Priscilla Pointer, veteran stage, film, and TV actress and co-founder of the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop, has died peacefully at 100.
Born May 18, 1924, in New York City, Pointer began her career on Broadway in the late 1940s with productions like A Streetcar Named Desire and The Country Wife. She moved to television in the 1950s, took a family hiatus, and returned in the 1970s, gaining recognition on the soap opera Where the Heart Is.
Pointer was best known for maternal roles, often alongside her daughter Amy Irving, in films such as Carrie, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Onion Field, Mommie Dearest, Blue Velvet, and The Falcon and the Snowman. On TV, she played Rebecca Barnes Wentworth on Dallas (1981–1983).
She co-founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop with first husband Jules Irving and later married actor Robert Symonds. Her final screen appearances were The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) and Cold Case (2006). She is survived by her three children: David, Katie, and Amy Irving.