Sissy Spacek
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
"Sissy possesses that rare trait of not being impoverished with the process of remembering herself. Every role she plays, she is someone else. About six months after we inished shooting ["In the Bedroom"], we had dinner together at Sundance. I was in shock. I thought, 'Wait a minute! Where is Ruth? She doesn't walk this way or talk this way.' I was like some weird Sissy Spacek fan." --director Todd Field to USA Today, November 20, 2001.
"The films that belong to me, I'll do. The ones [that] don't, someone else will do. Films are like little rivers and creeks, just kind of floating along. You just have to know you'll find something sooner or later." --Sissy Spacek in Entertainment Weekly, November 16, 2001.
Biography
Multiple Oscar nominee Sissy Spacek was one of Hollywood's leading actresses during the 1970s and 1980s, initially gaining attention for the startling character transformations of her wide-eyed innocents in "Badlands" (1973) and the blood-drenched "Carrie" (1977). The Texas-bred actress had a penchant for embodying strong, independent women and what she called "ordinary people in extraordinary situations" - both apt descriptions for her portrayals of real-life figures like hardscrabble country music star Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980) and Beth Horman, a woman who took on international forces following the disappearance of her journalist husband in "Missing" (1982). Later in her career, Spacek developed into an earthy, mothering persona who often found her calling in TV movies that explored political or social issues, though she made several notable big screen turns in JFK" (1991), "The Straight Story" (1996), "North Country" (2005) and "In The Bedroom" (2001) - the latter of which earned her among the highest accolades of her career. She also appeared in "An American Haunting" (2006) and "Gray Matters," and on television in "Picture of Hollis Woods" (CBS, 2007) and an Emmy-nominated guest turn on "Big Love" (HBO, 2006-2011). Spacek remained an accomplished actress who delivered high quality performances time and again in a wide array of projects.
Mary Elizabeth Spacek (dubbed "Sissy" by her older brothers) was born on Christmas day 1949 and grew up in the north Texas town of Quitman. It was an idyllic small town upbringing, where the freckled strawberry-blonde sang and danced in local talent shows and dreamed of becoming a performer. Her cousin Rip Torn was beginning to make a name for himself as an actor in New York and Spacek joined him after her high school graduation and the death of her older brother from leukemia - a traumatic event that underscored the unpredictable nature of life and inspired her to waste no time pursuing her dreams. Spacek initially landed in New York with her sights set on becoming a singer. For several years, she sang and played guitar in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and landed some paying work singing commercial jingles. She had a break of sorts when, under the pseudonym Rainbo, she recorded a novelty number called "John, You've Gone Too Far This Time" (about John Lennon posing nude on the Two Virgins album cover). The single failed to chart high and that spelled the end of Rainbo. Spacek decided to next try her hand at acting, taking classes at the famed Lee Strasberg institute and landing an uncredited film role in Andy Warhol's "Trash" (1970).
She eventually secured an agent and her first substantial movie part as a teenager abducted by a white slavery ring in the lurid "Prime Cut" (1972). Her earthy country-girl looks began to serve her well, especially her several appearances as a spunky love interest to John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) in the rural drama, "The Waltons" (CBS, 1972-1981). The same year, she landed attention for her starring role as a naive teenager wo d into an interstate crime spree by her psychopathic garbage man in Terrence Malick's "Badlands" (1973). Inspired by the real-life 1958 case of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, "Badlands" was chilling, beautiful and provocative. While not a box office hit, it earned the actress a BAFTA nomination and in the years since its release, developed enormous respect. Spacek would joke that she was "not known for making career moves," and thus, did not jump at Hollywood offers as a result of her newfound attention. Plus, she had fallen in love with then fledgling director, Jack Fisk. The couple would marry in 1974.
Off the success of "Badlands," she opted to play a disaffected 1960s radical in the powerful ABC TV movie "Katherine" (1975), before winning the role of the heroine in Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie" (1977) - a part which elevated her profile to a whole new level for the first time. She gave an extraordinary performance as an outcast teen with an overly zealous religious mother (Piper Laurie), unleashing newly discovered telekinetic powers on her tormentors. In a rare occurrence for a horror film, she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Better than that accolade, however, she achieved film immortality when she is drenched with pig blood by her petty classmates when being crowned prom queen. Wearing the crown, holding roses and covered in blood, the scene became one of the most famous in film history regardless of genre.
