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Jessica Lange
Lange at the 1990 Academy Awards
Born	Jessica Phyllis Lange April 20, 1949 (1949-04-20) (age 60) Cloquet, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1976–present
Spouse(s)	Paco Grande (1970–1981)
Domestic partner(s)	Sam Shepard (1982–present)

Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American stage and screen actress. With a career that has spanned thirty-five years and six Academy Award nominations (including two wins), she may be most notable for her performances in Frances, Tootsie, Sweet Dreams, Blue Sky, and Grey Gardens.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Film 2.2 Broadway/Stage 3 Humanitarian work and political views 4 Personal life 5 Filmography 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Lange, the third of four children, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, the daughter of Dorothy Florence (née Sahlman) and Albert John Lange, who was a teacher and salesman.¹ Her maternal grandparents were of Finnish descent, while her paternal grandparents were German, Polish, and Dutch.²³⁴ She studied art briefly at the University of Minnesota before going to Paris, France, where she studied mime with Étienne Decroux. She returned to New York City, New York in 1973 and took acting lessons while working as a waitress and a fashion model for the Wilhelmina Models agency. She was discovered by the fashion illustrator Antonio in 1974.⁵

Career

Film

In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis cast her in his motion picture remake of King Kong, which started and almost ended her career. Although the King Kong remake was a top moneymaker for Paramount Pictures, critics were not kind to the film and Lange did not appear in another film for three years, when Bob Fosse cast her as the glamorous figure of death in All That Jazz (1979). The unfavorable reviews were devastating but critics took notice with her impressive turn in Bob Rafelson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).

Her performance in her next film, Frances (1982), in which she portrayed actress Frances Farmer, was highly lauded and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received two Academy Award nominations that year, the other for Best Supporting Actress in the comedy Tootsie (1982), for which she won. She continued giving impressive performances through the 1980s and 1990s in films such as Sweet Dreams (1985) (playing country/western singer Patsy Cline), Music Box (1989), Men Don't Leave (1990), and Blue Sky (1994), directed by Tony Richardson, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She portrayed the wife to the legendary Scottish hero in Rob Roy alongside Liam Neeson (1995).

Since 2000, Lange has mostly appeared in supporting roles on screen. In her most recent film, Grey Gardens (2009) , a remake of the 1970s cult documentary, she played Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale which earned her an Emmy Award.

Broadway/Stage

In 1992, Lange made her Broadway-theatre début in New York City opposite Alec Baldwin in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. She appeared in the West End in London, United Kingdom, in 2000, as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 2005, she returned to Broadway in another Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie with Christian Slater.

Humanitarian work and political views

She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She has also been a public critic of former U.S. President George W. Bush, once calling his administration, "a self-serving regime of deceit, hypocrisy and belligerence."⁶

Personal life

Lange was married to photographer Paco Grande from 1970-1981. Since 1982, she has lived with playwright/actor Sam Shepard. She has three children, Aleksandra (born 1981) from her relationship with dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Samuel Walker ⁷ (born 1987) with Shepard.

Lange currently lives in New York City.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1976	King Kong	Dwan	Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress
1979	All That Jazz	Angelique
1980	How to Beat the High Co$t of Living	Louise
1981	Notre Dame of the Cross	uncredited	documentary
	The Postman Always Rings Twice	Cora Papadakis
	The Best Little Girl in the World		TV
1982	Tootsie	Julie Nichols	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
	Frances	Frances Farmer	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Moscow International Film Festival Prize for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1984	Country	Jewell Ivy	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1985	Sweet Dreams	Patsy Cline	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Maggie	TV
1986	Crimes of the Heart	Margaret 'Meg' Magrath
1988	Far North	Kate
	Everybody's All-American	Babs Rogers Grey
1989	Music Box	Ann Talbot	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1990	Men Don't Leave	Beth Macauley
1991	Cape Fear	Leigh Bowden
1992	O Pioneers!	Alexandra Bergson	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
	Night and the City	Helen Nasseros
1994	A Century of Cinema	Herself	documentary
	Blue Sky	Carly Marshall	Academy Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1995	Losing Isaiah	Margaret Lewin
	Rob Roy	Mary MacGregor
	A Streetcar Named Desire	Blanche DuBois	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1997	A Thousand Acres	Ginny Cook Smith	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
	Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's	Herself	uncredited; documentary
1998	Hush	Martha Baring
	Cousin Bette	Cousin Bette
1999	Titus	Tamora	Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
2001	Prozac Nation	Mrs. Wurtzel
2003	XXI Century		documentary
	Masked and Anonymous	Nina Veronica
	Big Fish	Older Sandra Bloom
	Normal	Irma Applewood	Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
2004	Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines	Narrator	documentary
2005	The Needs of Kim Stanley		documentary
	Broken Flowers	Carmen
	Don't Come Knocking	Doreen
	Neverwas	Katherine Pierson
2006	Bonneville	Arvilla
2007	Sybil	Dr. Cornelia Wilbur	TV Nominated — Prism Award for Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries
2009	Grey Gardens	"Big Edie"	TV Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jessica Lange

