by: Alix Martichoux
Posted: Apr 30, 2025 / 12:11 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 30, 2025 / 12:11 PM EDT
(NEXSTAR) – Priscilla Pointer, a prolific actress with dozens of credits in a career that spanned more than half a century, has died, her family said. She was 100 years old.
Pointer died Monday at an assisted living facility in Connecticut, her son told The Hollywood Reporter.
She “died peacefully in her sleep,” according to her daughter and fellow actress Amy Irving’s official Instagram page. “She will most definitely be missed,” Irving wrote.
1985: Priscilla Pointer appearing in the ABC TV series ‘Call to Glory’, episode ‘JFK’. (Photo by Chic Donchin /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images)
Actress Amy Irving and mother Priscilla Pointer attend the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre’s Opening Night Play Production of “Light Up the Sky” on March 8, 1987 at the Ahmanson Theatre, Music Center in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Priscilla Pointer attends the opening party for “Broken Glass” on April 24, 1994 at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Actress Amy Irving and mother Priscilla Pointer attend the after party for the opening night of “A Safe Harbor For Elizabeth Bishop” at Sarabeth’s on March 30, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Peter Kramer/Getty Images)
Some of Pointer’s most notable performances were alongside her daughter. Irving played Sue Snell and Pointer played her mother, Mrs. Snell, in the 1976 horror movie “Carrie.”
You may also recognize her from “Blue Velvet,” in which she played Mrs. Beaumont, or her 44-episode run on “Dallas” in the early ’80s. Pointer played Rebecca Barnes Wentworth on the popular TV show until her character died in a mid-air plane crash.
Pointer’s IMDb credits include dozens more roles in TV and film, from “Mommie Dearest” to “Twilight Zone: The Movie” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3,” but her acting career actually started on the stage. After starting on Broadway, Pointer moved to the West Coast where she founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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