Piper Laurie, Oscar-Nominated Star Of Carrie And Twin Peaks, Has Died At 91

Piper Laurie, the actress who captivated audiences as Catherine Martell in "Twin Peaks" and terrified them as Margaret White in "Carrie," has died. The Hollywood Reporter has just confirmed that the actor passed away this morning at the age of 91.

The three-time Oscar nominee began her acting career during high school, signing a contract with Universal in 1949 and starring opposite Ronald Reagan in her on-screen debut, "Louisa." From there, the actress began working steadily, starring opposite Tony Curtis several times and appearing in 14 Universal movies (typically in the starring role) in just 7 years. Eventually, as THR notes, Laurie desperately wanted out of her contract, and her agent was able to extricate her from a deal that was keeping truly challenging roles at arm's length.

After leaving Universal, Laurie made one of the most memorable moves in her career with her turn in "The Hustler," an acclaimed movie about a pool hustler (Paul Newman) in which she played a depressed alcoholic named Sarah. The role garnered some major praise for Laurie, including BAFTA and Oscar nominations, but she apparently chose to leave Hollywood after working on the film. "I had a whole other life for 15 years," Laurie told the Detroit News in 2016. "I had a wonderful life in the country, became a mother and a sculptor and a baker. I had a happy life and never imagined I'd be working again, and yet somehow I knew that I might."

That return to the profession came via 1976's "Carrie," Brian De Palma's nightmare-inducing adaptation of a book by a newcomer on the horror fiction scene, Stephen King. King's novel tells a story of a superpowered teen girl who eventually snaps after being shaped by the alienation of her peers and abuse at the hands of her mother. Laurie took on that terrifying mother role, and while retrospectives tend to focus on pigs blood-drenched Carrie, with Laurie's performance Margaret White became — and remains — the scariest part of De Palma's adaptation. Even now, Sissy Spacek still credits Laurie's performance as the impetus for her own absorbing performance in the film.

Laurie's career continued to flourish after "Carrie." She appeared in memorable roles in the frightful fantasy film "Return to Oz," grabbed another Oscar nomination for a turn in the 1986 drama "Children of a Lesser God" (her second was for "Carrie"), and played Magda Goebbels in the World War II era TV movie "The Bunker." She popped up in Robert Rodriguez's "The Faculty" and on the much-loved sitcom "Frasier," and earned Emmy nods for her roles in "The Thorn Birds" and "St. Elsewhere" (she even won one for the 1986 TV movie "Promise"). One of her most enduring roles, though, came in 1990, when she was cast in David Lynch and Mark Frost's surreal, influential mystery series "Twin Peaks."

The actress played sinister mill owner Catherine Martell on the series. An unfaithful, conniving character who didn't win many friends, Catherine presumably died in a fire partway through the series, only to reappear, oddly, in disguise as a Japanese businessman named Mr. Tojamura. While this race-bending undercover scheme was one of the series' more questionable plot points, it was even stranger behind the scenes, as THR reports that Laurie was kept separate from the other cast members, who truly thought she was a totally different person. Despite all this, Catherine remained a captivating character, thanks largely to Laurie's performance.

Laurie worked as a screen actor across seven decades, appearing most recently in the 2018 crime film "White Boy Rick." Even after she stopped appearing in front of the camera, she still continued doing voice work, even appearing in a podcast episode in January 2023. She wrote a wildly frank and insightful memoir in 2011, and is remembered not just as a great actress whose career spanned several eras of Hollywood, but as a riveting storyteller, too. Laurie is survived by her family, including her daughter Anna.