Priscilla Pointer, a respected stage and screen actress known for her role on Dallas and for frequently acting alongside her daughter, Amy Irving, has died at the age of 100. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on Monday at an assisted living facility in Ridgefield, Connecticut, according to her son, director David Irving.
Amy Irving – Pointer’s daughter and Steven Spielberg’s first wife – paid tribute to her mother on social media, sharing photos and writing, “She most definitely will be missed.” She fondly added that her mother had hopefully “run off with her 2 adoring husbands and her many dogs.”
Pointer portrayed Rebecca Barnes Wentworth on Dallas, mother to Pamela Barnes Ewing (played by Victoria Principal). Her time on the series ended in 1983 when her character died in a plane crash.
Her film credits include memorable “mom” roles: Mrs. Snell in Carrie (1976), Diane Keaton’s mother in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Sean Penn’s mother in The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), and Kyle MacLachlan’s in Blue Velvet (1986). She appeared in seven films with Amy Irving, including Honeysuckle Rose and Carried Away. Their brother David even directed them both in Rumpelstiltskin (1987).
A passionate theater artist, Pointer co-founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop with her first husband, Jules Irving, in the 1950s and later worked on Broadway. Irving died in 1979, and she later married producer Robert Symonds, who passed away in 2007.
Reflecting on her childhood, Amy once shared, “Mama would put us in the front row where she could watch us from the stage,” emphasizing the family’s deep devotion to the craft of acting over fame.
