I couldn't agree more with the OP. Piper Laurie is a magnificent actress, and deserves such recognition from the Academy.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop

An Oscar doesn't is not a Lifetime Achievement Award; it's for who was best that year. I don't think the Oscar truly represents gifted actors, there are gifted people who have won them, however.

Her and Sissy Spacek were ROBBED at the oscars!!!
Introduce her to your world of sex, drugs, andwhat else do you do? - Cruel Intentions 1999

I'll second that motion Piper should've won best actress for The Hustler same as Paul Newman should've won best Actor but in that case I can see why Max Schell won over him
"why are you married to him then if you can't work with him how do you live with him?"

Every role I've seen her in, she's not good, she's damn near brilliant. This woman can act with the all-time greats. Her performance is The Hustler is nothing short of flawless.

I'd love to say she should've won for CARRIE, but the only nominee I've seen besides her is Straight.

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When i saw Carrie, i thought she was so creepy and played the 'mad old woman' perfectly.
I found out she was nominated for the best supporting actress oscar-i thought 'wow whoever won must have been good'
I saw Network expecting to see a really good supporting performance, one that would be good enough to top Piper's in Carrie. It was upsetting to see Beatrice Strait win for a cameo sized role, she was good but had nothing on Piper Laurie in Carrie.
Carrie was a ghoulish (almost B-grade) horror film (I Love the movie Carrie by the way)
and Network was an A-list soffisticated drama-the type of film the Academy always rule in favor of (despite how good other performances were)

I also feel she should've won for Carrie by a hair over Beatrice Straight (the actual winner who, no matter how small her performance, did more than many actresses do today and also impressed me more).

She's first-class all the way. Yes it would be nice if Piper Laurie had an Oscar but of course it's not essentialshe's still awesome.