Career Highlights: Rumpelstiltskin, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Magic Bubble
First Major Screen Credit: Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me (1978)
Biography
American character actress Priscilla Pointer was the wife of famed theatrical director Jules Irving, and the mother of actress Amy Irving and writer/director David Irving. After extensive theatrical experience, Pointer attained her first major TV job in the daytime drama Where the Heart Is (1969-73). She went on to play Mrs. Austin in From Here to Eternity (1980). Rebecca Barnes Wentworth in Dallas (1981-83) and Lillie in Call to Glory (1984-85). One of her more memorable film assignments was the 1976 chiller Carrie, in which she played the mother of the character played by her daughter Amy. Perhaps as a by-product of Carrie, Priscilla Pointer was engaged to play important roles in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and the made-for-TVTwilight Zone: The Lost Classics (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Robert Symonds
(1981–2007) (his death)
Jules Irving
(1947–1979) (his death); 3 children
Priscilla Pointer (born May 18, 1924) is an American stage, film and television character actress. She began her career in the theater, including productions on Broadway. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood to act in films and on television. She is the mother of actress Amy Irving (and former mother-in-law of Steven Spielberg).
Pointer was born in New York City, the daughter of Augusta Leonora (née Davis), an artist and illustrator, and Kenneth K. Pointer, an artist.[1] Pointer is of Welsh and Cherokee descent. Pointer is the mother of director David Irving, actress Amy Irving and singer Katie Irving, who performed two songs heard in the prom sequence in Carrie.
Pointer was married to film and stage director Jules Irving, former artistic director of the Lincoln Center, from 1947 until his death in 1979. In 1980, she married actor/director/producer Robert Symonds, who had been her first husband (Jules Irving)'s producing partner at Lincoln Center. She appeared several times in stage productions alongside Symonds and they remained married until Symonds' death in 2007.
Pointer appeared in three films that her son, David Irving, directed: Rumpelstiltskin (a 1987 musical version, which starred her daughter), Good-Bye Cruel World and C.H.U.D. II (the sequel to C.H.U.D.).