Priscilla Pointer, the character actress who portrayed Amy Irving’s mother in the Brian De Palma horror classic Carrie, then appeared with her daughter in six other movies, has died. She was 100.
Pointer died Monday at an assisted living facility in Ridgefield, Connecticut, her son, writer-director David Irving, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Pointer also portrayed Diane Keaton‘s mom in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Sean Penn‘s in The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) and Kyle MacLachlan’s in Blue Velvet (1986), and on television, she was Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, the mother of Victoria Principal’s character, on CBS’ Dallas in the early 1980s.
Pointer also appeared with Irving in Honeysuckle Rose (1980), The Competition (1980), Blake Edwards‘ Micki + Maude (1984), Rumpelstiltskin (1987) — which was directed by her son — A Show of Force (1990) and Carried Away (1996).
In the 1960s and ’70s, Pointer worked on Broadway with the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center company under the direction of her first husband, the late Jules Irving, and Herbert Blau. They, along with Blau’s wife, actress Beatrice Manley, had co-founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop in a loft on Divisidero Street in 1952.
“Instead of using babysitters, Mama would put us in the front row where she could watch us from the stage,” Irving recalled in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “My father was an amazing artistic director, and the values of the Actor’s Workshop were special. It was about the work, not money or fame. Things were very disillusioning when I got out into the real world.”
After Jules Irving died in 1979 from a heart attack at age 54, Pointer married Robert Symonds, an actor and Jules’ producing partner, two years later. She and Symonds had begun working together at the Actor’s Workshop in their 20s and often appeared alongside each other on stage and in such films as Micki + Maude and Inferno (1999). (Symonds died in 2007.)
Pointer’s stint on Dallas ended in 1983 in the show’s sixth season when her character perished after the Wentworth jet in which she was riding crashed into another plane in mid-air.
Pointer was born in New York on May 18, 1924. Her parents, Augusta and Kenneth, were artists.
At the Actor’s Workshop, Pointer did everything from answering phones to appearing in such plays as Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. She then made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a revival of Danton’s Death.
Her film résumé included Nickelodeon (1976), The Onion Field (1979), Mommie Dearest (1981), her son’s Good-bye Cruel World (1983), From the Hip (1987) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).
On television, she appeared on such shows as The High Chaparral, The Name of the Game, The Rockford Files, Police Woman, Barnaby Jones, Family and, in a recurring role as a judge, L.A. Law.
Amy Irving, the first wife of Steven Spielberg, was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her work in Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (1983). Her appearance in Carrie (1976) marked her big-screen debut.
On Instagram, Amy wrote that her mom died “peacefully in her sleep at the age of 100, hopefully to run off with her 2 adoring husbands and her many dogs. She most definitely will be missed.”
Survivors also include daughter Katie Irving, a singer who contributed two songs to Carrie; Amy’s husband, documentarian Kenneth Bowser; and eight grandchildren.
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