Spacek took on another young adult role as a naïve hospital worker in Robert Altman's curious study, "3 Women" (1977), but began a transition to more adult material with the title role in the PBS production "Verna: USO Girl" (1977). Two years later, she essayed Carolyn Cassady opposite Nick Nolte in the uneven biopic "Heart Beat," but her career-making role was just around the corner. Spacek's incredibly detailed, deeply moving portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn in the biographical drama "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980) catapulted her to the front ranks of American actresses. Not only did she play Lynn from preteen into her forties, but Spacek did her own vocals and imbued the character with spot-on folksy charm and fierce country grit. She garnered practically every accolade for her performance, including the Best Actress Academy Award and a Grammy nomination for the film's theme song.
True to form, Spacek again eschewed a deluge of Hollywood offers and decided on a role in her husband's directorial debut, "Raggedy Man" (1981), a period drama in which she played a divorced mother with two small children whose relationship with a sailor (Eric Roberts) leads to trouble. The film was a critical success, making Spacek an even more admired figure in the industry. Taking on yet another real-life figure, Spacek earned another Oscar nomination for her role as the wife of an American journalist who disappears in Central America in "Missing" (1982), co-starring film legend Jack Lemmon. She was back in contention for the prize as a farm matriarch struggling to survive during economic hardships in the earnest drama "The River" (1984).
With that one-two-three punch of critically acclaimed features, Spacek went on to essay a Tennessee mom who blows the whistle on corruption in the parole system in "MARIE: A True Story" (1985) and then appeared in film versions of two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. In Marsha Norman's "'Night Mother" she played a pre-suicidal woman preparing her mother (Anne Bancroft) for her departure, while in "Crimes of the Heart" (1986), for which she earned a fifth Best Actress Academy Award nomination, she was the eccentric, would-be murderer Babe, a character who put a darkly comic spin on the many child-like women she had played in her career. That same year, she was again directed by her husband in the modest romance, "Violets Are Blue," about former high school lovers who attempt to rekindle an old relationship.
Around this time, Spacek took several years off from acting, spending time on her horse ranch in Virginia and focusing on family life, which now included children. She resumed her big screen career in the well-intentioned, if little-seen, civil rights drama "The Long Walk Home" (1990). She appeared opposite Kevin Costner as the wife of his Jim Garrison in Oliver Stone's much ballyho d "JFK" (1991), and continued her involvement with political-tinged fare as a children's TV show host seeking an abortion in the HBO drama "A Private Matter" (1992) and as a caregiver for an HIV-infected child in "A Place for Annie" (ABC, 1994). She netted her first Emmy nomination in "The Good Old Boys" (TNT, 1996), co-written, directed and starring her "Coal Miner's Daughter" co-star Tommy Lee Jones.
Back on the big screen, Spacek reunited with "Carrie" mom Piper Laurie to play a pair of sisters in the 1996 film adaptation of the Truman Capote novel "The Grass Harp." In a spate of character roles as she grew older but no less beautiful, Spacek played the patient, long-suffering girlfriend of a troubled small-town traffic cop (Nick Nolte) in "Affliction" (1997), and David Lynch cast her as the "simple" daughter of a man who rides a lawnmower several hundred miles in order to reconcile with his dying brother in "The Straight Story" (1999).
Having earned a comforting reputation playing solid and supportive caregivers, Spacek was seen as a single mother struggling to raise a family who takes in a mysterious boarder in the CBS drama "Songs in Ordinary Time" (2000). In 2001, she gave one of the best performances of her career as a mother whose family is on the verge of collapse due in part to her son's bad choices in "In the Bedroom" (2001). When the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it was greeted with rapturous response, with Spacek and co-star Tom Wilkinson being awarded a Special Jury Prize for their stellar performances. Spacek also garnered her sixth career Best Actress Oscar nomination for her impressive work in the deeply moving film.
Taking a detour from the tragic, she was next seen on the big screen in "Tuck Everlasting" (2002), an adaptation of the novel about a family who discovers a fountain of youth. She gave a stirring performance as F. Scott Fitzgerald's disturbed wife in the Showtime miniseries "Last Call," and as a result, was nominated for an Emmy in 2002. As one of the original "scream queens" to go on to a major film career, Spacek's memorable cameo in "The Ring 2" (2005) as the unhinged mother of the ghostly pursuer, proved a treat for horror fans. In 2005, she appeared alongside Charlize Theron as the long-suffering but surprisingly iron-willed mother of a sexually harassed Minnesota miner in the drama "North Country" (2005).
