Laurie Bird

Bird's mother died by suicide when Bird was a baby. 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, she was placed by him in an institution for troubled girls. She attended Jamaica High School, in New York City, until she was 15. 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). While researching for Two-Lane Blacktop, screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer met her and recommended her 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 characters are initially attracted, but who runs off with a motorcyclist near the end of the film.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Her second release, Cockfighter, had her paired opposite Warren Oates. He loses her in a bet. 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, than 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. She appeared on the cover of Garfunkel's 1975 album Breakaway.