Laurie Bird (September 26, 1953 - June 15, 1979) was an American film actress and photographer. She appeared in three films during the 1970s. Two of them were directed by Monte Hellman. She was romantically involved with Hellman and Art Garfunkel; committing suicide in the latter's apartment by taking an overdose of Valium. Bird inspired one of Tim Kinsella's novels.
Video Laurie Bird
Early life
Bird's mother died when she was three. Her father was an electrical engineer. She had two elder brothers. Her strict father restricted her social life and she fled home multiple times. In response, her father had an arrest warrant issued in her name and she was put in an institution for neglected girls. She did her schooling from Jamaica High School.
Maps Laurie Bird
Career
Described by Hollywood columnist Dick Kleiner as "look[ing] like an innocent Hayley Mills," Bird appeared in just three films: Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), Cockfighter (1974), and a small role as girlfriend to Paul Simon's character in the romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977), from Woody Allen. While researching for the film, screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer met her and recommended her name to Hellman while he was looking for actresses for the same movie. In Two-Lane Blacktop she played a hitchhiker to whom the film's character's are initially attracted but after they lose a race, she joins another driver. Her second release had her paired opposite Warren Oates. He loses her in a bet. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Film critic Michael Atkinson wrote in his book Exile Hollywood (2008) "In two films, she made more of an impression, left more of a synaesthetic presence, then many actors do in a career".
Bird was the still photographer on Cockfighter and shot the cover photo for Art Garfunkel's 1977 album Watermark.
Personal life
She was romantically involved with her Blacktop and Cockfighter director Monte Hellman. From 1974 until her death in 1979, Bird was in a serious romantic relationship with Art Garfunkel.
Suicide
In 1979 Bird committed suicide by taking an overdose of Valium in the apartment she shared with Garfunkel in New York. Garfunkel was deeply affected by Bird's death. He stated in an interview: "She was beautiful, in a lonesome, haunted way, and I adored her. But I wasn't ready for marriage and she was not very comfortable being Laurie. She wasn't happy with herself. Her mother committed suicide at 25, and so did she." "Laurie was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen anywhere. After her suicide, I didn't have the momentum to stay in life."
Legacy
Bird's relationship with Garfunkel was referred to in the liner notes of the latter's 1988 album Lefty and his collection of prose poems Still Water. Hellman dedicated his 2010 film Road to Nowhere to Laurie Bird.
Tim Kinsella's novel Let Go and Go On and On (2014) is subtitled "Based on the roles of Laurie Bird." In the foreword he writes, "This book by no means intends to convey any truth beyond one possible solution to the puzzles of her life and work."
Credits
References
Bibliography
External links
- Laurie Bird on IMDb
- Laurie Bird at AllMovie
- "Laurie Bird". Find a Grave. Apr 1, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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