Priscilla Pointer, Scene-Stealing ‘Carrie’ Actor & Mom of Amy Irving, Dies at 100

Priscilla Pointer, a veteran actor remembered for her work on “Dallas” and in the horror classic “Carrie,” died April 28 at 100.

“Priscilla Pointer, acclaimed stage television and film actress, and mother of David, Katie, and Amy Irving, died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 100,” her actor daughter Amy Irving announced on Instagram Tuesday. “She most definitely will be missed.”

Pointer, born May 18, 1924, in New York City, attended Stanford, where she played the lead in “Antigone” in 1948. She had met her husband, Jules Irving, there, and the two of them were among co-founders of the prestigious San Francisco Actor’s Workshop in 1952.

The Workshop presented a slew of new American classics — works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, and many others — and in 1955 won the first off-Broadway Equity contract ever awarded outside NYC.

Jules Irving became lauded as its artistic director, and later served the same function with distinction at the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center.

Pointer was active on the stage throughout the ’50s, including in the first national tour of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” She made her Broadway debut in 1965’s “Danton’s Tod,” her first of 13 appearances on the Great White Way, including the 1973 revival of “Streetcar.”

She appeared on the early-TV series “The New Adventures of China Smith” in 1954, but only after a guest spot on “N.Y.P.D.” in 1969 did she begin her TV and film career in earnest, racking up appearances on dozens of shows, among them “The High Chaparral” (1970), “McCloud” (1971), “Adam-12” (1973), “The Rockford Files” (1974), “Kojak” (1975), “Cannon” (1975), “Police Woman” (1976), and “Phyllis” (1976).

In 1976, Pointer played the mother of her real-life daughter Amy Irving’s character in Brian De Palma’s “Carrie.” In an unforgettable scene with the late Piper Laurie, whose deranged character declares, “These are godless times, Mrs. Snell,” Pointer’s Mrs. Snell replies flippantly, “I’ll drink to that.”

She wound up working with her daughter six more times, in “Honeysuckle Rose” (1980), “The Competition” (1980), “Micki + Maude” (1984), “Rumpelstiltskin” (1987), “A Show of Force” (1990), and “Carried Away” (1996).

Some of her other feature films included “Nickelodeon” (1976), “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977), “The Onion Field” (1979), “Mommie Dearest” (1981), “The Falcon and the Snowman” (1985), “Blue Velvet” (1986), and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (1987).

Pointer’s most memorable TV performance was as Rebecca Barnes Wentworth on more than 40 episodes of the nighttime soap “Dallas” (1981-1983). Attempting to foil super villain J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), her character died after a plane disaster in a heart-tugging scene with her TV daughter Victoria Principal.

Principal remembered her on Instagram, writing, “Priscilla Pointer, my favorite TV mama & a wonderful woman, passed away today. My sincere condolences to Amy Irving & all of Priscilla’s family. Always a special place in my heart. RIP .”

Other late-career recurring roles on TV came via “Call to Glory” (1984-1985), “L.A. Law” (1986-1988), and “The Flash” (1990-1991). She gave her final on-screen TV performance on a 2006 episode of “Cold Case,” and her last voice work was in the 2008 TV movie “Sweet Nothing in My Ear.”

When Pointer’s first husband died of a heart attack in 1979, she remarried actor and Lincoln Center associate director Robert Symonds the following year. They remained together until his death in 2007.

Her daughter’s remembrance hoped that in death, her mom was going on “to run off with her 2 adoring husbands and her many dogs.”

Pointer is survived by her three children and eight grandchildren.