highly under wraps even for her friends family, and crew, not to know that Piper was donning a disguise. An alternative personality she needed to take on in order to self-preservation after she is believed dead in the mill fire. His ability to change her voice and play a completely different character was cleverly pulled off as Piper Laurie had always enjoyed playing other characters in vast disguises. This undertaking worked perfectly for what the show needed.

In 1992 she worked Off-Broadway in Larry Kramer’s play The Destiny of Me where she played the mother Rena to a young man who is dying of AIDS. Wearing clothes from the old country she manifested her grandmother while she danced for her son.

in 2002 the revival of the play Mornings at Seven opened up at The Lyceum Theater 112 performances directed by Daniel Sullivan. The play co-starred an impressive cast Elizabeth Franz, Frances Sternhagen, Estelle Parsons, Piper Laurie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Christopher Lloyd, William Biff McGuire, and Stephen Tobolowsky. It was a popular and critical success and received numerous Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations.

On the stage, she toured in a one-person play about Zelda Fitzgerald, written by Bill Luce. Laurie made her directorial debut when she directed Jim Brochu in his one-man show ‘Zero Hour’ in 2010, for which he received the Drama Desk Award for best solo performance.

More recently, she played a grandmother who learns to smoke a bong in the film Hesher with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman, and as Grandma Wershe in White Boy Rick, starring Matthew McConaughey, and as Rose Muller in Snapshots, directed by Melanie Mayron. In 2013 she returned to the state for her musical debut in A Little Night Music as Madam Armfeldt.

She has been working for over seven decades still earning awards and accolades for her performances. She has earned the right to talk out loud! Married to journalist Joe Morgenstern the couple adopted her beloved Anna.

From Susan King of The Los Angeles Times 2010

“Feeling ambivalent about her career, became a fulltime housewife and mother to her now grown daughter…{…} and pursued her work as a sculptor. When Brian De Palma called her about playing the mother in “Carrie” Laurie was ready to reutn and she hasn’t looked back since. She notes that she was a different person when she returned to Hollywood in her 40s. “I didn’t feel the life-or-death pressure I had put on myself.” in the earlier years, Laurie says. “That’s not bad for a young actress to have, but being a mother and having some perspective about the world changes you and your values.”

She’s earned twelve Emmy nominations in total, including one for the live broadcast of The Days of Wine and Roses (1958) with Cliff Robertson, one for her performance in the comedy television series Fraiser, another for playing Magda Goebbels in The Bunker, opposite Anthony Hopkins as Hitler, and for her role in the miniseries, The Thorn Birds. It was her role in Promise, opposite James Woods and James Garner, for which she won an Emmy. She also received an SFECA award for her performance as Dolly in the film The Grass Harp (1995). Piper Laurie’s latest roles have earned her top honors at film fests. In 2010 Piper Laurie participated in Women in Film Legacy Series for UCLA’s Film and Television Archive.

Piper found the passion to work with her hands through her sculpting, which she perfected in Woodstock during the long hiatus between The Hustler and Carrie. She turned to the powerfully new form of creative expression. A primal release that Piper discovered. It was a new outlet for her thriving imagination. Years later, she enrolled at the Art Students League on West 57th in Manhattan and followed an arrow pointing down the stairs to the basement. Her first piece is called The Twenty-Fifth Day.

“I could see an open room with a small group of people striking on pieces of stone and marble with metal tools, making the loveliest and most original music I’d ever heard while they created their marble treasures. I had never seen people carve stone before. As I stood there gazing at the scene… “It was thrilling picking up my first piece of marble. … Admiring it. Loving that I possessed it.”

Clips

2006 The Dead Girl Arden’s Mother

2005 Cold Case (TV Series) Rose

2004 Dead Like Me (TV Series) Nina Rommey

1997 A Christmas Memory

1995 The Grass Harp Dolly Talbo

1994 Trauma

1990-1991 Twin Peaks (TV Series) Catherine Martell / Mr. Tojamura

1988 Tiger Warsaw

1986 Promise (TV Movie) Annie Gilbert

1986 children of a lesser god

1985 Return to Oz Aunt Em

1983 The Thorn Birds (TV Mini-Series) Anne Mueller

1981 Macbeth as Lady Macbeth

1979 Tim Mary Horton

1977 Ruby Ruby Claire

1976 Carrie Margaret White

1963 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (TV Series) as Lee Wiley- Something About Lee Wiley

1963 Naked City (TV Series) Mary Highmark

1963 Ben Casey (TV Series) as Kathleen Dooley – Light Up the Dark Corners

1961 The Hustler Sarah Packard

1957-1958 Playhouse 90 (TV Series)
– Days of Wine and Roses (1958) … Kirsten Arnesen Clay

1957 Until They Sail Delia Leslie Friskett

1955 Ain’t Misbehavin’

1954 Dawn at Socorro Rannah Hayes

1954 Dangerous Mission Louise Graham

1953 The Golden Blade –

1953 The Mississippi Gambler Angelique ‘Leia’ Dureau

1952 Has Anybody Seen My Gal Millicent Blaisdell

1952 No Room for the Groom Lee Kingshead

1950 Louisa Cathy Norton

This is your EverLovin’ Joey saying my heart has grown that much bigger for having met one of the greatest actors who shines like a million marigolds…

Filmography-Piper Laurie on IMDb