She is also known for her performances as Kirsten Arnesen in the original TV production of Days of Wine and Roses, and as Catherine Martell in the television series Twin Peaks.

[11] To polish her image, Universal Studios told gossip columnists that Laurie bathed in milk and ate flower petals to protect her luminous skin.

[12] Discouraged by the lack of substantial film roles,[13] she moved to New York City to study acting and to seek work on the stage and in television.

She played Newman's girlfriend, Sarah Packard, and for her performance, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

In 1965, she starred in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, opposite Maureen Stapleton, Pat Hingle, and George Grizzard.

[24] She had a featured role in the Off-Broadway production of The Destiny of Me in 1992,[25] and returned to Broadway for Lincoln Center's acclaimed 2002 revival of Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven, with Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Frances Sternhagen, and Estelle Parsons.

[12] She also appeared in Other People's Money with Gregory Peck (1991),[27] and in horror maestro Dario Argento's first American film Trauma (1993).

[31] She returned to the big screen for independent films, such as Eulogy (2004) and The Dead Girl (2006), opposite actress Toni Collette.

[31] In 2010, she played Rainn Wilson's mother in Hesher,[32] and in 2018, she had a supporting role in White Boy Rick as the grandmother of the title character.

[33] Laurie was married to New York Herald Tribune entertainment writer and Wall Street Journal movie critic Joe Morgenstern.