Priscilla Pointer

Priscilla Marie Pointer[1] (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 Amy Irving, therefore making her the former mother-in-law of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Bruno Barreto and the mother-in-law of documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser, Jr.

Pointer was born in New York City. Her mother Augusta Leonora (née Davis) was an artist and an illustrator, and her father Kenneth Keith Pointer was an artist.[1][2] One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Jacob Barrett Cohen, was from a Jewish family that had lived in the United States since the 1700s.[1][3][4]

Pointer was married to film and stage director Jules Irving, former artistic director of Lincoln Center, from 1947 until his death in 1979; they are the parents of Katie Irving, director David Irving, and actress Amy Irving.[5] In 1980, she married actor/director/producer Robert Symonds, who had been Jules Irving’s producing partner at Lincoln Center. She appeared several times in stage productions with Symonds, and they remained married until the latter’s death in 2007.