Sissy Spacek
history, U.S. | birthdate = | occupation = Actress | yearsactive = 1970–present | spouse = Jack Fisk (1974–present) }}
Sissy Spacek (born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role as Carrie White in Brian de Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie.
In 1980, she won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as country star Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter. She has been nominated a total of 6 times. Spacek is known mainly as a dramatic actress, but has also made comedies. The films Spacek has starred in have earned over $700 million world wide.»Sissy Spacek - Box Office Data Movie Star
Early life
Spacek was born on December 25th, 1949 in Quitman, Texas, the daughter of Virginia Frances (nΓ©e Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent.»Sissy Spacek biography. Film Reference.com. Her paternal grandparents, Mary Δervenka and Arnold A. Ε paΔek (who served as Mayor of Granger, Texas in Williamson County), were of Moravian/CzechBohemian descent.»Ancestry of Sissy Spacek. Wargs.com. Spacek's mother was from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Spacek was given the nickname Sissy by her older brothers. She was greatly affected by the death of her eighteen-year old brother, Robbie, in 1967. Spacek moved to New York City hoping to become a singer. There she lived with her cousin, the actor Rip Torn, and his wife, the actress Geraldine Page.
Career
Spacek started out as a singer, recording one single ("John, You've Gone Too Far This Time"), about John Lennon,»Biography of Sissy Spacek. Biography.com an expression of her shock over the
1970s
Her first credited role was in the 1970 cult classic Prime Cut, in which she played Poppy, a young girl sold into sexual slavery. This role led to TV work which included a small role in The Waltons, where she uttered the well known line "When are you going to stop being John Boy and start being John Man?". But her landmark role of this period and the role that brought her to international attention, came in 1973: Holly in Terrence Malick's Badlands. As Holly, the 15-year old girlfriend of mass-murderer Kit (played by Martin Sheen). Spacek has described Badlands as the "most incredible" experience of her career.»Sissy Spacek's shy career BBC It was on the set of Badlands that Spacek met art director Jack Fisk, whom she would soon marry.
Spacek's iconic and career-defining role came in 1976 with Brian De Palma's Carrie, in which she played Carietta "Carrie" White, a shy high school senior and troubled teenager with telekinetic powers. Spacek had to work hard to persuade director de Palma to engage her for the role, set as he was on an alternative actress, whose identity remains to this day shrouded in mystery. Rubbing Vaseline into her hair, and donning an old sailor-dress her mother had made for her as a child, Spacek turned up to the audition with the odds stacked against her, but blew her competition out of the water.»Brian De Palma.net; accessed 27 May 2007 She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the film. (Veteran actress Piper Laurie, who played Carrie's religiously maniacal mother Margaret White, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.)
After Carrie Spacek played the small role of topless house-keeper Linda Murray in Alan Rudolph's ensemble piece Welcome to LA (1976), but cemented her reputation in independent cinema with her performance as Pinky Rose in Robert Altman's 1977 classic 3 Women. Altman himself was deeply impressed by her performance, stating: 'She's remarkable, one of the top actresses I've ever worked with. Her resources are like a deep well.' Meanwhile, de Palma now enthused: 'Sissy's a phantom. She has this mysterious way of slipping into a part, letting it take over her. She's got a wider range than any young actress I know.'[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911902-1,00.html Basic Spacek: Keeping Life Tidy - TIME] Spacek also helped to finance then-brother-in-law David Lynch's directorial debut, Eraserhead (1976), and is thanked in the credits of the film.
In 1979's Heart Beat, Spacek played the Carolyn Cassady, slipping (under the influence of John Heard's Jack Kerouac and Nick Nolte's Neal Cassady) into a frustrating combination of drudgery and debauchery.
1980s
Spacek began the decade with an Oscar in 1980 for Coal Miner's Daughter, in which she played country music star Loretta Lynn. Film critic Roger Ebert credited the success that was Coal Miner's Daughter, "to the performance by Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. With the same sort of magical chemistry she's shown before, when she played the high school kid in Carrie, Spacek at twenty-nine has the ability to appear to be almost any age onscreen. Here she ages from about fourteen to somewhere in her thirties, always looks the age, and never seems to be wearing makeup."
at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.]] Spacek was also nominated for a Grammy Award for her singing on that film's soundtrack album. She followed this with her own country album, Hangin' Up My Heart in 1983; the album spawned one hit single, "Lonely But Only For You," a song written by K.T. Oslin which reached #15 on the Billboard Country chart.
