Jessica Lange Biography

Born Jessica Phyllis Lange on April 20, 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota. The third of four children, Lange was the daughter of Dorothy Florence and Albert John Lange, who was an educator and salesman. As a child, Lange's family moved constantly due to her father's frequently changing jobs. Lange later noted that her family "lived like gypsies." But instead of rebelling against this transient lifestyle, Lange inherited the travel bug. By the time she enrolled as an art student at the University of Minnesota in 1967, she had big dreams of seeing the world.

In the spring of 1968, before she had finished her freshman year, Jessica met and fell in love with 24-year-old photography professor Paco Grande. Lange and Grande left school and traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe. They lived mostly out of Grande's van, and Lange met many of Grande's friends within the film community. They returned to Minnesota briefly in July 1970, where they were married.

The newlyweds moved to New York, eventually settling in to the SoHo art community. Grande continued to work on film projects and Jessica, inspired by French cinema, made the decision to study mime. In 1971, Lange moved to Paris to study mime with teacher Etienne Decroux. Her two years of education with Decroux sparked an interest in acting for Lange, and she returned to New York in 1973 to pursue a film career.

During her time abroad, Lange's marriage to Paco Grande had deteriorated. Grande left Jessica in New York, where she started working as a waitress and model with the Wilhelmina Agency in order to make ends meet. In the fall of 1975, film producer Dino DeLaurentis contacted Lange's modeling agency looking for an actress to star in his new King Kong movie. An agent at Wilhelmina recommended Jessica for the part. After a Hollywood screen test, Lange landed the role.

King Kong hit theaters in 1976, and was a box-office hit. Reviews for Lange, however, were largely negative, and focused on the fact that Lange was a former model. Although she had signed a seven-year acting contract with DeLaurentis, Lange did not work for three years following King Kong's release. During this time, Lange met Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the two began dating.

In 1979, close friend director and choreographer Bob Fosse gave her another shot at acting when he wrote a part especially for her in his autobiographical film, All That Jazz. The movie centered on womanizing dancer Joe Gideon, played by Roy Scheider, who is coming to grips with mortality. Lange played the angel of death in Gideon's fantasy world. The role was panned by critics, but brought the actress back to the attention of Hollywood. The next year, she landed a lead role in the comedy How To Beat The High Cost of Living. But it was her lead role starring across from Jack Nicolson as Cora in the remake of the 1940's classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) that got the attention of critics and viewers. Lange's performance earned rave reviews, and audiences loved her. She was finally on her way to stardom. That same year, Lange gave birth to her and Baryshnikov's first and only child together, a daughter named Alexandra.