Priscilla Pointer, a celebrated actress with a career spanning over eight decades, has passed away peacefully at 100.
Known for her powerful maternal roles, she often appeared alongside her daughter, Amy Irving, in films like Carrie, Blue Velvet,
The Onion Field, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and in the TV series Dallas, where she played Rebecca Barnes Wentworth from 1981 to 1983.
Born in New York City to artists Augusta Leonora Davis and Kenneth Keith Pointer, she began her stage career in the
late 1940s with acclaimed Broadway productions such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Country Wife.
In the 1950s, she appeared on television shows including China Smith, before stepping away to focus on family.
Pointer returned to the screen in the 1970s, gaining recognition on the soap opera Where the Heart Is.
She frequently drew on real-life family connections, portraying Amy Irving’s mother in Carrie (1976)
and collaborating with her children, including David Irving’s Rumpelstiltskin (1987).
She co-founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop with her first husband, Jules Irving, and later married actor Robert Symonds.
Her final film role was in The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), and her last television appearance was on Cold Case (2006).
Pointer is survived by her children David, Katie, and Amy, leaving a remarkable legacy in theater, film, and television.