On the small screen, Spacek was part of a strong ensemble cast in Rodrigo Garcia's "Nine Lives" (2005), an episodic drama which centered around nine different women thematically connected through their various travails. In 2007, the versatile actress again gave a moving performance as a retired art teacher who takes in a foster child in the TV movie "Pictures of Hollis Woods" (CBS), which was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie. Also that year, she delivered a turn as the therapist of a young woman (Heather Graham) who shocks everyone - including herself - when she falls for another woman (Bridget Moynahan) in the indie romantic comedy, "Gray Matters" (2007). After playing the New Age mother of a put-upon husband (Vince Vaughn) in "Four Christmases" (2008), she was a desperate mother trying to protect her son (Troy Garity) from a ruthless drug dealer (Dave Matthews) in the little-seen crime drama, "Lake City" (2008). Back on television, Spacek narrated the four-part documentary series "Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People" (PBS, 2009), which she followed with an acclaimed recurring role on the hit series, "Big Love" (HBO, 2006-2011), playing a conniving lobbyist who butts heads with aspiring state senator and longtime polygamist Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton). The role earned Spacek an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
By Susan Clarke
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Art Department (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Misc. Crew (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1956
At age six, made first appearance on stage, singing and tap-dancing in a local talent show
1968
Cut single "John, You've Gone Too Far This Time," a novelty song about John Lennon posing nude on an album cover with his wife Yoko Ono; recorded under the name Rainbo; because single failed to sell well, was dropped by record company
1970
Worked as photographic model and as extra at Andy Warhol's factory; appeared in "Trash"
1972
Screen acting debut, "Prime Cut"
1973
Played recurring role of a potential love interest for John-Boy (Richard Thomas) on "The Waltons" (CBS)
1973
TV debut, "The Girls of Huntington House" (ABC), about a group home for unwed mothers
1973
Landed breakthrough screen role opposite Martin Sheen in "Badlands"; met future husband Jack Fisk during filming
1974
Worked as a set decorator on "Phantom of the Paradise"
1975
Had title role of a 1960s radical in the TV-movie "Katherine" (ABC)
1976
Earned first Oscar nomination for her leading performance as a telekinetic teenager in "Carrie"; Fisk was the production designer on the movie
1977
Starred with Shelley Duvall and Janice Rule in "Three Women," directed by Robert Altman
1977
Worked as script supervisor on David Lynch's surreal "Eraserhead"
1978
Had title role opposite William Hurt in the PBS production "Verna: USO Girl"
1979
Cast as Carolyn Cassady in the biopic "Heart Beat"; first screen teaming with Nick Nolte
1980
Won Best Actress Academy Award for portraying country singer Loretta Lynn in the biopic "Coal Miner's Daughter"; also did own singing in the role
1981
Directed by husband in "Raggedy Man," co-starring Eric Roberts
1982
Teamed with Jack Lemmon in the political drama "Missing"; earned Best Actress Oscar nomination as the wife of a kidnapped American
1984
Starred in "The River" opposite Mel Gibson; garnered fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination
1985
Had title role of real-life whistle-blower Marie Ragghianti in "MARIE: A True Story"
1986
Received fifth Best Actress Oscar nomination for "Crimes of the Heart"
1986
Took four-year break from features
1986
Portrayed a suicidal woman in "'night, Mother," the film adaptation of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play
1990
Returned to features in the civil rights drama "The Long Walk Home" alongside Whoopi Goldberg
1991
Had supporting role of Mrs. Jim Garrison in Oliver Stone's controversial "JFK"
1992
Starred in controversial HBO movie "A Private Matter," about the host of a children's TV show who seeks an abortion after exposure to Thalidomide
1994
Starred as a pediatric nurse who cares for an abandoned baby with HIV in the ABC "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation "A Place for Annie"
1995
Co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones in the TNT TV-movie "The Good Old Boys"; earned first Emmy nomination
1996
Teamed with "Carrie" co-star Piper Laurie in "The Grass Harp"
1996
Starred in the "1974" segment of the anthology TV-movie about a woman's right to reproductive freedom, "If These Walls Could Talk" (HBO)
1998
Played Nick Nolte's patient girlfriend in "Affliction"
1999
Appeared as the matriarch of a family who seeks refuge in a bomb shelter in the 1950s and spends 30 years living below ground in the uneven comedy "Blast From the Past"
1999
Portrayed the daughter of a man who sets out on a lawnmower to travel to meet with his estranged brother in "The Straight Story," directed by David Lynch; husband Jack Fisk served as production designer
2000
Starred opposite Beau Bridges in the TV drama "Songs in Ordinary Time" (CBS)
2001
Starred in the Lifetime TV-movie "Midwives"
2001
Co-starred with Tom Wilkinson in the independent feature "In the Bedroom," directed by Todd Field; screened at Sundance; received sixth career Oscar nomination as Best Actress