• Jessica Lange at the Internet Movie Database
• Jessica Lange at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jessica Lange commentary on the Iraq War
• Jessica Lange biographical page
• PopMatters.com, Jessica Lange: The Anti-Streep

Awards for Jessica Lange v • d • e Academy Award for Best Actress Katharine Hepburn (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Geraldine Page (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Cher (1987) · Jodie Foster (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000) Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present) v • d • e Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Maureen Stapleton (1981) · Jessica Lange (1982) · Linda Hunt (1983) · Peggy Ashcroft (1984) · Anjelica Huston (1985) · Dianne Wiest (1986) · Olympia Dukakis (1987) · Geena Davis (1988) · Brenda Fricker (1989) · Whoopi Goldberg (1990) · Mercedes Ruehl (1991) · Marisa Tomei (1992) · Anna Paquin (1993) · Dianne Wiest (1994) · Mira Sorvino (1995) · Juliette Binoche (1996) · Kim Basinger (1997) · Judi Dench (1998) · Angelina Jolie (1999) · Marcia Gay Harden (2000) Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present) v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Judy Davis (2001) · Laura Linney (2002) · Maggie Smith (2003) · Meryl Streep (2004) · S. Epatha Merkerson (2005) · Helen Mirren (2006) · Helen Mirren (2007) · Laura Linney (2008) · Jessica Lange (2009) Complete list: (1954–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present) v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Meryl Streep (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Whoopi Goldberg (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Sally Kirkland (1987) · Jodie Foster/Shirley MacLaine/Sigourney Weaver (1988) · Michelle Pfeiffer (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Sharon Stone (1995) · Brenda Blethyn (1996) · Judi Dench (1997) · Cate Blanchett (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000) Complete List · (1943–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present) v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Joan Hackett (1981) · Jessica Lange (1982) · Cher (1983) · Peggy Ashcroft (1984) · Meg Tilly (1985) · Maggie Smith (1986) · Olympia Dukakis (1987) · Sigourney Weaver (1988) · Julia Roberts (1989) · Whoopi Goldberg (1990) · Mercedes Ruehl (1991) · Joan Plowright (1992) · Winona Ryder (1993) · Dianne Wiest (1994) · Mira Sorvino (1995) · Lauren Bacall (1996) · Kim Basinger (1997) · Lynn Redgrave (1998) · Angelina Jolie (1999) · Kate Hudson (2000) Complete List · (1943–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present) v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Jane Seymour (1981) · Ingrid Bergman (1982) · Ann-Margret (1983) · Ann-Margret (1984) · Liza Minnelli (1985) · Loretta Young (1986) · Gena Rowlands (1987) · Ann Jillian (1988) · Christine Lahti (1989) · Barbara Hershey (1990) · Judy Davis (1991) · Laura Dern (1992) · Bette Midler (1993) · Joanne Woodward (1994) · Jessica Lange (1995) · Helen Mirren (1996) · Alfre Woodard (1997) · Angelina Jolie (1998) · Halle Berry (1999) Complete List · (1981-1999) · (1990–2009)

Persondata
NAME	Lange, Jessica
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lange, Jessica Phyllis
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actress
DATE OF BIRTH	April 20, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cloquet, Minnesota, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH