Piper Laurie

Piper Laurie
Laurie publicity photo (1951)
Born	Rosetta Jacobs (1932-01-22) January 22, 1932 (age 85) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1950–present
Notable work	The Hustler (1961), Carrie (1976), Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Television	Twin Peaks
Spouse(s)	Joe Morgenstern (m. 1962; div. 1982)
Children	1

Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932) is an American stage and screen actress known for her roles in the films The Hustler (1961), Carrie (1976) and Children of a Lesser God (1986), all of which brought her Academy Award nominations. She is also known for her performance as Catherine Martell in the cult television series Twin Peaks, for which she won a Golden Globe Award in 1991.

Piper Laurie was born as Rosetta Jacobs on January 22, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the younger daughter of Charlotte Sadie (née Alperin) and Alfred Jacobs, a furniture dealer. Her grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland on her father's side and Russia on her mother's.

She was delivered, according to her 2011 autobiography Learning to Live Out Loud , where she lived in a one-bedroom walk-up on Tyler Street in Detroit. Alfred Jacobs moved the family to Los Angeles, California in 1938, where she attended Hebrew school. To combat her shyness, her parents provided her with weekly elocution lessons; this eventually led to minor roles at nearby Universal Studios. For much of her early childhood, her parents placed Laurie and her older sister in a children's home, which they both despised.

In 1949, Rosetta Jacobs signed a contract with Universal Studios, and changed her screen name to Piper Laurie which she has used since then. At Universal, she met other unfamiliar actors Julie Adams and Rock Hudson. Her breakout role was in Louisa, with Ronald Reagan whom she dated a few times before his marriage to Nancy Davis. In her autobiography she claimed that she lost her virginity to him. Several other roles followed: Francis Goes to the Races (1951, co-starring Donald O'Connor);Son of Ali Baba (1951, co-starring Tony Curtis); and Ain't Misbehavin' (1955, co-starring Rory Calhoun).