2002
Played writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's mentally ill wife in the Showtime miniseries "Last Call"
2002
Had featured role in "Tuck Everlasting"
2004
Cast in Michael Cunningham's "A Home at the End of the World," also starring Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn
2005
Cast as Charlize Theron's mother in "North Country"
2005
Cast in ensemble "Nine Lives"; Rodrigo GarcÃa directed series of vignettes offering glimpses into the lives of nine women
2006
Co-starred with Donald Sutherland in Courtney Solomon's "An American Haunting"
2007
Played a retired art teacher who takes in a foster child in TV movie "Pictures of Hollis Woods" (CBS), earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie
2007
Played Heather Graham's therapist in the indie feature "Gray Matters"
2010
Earned an Emmy nomination for guest role on HBO's "Big Love"
2011
Joined ensemble cast for feature adaptation of "The Help"
2012
Cast opposite Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde in crime drama "Deadfall"
2015
Starred as Sally Rayburn on "Bloodline"
2018
Cast as Ruth Deaver on Stephen King horror anthology series "Castle Rock"
Photo Collections
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Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Sissy possesses that rare trait of not being impoverished with the process of remembering herself. Every role she plays, she is someone else. About six months after we inished shooting ["In the Bedroom"], we had dinner together at Sundance. I was in shock. I thought, 'Wait a minute! Where is Ruth? She doesn't walk this way or talk this way.' I was like some weird Sissy Spacek fan." --director Todd Field to USA Today, November 20, 2001.
"The films that belong to me, I'll do. The ones [that] don't, someone else will do. Films are like little rivers and creeks, just kind of floating along. You just have to know you'll find something sooner or later." --Sissy Spacek in Entertainment Weekly, November 16, 2001.
"Sissy's life was always more important than her career. Which is what I think people should aspire to. When she works, she works as hard as anybody I've ever seen. If she's not working, that's okay too." --"Crimes of the Heart" co-star and friend Jessica Lange, quoted in Entertainment Weekly, November 16, 2001.
"I've had people say to me on two separate occasions, 'Oh, I love you! You were great in 'The Exorcist!' And I was at a thrift shop once and someone said, 'We just loved your book, Mia!'" --Spacek answering the question "Have you ever been mistaken for another celebrity?" in Talk, Decemeber 2001/January 2002.
On meeting his future wife on the set of "Badlands", production designer Jack Fisk told Entertainment Weekly (November 16, 2001): "When she was a kid, Sissy's dad would call her Snooter ... because she would come to his office and go through all the drawers. I'd leave her things in the drawers [on the 'Badlands' set] that I thought had to do with her character. ... You didn't know that they were. They'd just get you thinking. It became a wonderful collaboration."
"I've actually lived a very, I don't want to say ordinary life, this is very far from ordinary. But I've raised a family and I have probably a lot of the same interests that other women of my generation have." --Sissy Spacek quoted in The Chicago Sun-Times, April 1, 2001.
Asked about the difficulty of finding good roles, Spacek told Susan King of the Los Angeles Times (October 21, 2000): "I don't think it's ever been easy. I kind of came up through low-budget films in the '70s -- kind of the art-house fare. So for me the hardest thing has always been to find the roles that I really thought were right for me. Cable certainly has opened up more things. There is just more to pick from now."
"There was a time when I was very driven but when I had my girls, I lost all my ambition. Now my ambitions are more of a spiritual nature. Just trying to figure it all out." --Sissy Spacek to London's The Evening Standard, December 2, 1999.
"... the film's richest performance belongs to Sissy Spacek as Alvin's "simple" daughter Rose who, with her speech impediment and habit of building bird-houses, initially seems like a refugee from the Lynch carnival but gains in gravity with every scene." --From the Sight and Sound review of "The Straight Story" by Kevin Jackson, December 1999.
About "Badlands" (1973): "I guess that's my favorite because it was my first major film. I met my husband, Jack, on the set. I still feel that 'Badlands' was the most extraordinary experience a human being should be allowed. If I never made another movie again after that one, I would have been happy." --quoted in The Chicago Sun-Times, January 31, 1999.
"Early in my career, Jack Lemmon actually had to take me on the side one day and say, 'You know Sissy, you gotta trust yourself.' I was in a phase where I would get to the set early in the morning and agonize over one line. Lemmon said, 'You have to come to terms witht the fact that the scene is either gonna work of not.'"I guess I suffered from 'The Impostor Syndrome,' where you think at any point they're gonna find you out. I thought they would find out that I didn't have a lick of talent, It sounds awful, but I found this to be quite motivating. It made me work so much harder." --Spacek quoted in The Chicago Sun-Times, January 31, 1999.
