Piper Laurie

 ( 1932 Births ) 

Laurie was lured back to Hollywood by the offer to co-star with Paul Newman in The Hustler, released in 1961. She played Newman's girlfriend, Sarah Packard, and for her performance, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Substantial movie roles did not come her way after The Hustler, so she and her husband moved to New York. In 1964, she appeared in two medical dramas—as Alicia Carter in The Eleventh Hour episode "My Door Is Locked and Bolted", and as Alice Marin in the Breaking Point episode "The Summer House". In 1965, she starred in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, opposite Maureen Stapleton, Pat Hingle, and George Grizzard.

Laurie did not appear in another feature film until she accepted the role of religious fanatic Margaret White in the horror film Carrie (1976). She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The commercial success of the film, and recognition for her performance, relaunched her career. Her co-star Sissy Spacek praised her acting skill: "She is a remarkable actress. She never does what you expect her to doshe always surprises you with her approach to a scene."Dick Kleiner, Brownwood Bulletin, May 16, 1976, p. 33 In 1979, Laurie appeared as Mary Horton in the Australian movie Tim opposite Mel Gibson. After her 1981 divorce, Laurie moved to California. She received a third Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs. Norman in Children of a Lesser God (1986). The same year, she was awarded an Emmy for her performance in Promise, a television movie, co-starring James Garner and James Woods.

Laurie made guest appearances on television shows such as Frasier, Matlock, State of Grace, and Will & Grace. Laurie also appeared in Cold Case and in a 2001 episode of titled "Care", in which she played an adoptive mother and foster grandmother who killed one of the foster granddaughters in her daughter's charge and who abused her adoptive son and foster grandchildren.

She returned to the big screen for independent films, such as Eulogy (2004) and The Dead Girl (2006), opposite actress Toni Collette. In 2010, she played Rainn Wilson's mother in Hesher, and in 2018, she had a supporting role in White Boy Rick as the grandmother of the title character.