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Sissy Spacek Biography

(1949–)

Related Works

2001 In the Bedroom
1995 The Grass Harp
1994 A Place for Annie (TV)

1997 Affliction
2002 Against the Current
1976 Carrie
1996 Beyond the Call (TV)
1991 JFK
1981 Raggedy Man
1984 The River
2000 Songs in Ordinary Time (TV)
1996 Crimes of the Heart
1974 The Migrants (TV)
2001 Midwives (TV)
1977 Welcome to L.A.
1990 The Long Walk Home
1994 Trading Mom
1980 Heart Beat
1986 'night Mother
1996 Violets Are Blue
1999 The Straight Story
1985 Marie
1999 Blast from the Past
1980 Coal Miner's Daughter
1978 Verna: USO Girl (TV)
1972 Prime Cut
1975 Katherine (TV)
1992 A Private Matter (TV)
1982 Missing
1995 The Good Old Boys (TV)
1973 Badlands
1995 Streets of Laredo (TV miniseries)
1973 The Girls of Huntington House (TV)
1996 If These Walls Could Talk (TV)
2002 Tuck Everlasting
1973 Ginger
1991 Hard Promises

» More

Related People

Related Sites

Official Miramax Web site for In the Bedrooom

Actress. Born Mary Elizabeth Spacek, on December 25, 1949 in Quitman, Texas. Nicknamed Sissy by her two older brothers, Spacek was a vivacious little girl, making her first stage appearance at age six, singing and dancing in a local talent show. After attending Quitman High School, where she was crowned homecoming queen, Spacek moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of a singing career in 1967, at the age of 17. In New York, she lived with her cousin, the actor Rip Torn (Spacek's father was Torn's uncle) and his wife, the actress Geraldine Page. In 1968, using the name "Rainbo," Spacek recorded a single, "John, You've Gone Too Far This Time," teasing John Lennon for appearing nude on an album cover with his wife, Yoko Ono. Sales of her music sputtered, however, and "Rainbo" was dropped from her record label.

Spacek subsequently decided to switch her focus to acting, enrolling at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. After appearing as an extra in Trash (1970), a film produced at Andy Warhol's factory, she made her bona fide film debut as a teenager abducted by a white slavery ring in the Lee Marvin thriller Prime Cut (1972). Spacek played another troubled adolescent character in 1973's Badlands, attracting attention for her role as the girlfriend of a serial killer, played by Martin Sheen. It was while working on the film that Spacek met her future husband, the production designer Jack Fisk. The couple married in 1974, and Fisk helped Spacek land her breakthrough role in Brian De Palma’s teen horror classic Carrie (1976). (Fisk worked as art director on the film.) As an emotionally disturbed, telekinetically gifted teenage girl with a fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie), real-life prom queen Spacek struck a heartwrenching, terrifying chord with critics and audiences alike, earning her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and instant cult status.

After beginning to prove her versatility as an actress in such films as Robert Altman’s Three Women (1977), costarring Shelley Duvall and Janice Rule, and Heart Beat (1979), costarring Nick Nolte, Spacek showcased her considerable gifts in the 1980 biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter, about country singer Loretta Lynn. In addition to portraying Lynn from age 13 to her forties, Spacek insisted on singing all of Lynn's songs herself, instead of lipsynching. The performance earned her universal critical praise, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.

On the heels of Coal Miner's Daughter, Spacek eschewed high profile projects to star in her husband's directorial debut, Raggedy Man (1981), playing a divorced mother who has a dangerous relationship with a sailor, played by Eric Roberts. With her next two notable projects, the political drama Missing (1982), costarring Jack Lemmon, and The River (1984), costarring Mel Gibson, Spacek scored two more Oscar nods as Best Actress. In 1986, she portrayed a suicidal woman in 'night Mother, costarring Anne Bancroft, and received her fifth Best Actress nomination, for her performance as the most eccentric of three sisters in Crimes of the Heart, costarring Jessica Lange.