NEW YORK – MARCH 30: Actress Amy Irving and mother Priscilla Pointer attend the after party for the … More
Priscilla Pointer, who is remembered for her role as Rebecca Wentworth on Dallas, has died. The actress, who was 100, passed away in her sleep on April 29.
Pointer joined the cast of Dallas in season four as the estranged mother of Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal) and her brother Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) in 1981. Eventually the family, including daughter Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany), reunited to battle the Ewings until her character was killed in a mid-air collision while flying in the company jet in 1986.
Married American actors Robert Symonds (1926 – 2007) and Priscilla Pointer attend a wrap party for … More
Born May 18, 1924, in New York City, Priscilla Pointer married her first husband Jules Irving in 1947, who she met in Europe during an army production of Brother Rat. The pair, along with Herbert Blau and Beatrice Manley, founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop. She appeared in several Broadway shows, including the original tours of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Condemned of Altona, Yerma and The East Wind, often under the direction of husband.
After Irving died in 1979, Priscilla married Robert Symonds, a fellow actor.
Pointer debuted on television in 1954 in two episodes of syndicated drama The New Adventures of China Smith. Later guest roles included the dramas N.Y.P.D., Matt Lincoln, The Name of the Game, McCloud, Adam-12, The Rockford Files, Kojak, Cannon, Police Woman and Harry O.
Pointer’s film resume included Carrie (1976), where she played the onscreen mother of her daughter Amy Irving; The Onion Field (1979); Mommie Dearest (1981); Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986); and Coyote Moon (1999). She also played the onscreen mother to Amy Irving in Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Carried Away (1996); and they were both in the films The Competition (1980) and Micki & Maude (1984).
Pointer’s later TV spots included recurring roles in the military family drama Call to Glory and L.A. Law, and episodes of Newhart, ER, Picket Fences, Touched by an Angel, Judging Amy and Cold Case.
Los Angeles, CA – 1985: (L-R) Keenan Wynn, Priscilla Pointer appearing in the ABC tv series ‘Call to … More
In addition to Amy Irving, Priscille Pointer is survived by children David and Katie, and eight grandchildren.
