Departures

Piper Laurie

Laurie, a silver screen starlet who paused a lucrative Hollywood career to pursue more nuanced acting roles, died Oct. 14. She was 91. Born Rosetta Jacobs, she adopted the screen name Piper Laurie as a teenage actress after signing a contract with Universal-International in 1949. After grinding through early roles that typecast her as a beautiful ingénue, Laurie left Hollywood in the 1950s to study acting and pursue theater roles. But a chance to perform alongside Paul Newman in The Hustler in 1961 drew her back to film and earned her an Academy Award nomination. Laurie pursued theater and TV roles until 1976 when she delivered an Oscar-nominated ­performance as a religiously fanatical mother in Carrie.

Rudolph Isley

A singer who helped infuse popular music with Baptist call-and-response, Isley died Oct. 11 aged 84. Isley and his brothers began singing at a Cincinnati church before forming the musical group known as the Isley Brothers as teens in 1954. By 1957 the brothers had moved to New York and began working out their material at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. As a backup vocalist, Rudolph sang the response “Shout” on the group’s breakout hit of the same name while younger brother Ronald sang the main vocal. From there, the group piled up hits including “Twist and Shout” and “It’s Your Thing.” Rudolph departed the group to pursue ministry and gospel music in 1989.