Piper Laurie

        Piper Laurie made quite a splash in her first big role, playing opposite superstar Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961). The film, now considered a classic, also featured George C. Scott and the surprising Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats.. Newman is Fast Eddie Felson, a somewhat talented pool hustler. He meets Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie), a not-recovering alcoholic. They begin living together and Eddie challenges Fats to a pool shoot-out. Eddie gets way ahead.  Sarah does her best to get Eddie to quit, but he doesn’t listen. Laurie was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Sophia Loren for Two Women. 

Finding no interesting parts for an actress, Piper Laurie took a 15-year break from acting. She decamped to upstate New York and devoted her time to her sculpting and being a Mom. Her comeback role garnered another Oscar nomination. She played the abusive mother of Carrie (1976) in the truly scary adaptation of a Stephen King story. Sissy Spacek was terrifying as Carrie. Laurie lost this time to Beatrice Straight for Network.

    Piper Laurie’s last Oscar nomination, another loss, was for Children of a Lesser God (1986). She plays the mother of Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin). Sarah is a nearly deaf janitor and student at the school for the deaf where James Leeds (William Hurt) is hired as a new teacher. The film features the debate between sign language and lip reading. This time Laurie lost the statue to Diane Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters.

    Piper Laurie died recently at the age of 91. She never lacked for work, but never quite made it back to the pinnacle of her early parts. In Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993) she plays Georgia, the sometimes girlfriend of Frank (Richard Harris). The film also has Robert Duvall as Walter and Shirley Maclaine as Helen.

    Her final good part was in The Grass Harp (1995). She is just really good as the mildly eccentric Dolly Talbo, the best thing in the movie. She is surrounded by a stellar cast including Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Roddy MacDowell, Jack Lemon and Mary Steenburgen. Based on a Truman Capote story, it is a fairly standard small-town-in-the South-with-lots-of-characters film. 

    Piper Laurie also had good TV roles in The Thorn Birds and as George Clooney’s mother, Sarah Ross, on ER.

    All of the movies in this article are for adults. No idea where you might find them.