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 six times. Spacek is known mainly as a dramatic actress, but also has made comedies. The films that Spacek has starred in have earned more than $700 million world wide.
Early life
Spacek was born on December 25, 1949, in Quitman, Texas, the daughter of Virginia Frances (née Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Her paternal grandparents, Mary Červenka and Arnold A. Špaček (who served as Mayor of Granger, Texas in Williamson County), were of Moravian/Czech/Bohemian descent.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 18-year old brother, Robbie, in 1967. Spacek moved to New York City hoping to become a singer. There she lived with her cousin, actor Rip Torn, and his wife, actress Geraldine Page.
Career
Spacek started out as a singer by recording one single ("John, You've Gone Too Far This Time") about John Lennon,an expression of her shock over the Two Virgins cover under the name 'Rainbo.' With the help of her cousin, actor Rip Torn, she was able to enroll in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.
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, in which 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 international attention came in 1973 in Terrence Malick's Badlands, as Holly, the 15-year old girlfriend of mass-murderer Kit (played by Martin Sheen). Spacek described Badlands as the "most incredible" experience of her career. It was on the set of Badlands that Spacek met art director Jack Fisk, whom she soon married.
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 teen-ager 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, to this day, remains shrouded in mystery. Rubbing Vaseline into her hair, and donning an old sailor dress her mother made for her as a child, Spacek turned up at the audition with the odds stacked against her, but blew her competition out of the water. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the film. (Veteran actress Piper Laurie, who played Carrie's religious. maniacal mother Margaret White, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.)
After Carrie, Spacek played the small role of topless housekeeper 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 and stated: '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.' Spacek also helped finance then-brother-in-law David Lynch's directorial debut, Eraserhead (1976) and is thanked in the credits of the film.
In the 1979 film Heart Beat, Spacek played Carolyn Cassady, who slipped (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 movie's success 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 29 has the ability to appear to be almost any age on screen. Here, she ages from about 14 to somewhere in her 30s, always looks the age, and never seems to be wearing makeup."
The handprints of Sissy Spacek in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Spacek also was nominated for a Grammy Award for her singing on the 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 had retired to her farm in Virginia to raise her children and did not appear in another film until 1990.[9]
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), and she made a number of comedies, TV movies and the occasional film. Most notable were her turn as the villainous Verena Talbo in the 1995 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
Spacek has excelled in a number of film roles in the current decade. 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:
Ms. Spacek's performance is as devastating as it is unflashy. With the slight tightening of her neck muscles and a downward twitch of her mouth, she conveys her character's relentlessness, then balances it with enough sweetness to make Ruth seem entirely human. It is one of Ms. Spacek's greatest performances.
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 pursuing a career as a singer. Spacek and her family live on a horse ranch near Charlottesville, Virginia. She also is an ardent crusader for women's rights.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1970 Trash Girl extra at bar uncredited
1972 Prime Cut Poppy
1973 The Girls of Huntington House Sara TV film
Badlands Holly Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1974 Ginger in the Morning Ginger TV film
The Migrants Wanda Trimpin
1975 Katherine Katherine Alman TV film (also known as The Radical)
1976 Carrie Carrie White National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
Nominated — 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: U.S.O. Girl Verna Vane TV film
1980 Coal Miner's Daughter Loretta Lynn Academy Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
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 — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Heart Beat Carolyn Cassady
1981 Raggedy Man Nita Longley Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1982 Missing Beth Horman Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1983 The Man with Two Brains Anne Uumellmahaye voice (uncredited)
1984 The River Mae Garvey Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Terror in the Aisles archival footage
1985 Marie Marie Ragghianti
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 – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
1990 The Long Walk Home Miriam Thompson
1991 Hard Promises Christine Ann Coalter
JFK Liz Garrison
1992 A Private Matter Sherri Finkbine TV film
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
1995 The Good Old Boys Spring Renfro Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
The Grass Harp Verena Talbo
Streets of Laredo Lorena Parker TV mini-series
1996 Beyond the Call Pam O'Brien TV film
If These Walls Could Talk Barbara Barrows (segment "1974") TV film
1997 Affliction Margie Fogg
1999 Blast from the Past Helen Thomas Webber Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
The Straight Story Rose 'Rosie' Straight Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2000 Songs in Ordinary Time Marie Fermoyle TV film
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 – 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 — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Midwives Sibyl Danforth Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2002 Last Call Zelda Fitzgerald Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Tuck Everlasting Mae Tuck Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2004 A Home at the End of the World Alice Glover
2005 Nine Lives Ruth Locarno International Film Festival Award for Best Actress Ensemble
The Ring Two Evelyn
North Country Alice Aimes
2006 An American Haunting Lucy Bell
Summer Running: The Race to Cure Breast Cancer Mrs. Flora Good
2007 Gray Matters Sydney
Hot Rod Marie Powell
Pictures of Hollis Woods Josie Cahill Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
2008 Lake City Maggie
Four Christmases Paula (Brad's Mom)
2009 Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People Narrator TV mini-series
Get Low For People
2010-present Big Love Marilyn Densham 5 episodes
Discography
Albums
Year Album US Country Label
1983 Hangin' Up My Heart 17 Atlantic
Singles
Year Single Chart Positions Album
US Country US CAN Country
1980 "Coal Miner's Daughter" 24 — 7 Coal Miner's Daughter (Soundtrack)
"Back in Baby's Arms" — — 71
1983 "Lonely But Only for You" 15 110 13 Hangin' Up My Heart
1984 "If I Can Just Get Through the Night" 57 — 41
"If You Could Only See Me Now" 79 — —
Source:wikipedia
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