The 1980s were a solid decade for Spacek. She consolidated her position as one of Hollywood's leading actresses. She starred alongside Jack Lemmon in Costa-Gavras's political thriller Missing (1982), Mel Gibson in the rural drama The River (1984), and Diane Keaton and Jessica Lange in 1986's Crimes of the Heart. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for all of these roles. Other notable performances of the decade included poignant star turns in husband Jack Fisk's directorial debut Raggedy Man (1981), and opposite Anne Bancroft in the suicide drama Night Mother (1986). She also showed her lighter side by agreeing to play the voice of the brain in the Steve Martin comedy The Man with Two Brains (1983). By the end of 1986 Spacek retired to her farm in Virginia to raise her children and would not appear in another film until 1990.
1990s
The 1990s saw Spacek slowly come back to Hollywood, after her self-imposed hiatus. She had a supporting role as Kevin Costner's wife in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), she made a number of comedies, TV movies, and the occasional film. Most notable were her turn as the villainous Verena Talbo in 1995's ensemble piece The Grass Harp (which reunited her with both Piper Laurie and Jack Lemmon), supporting performance (opposite Nick Nolte again) as the waitress Margie Fogg in Paul Schrader's father-son psychodrama Affliction (1997), and as Rose Straight in David Lynch's The Straight Story (1999).
2000s
The last decade has seen Spacek excel in a number of film roles. In 2001, she was nominated again for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Todd Field's In the Bedroom. New York Times film critic Stephen Holden said of her work in the film:
Her portrayal of a grieving mother consumed by revenge, Ruth Fowler, won extraordinary praise and garnered the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Awards for Best Actress.
Other notable performances of this decade include unfaithful wife Ruth in Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives (2005), and a recent turn as a woman suffering from Alzheimer's in the television movie Pictures of Hollis Woods (2007). In 2008, Spacek had a supporting part in the Christmas movie Four Christmases (2008) and a lead role in the independent drama, Lake City (2008).
Spacek joined the HBO drama Big Love for a multi-episode arc as a powerful Washington, D.C., lobbyist.
Personal life
Spacek married production designer Jack Fisk in 1974. Fisk directed her in the films Raggedy Man and Violets Are Blue and was Oscar-nominated for his production design in 2007's There Will Be Blood. They have two daughters, Schuyler Fisk and Madison Fisk. Schuyler has appeared in several film roles, and is now pursuing a career as a singer. Spacek and her family live on a horse ranch near Charlottesville, Virginia. She is also an ardent crusader for women's rights.
Filmography
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9;
|- align="center"
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes
|-
|1970
|Trash
|Girl extra at bar
|uncredited
|-
|1972
|Prime Cut
|Poppy
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1973
|The Girls of Huntington House
|Sara
|TV film
|-
|Badlands
|Holly
|Nominated β BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
|-
|rowspan=2|1974
|Ginger in the Morning
|Ginger
|TV film
|-
|The Migrants
|Wanda Trimpin
|
|-
|1975
|Katherine
|Katherine Alman
|TV film (also known as The Radical)
|-
|rowspan=2|1976
|Carrie
|Carrie White
|National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Academy Award for Best Actress
|-
|Welcome to L.A.
