Piper Laurie: One of Hollywood’s most gifted and respected actresses.
With 3 Academy Award nominations, Golden Globe and Emmy wins, and countless nominations.
Piper Laurie has been called one of the most celebrated and formidable actresses of the last half-century. She has been nominated three times for an Academy Award: for The Hustler, Carrie and Children of a Lesser God.
She has starred in almost a hundred films, starting as a teenager in 1950 when she was signed as a contract player to Universal Studios. She worked opposite Tyrone Power, Paul Newman, Ronald Reagan, Donald O’Connor, Dana Andrews, Rock Hudson, Rory Calhoun, Victor Mature, Tony Curtis, Jason Robards, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemon, Cliff Robertson, James Garner, George Clooney, and Mel Gibson.
When she was twenty-three she changed her life and career by breaking her lucrative studio contract to do live television and theater in New York. She was nominated for an Emmy as the young alcoholic opposite Cliff Robertson in the much-celebrated original live TV performance of The Days of Wine and Roses. She followed it with twelve more Emmy nominations, winning for the Hallmark show Promise. She was awarded the Golden Globe for playing both a man and a woman on David Lynch’s iconic Twin Peaks.
Ms. Laurie has performed in numerous plays on and off Broadway, including the 20th anniversary production of The Glass Menagerie with Maureen Stapleton and the Tony-nominated revival of Mornings at Seven.
Ms. Laurie wrote and directed the short film, Property, and in 2011 directed Jim Brochu’s Drama Desk award winning performance in Zero Hour. Her popular memoir, Learning to Live Out Loud, was recently published by Random House/Crown and is now available as an audiobook narrarated by the author. The book has received glowing reviews.
Today, Piper lives in Southern California.
LEARNING TO LIVE OUT LOUD
Now Available as an Audiobook, Read by the Author
Available now in audiobook format
AVAILABLE AT THESE AUDIOBOOK RETAILERS
“Warmly intimate”
– Kirkus Reviews
“Laurie writes very well and with candor…much more than a Hollywood survivor’s tale. Each decade of her life has entailed a new beginning — really a kind of rebirth.”
– Washington Post
An intimate memoir by three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie, one of Hollywood’s most gifted and respected actresses.
Born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, on January 22, 1932,to immigrant parents of Polish and Russian descent, Piper moved to Los Angeles when she was just 6-years-old. As a 17-year-old, Universal signed young Rosetta as a contract player and changed her screen name to Piper Laurie.
Not yet 18, in the glory days of movie-making, Piper was living every little girl’s dream. Having been selected by Universal Studios to be a contract star, Piper was removed from her acting class and provided with stylists, chaperones, leading roles, and handsome dates, and elevated to the heights of Hollywood. Her beauty was admired by the likes of Ronald Reagan, Howard Hughes, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis, as well as dozens of directors and legions of fans. Her name was emblazoned on marquees across America for hit movies with Reagan (Louisa, 1950), Donald O’Connor (Francis Goes to the Races, 1951), Curtis (Son of Ali Baba, 1952), and Rory Calhoun (Ain’t Misbehavin’, 1955).
But Piper discovered early on that the little girl’s dream was not her own. Mortified by the shallowness of the roles and movies she was given, she longed for the freedom and fulfillment of her own artistic vision. After years in the studio system, shy Piper Laurie found her voice and the courage to burn her contract, leaving Hollywood for New York City in 1955 to work in live television. It was only after she left the oppressive studio culture that she began to star in the TV shows, plays, and films that truly became the hallmarks of her career: The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, the original Days of Wine and Roses, The Hustler, the iconic Carrie, and Twin Peaks. She grew into a three-time Oscar-nominated actress, an accomplished sculptor, and a director.
This memoir, read in intimate detail by the author herself, is the inspiring tale of Piper’s perseverance to break from tradition and to practice her craft at the highest level. She started life as a withdrawn, mute child who couldn’t find her voice and was transformed into a woman who learned to live out loud by her own rules.
Listen to a sample of Learning to Live out Loud, written and read by Piper Laurie
LEARNING TO LIVE OUT LOUD
Also Available as a Print and Ebook
Available in print and ebook formats
AVAILABLE AT THESE RETAILERS
“Warmly intimate”
– Kirkus Reviews
An intimate memoir by three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie, one of Hollywood’s most gifted and respected actresses.
Born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, on January 22, 1932,to immigrant parents of Polish and Russian descent, Piper moved to Los Angeles when she was just 6-years-old. As a 17-year-old, Universal signed young Rosetta as a contract player and changed her screen name to Piper Laurie.
Not yet 18, in the glory days of movie-making, Piper was living every little girl’s dream. Having been selected by Universal Studios to be a contract star, Piper was removed from her acting class and provided with stylists, chaperones, leading roles, and handsome dates, and elevated to the heights of Hollywood. Her beauty was admired by the likes of Ronald Reagan, Howard Hughes, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis, as well as dozens of directors and legions of fans. Her name was emblazoned on marquees across America for hit movies with Reagan (Louisa, 1950), Donald O’Connor (Francis Goes to the Races, 1951), Curtis (Son of Ali Baba, 1952), and Rory Calhoun (Ain’t Misbehavin’, 1955).
But Piper discovered early on that the little girl’s dream was not her own. Mortified by the shallowness of the roles and movies she was given, she longed for the freedom and fulfillment of her own artistic vision. After years in the studio system, shy Piper Laurie found her voice and the courage to burn her contract, leaving Hollywood for New York City in 1955 to work in live television. It was only after she left the oppressive studio culture that she began to star in the TV shows, plays, and films that truly became the hallmarks of her career: The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, the original Days of Wine and Roses, The Hustler, the iconic Carrie, and Twin Peaks. She grew into a three-time Oscar-nominated actress, an accomplished sculptor, and a director.
This memoir is the inspiring tale of Piper’s perseverance to break from tradition and to practice her craft at the highest level. She started life as a withdrawn, mute child who couldn’t find her voice and was transformed into a woman who learned to live out loud by her own rules.
INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
Pop Matters
She’s an Essential Performer: The Interview with Piper Laurie
“Female movie stars of today may possess the basic, bare minimum tenets of Piper Laurie’s blazingly original screen persona, but very few can claim the kind of honed, strong chops she can.”
Archive of American Television
“It used to happen when you did live television – people the next day would come up to you, and the whole country had seen you the night before. It’s hard for people to imagine how really focused people were on those live shows. That doesn’t happen anymore.”
The Hollywood Interview
Piper Laurie Keeps Her Chin Up
By Alex Simon
“Few living actors can claim to have experienced the Hollywood machine in all its iterations more than three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie. Signed by Universal Pictures at 17, their youngest contract player in years, she was in the last generation that were part of the Hollywood “factory,” pushed into “cheesecake” roles that accented physical attributes, as opposed to talent. It was the beginning of a journey.”
Alternative Nation
AlternativeNation.net Interview With Piper Laurie (Audio)
“In this exclusive AlternativeNation.net interview, legendary actress and 3 time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie discusses her life and career in-depth. Listen to the entire interview below, and also read highlights including Laurie’s thoughts on Twin Peaks returning to Showtime, and her memories of shooting Carrie.”
HollywoodChicago.com
Interview: Piper Laurie Reflects on ‘Carrie,’ ‘The Hustler,’ Fumio Yamaguchi
CONTACT PIPER
I’d love to hear from you. Contact me through the email form at right with any questions.
Warmest regards,
Piper