|Linda Murray
|
|-
|1977
|3 Women
|Pinky Rose
|New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
|1978
|
|Verna Vane
|TV film
|-
|rowspan=2|1980
|Coal Miner's Daughter
|Loretta Lynn
|Academy Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Drama
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated β BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
|-
|Heart Beat
|Carolyn Cassady
|
|-
|1981
|Raggedy Man
|Nita Longley
|Nominated β Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Drama
|-
|1982
|Missing
|Beth Horman
|Nominated β Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated β BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated β Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Drama
|-
|1983
|The Man with Two Brains
|Anne Uumellmahaye
|voice (uncredited)
|-
|rowspan=2|1984
|The River
|Mae Garvey
|Nominated β Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Drama
|-
|Terror in the Aisles
|
|archival footage
|-
|1985
|Marie
|Marie Ragghianti
|
|-
|rowspan=3|1986
|Violets Are Blue
|Augusta 'Gussie' Sawyer
|
|-
|'night, Mother
|Jessie Cates
|
|-
|Crimes of the Heart
|Rebeca 'Babe''Becky' Magrath Botrelle
|Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Academy Award for Best Actress
|-
|1990
|The Long Walk Home
|Miriam Thompson
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1991
|Hard Promises
|Christine Ann Coalter
|
|-
|JFK
|Liz Garrison
|
|-
|1992
|A Private Matter
|Sherri Finkbine
|TV film
|-
|rowspan=2|1994
|A Place for Annie
|Susan Lansing
|Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film
|-
|Trading Mom
|Mrs. Mommy Martin; Mama, Snappy French;
Mom, the Nature-Hiker; Natasha, the Circus Performer
|aka e Mommy Market
|-
|rowspan=3|1995
|The Good Old Boys
|Spring Renfro
|Nominated β Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress β Miniseries or a Movie
|-
|The Grass Harp
|Verena Talbo
|
|-
|Streets of Laredo
|Lorena Parker
|TV mini-series
|-
|rowspan=2|1996
|Beyond the Call
|Pam O'Brien
|TV film
|-
|If These Walls Could Talk
|Barbara Barrows (segment "1974")
|TV film
|-
|1997
|Affliction
|Margie Fogg
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1999
|Blast from the Past
|Helen Thomas Webber
|Nominated β Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
|The Straight Story
|Rose 'Rosie' Straight
|Nominated β Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated β Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated β Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
|-
|2000
|Songs in Ordinary Time
|Marie Fermoyle
|TV film
|-
|rowspan=2|2001
|In the Bedroom
|Ruth Fowler
|AFI Actress of the Year
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Motion Picture Drama
Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated β BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated β Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated β Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated β Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
|-
|Midwives
|Sibyl Danforth
|Nominated β Satellite Award for Best Actress β Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated β Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
|-
|rowspan=2|2002
|Last Call
|Zelda Fitzgerald
|Nominated β Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress β Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated β Satellite Award for Best Actress β Miniseries or Television Film
|-
|Tuck Everlasting
|Mae Tuck
|Nominated β Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
|2004
|A Home at the End of the World
|Alice Glover
|
|-
|rowspan=3|2005
|Nine Lives
|Ruth
|Locarno International Film Festival Award for Best Actress Ensemble
|-
|The Ring Two''
|Evelyn
|
|-
|North Country
|Alice Aimes
|
|-
|rowspan=2|2006
|An American Haunting
|Lucy Bell
|
|-
|Summer Running: The Race to Cure Breast Cancer
|Mrs. Flora Good
|
|-
|rowspan=3|2007
|Gray Matters
|Sydney
|
|-
|Hot Rod
|Marie Powell
|
|-
|Pictures of Hollis Woods
|Josie Cahill
|Nominated β Golden Globe Award for Best Actress β Miniseries or Television Film
|-
|rowspan=2|2008
|Lake City
|Maggie
|
|-
|Four Christmases
|Paula (Brad's Mom)
|
|-
|rowspan=2|2009
|
|Narrator
|TV mini-series
|-
|Get Low
|
|For People
|-
|2010-present
|Big Love
|Marilyn Densham
|5 episodes
|}
Discography
Albums
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Album
! US Country
! Label
|-
| 1983
| Hangin' Up My Heart
| align="center"| 17
| Atlantic
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2"| Year
! rowspan="2"| Single
! colspan="3"| Chart Positions
! rowspan="2"| Album
|-
! width="50"| US Country
! width="50"| US
! width="50"| CAN Country
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1980
| "Coal Miner's Daughter"
| align="center"| 24
| align="center"|β
| align="center"| 7
| rowspan="2"| Coal Miner's Daughter (Soundtrack)
|-
| "Back in Baby's Arms"
| align="center"| β
| align="center"|β
| align="center"| 71
|-
| 1983
| "Lonely But Only for You"
| align="center"| 15
| align="center"|110
| align="center"| 13
| rowspan="3"| Hangin' Up My Heart
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1984
| "If I Can Just Get Through the Night"
| align="center"| 57
| align="center"|β
| align="center"| 41
|-
| "If You Could Only See Me Now"
| align="center"| 79
| align="center"|β
| align="center"| β
|}
}}
, U.S. |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= }}