Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April
20, 1949 in Cloquet, Minnesota) is an American actress.
She was born to a Dutch/German father and a Finnish
mother. Lange studied art briefly at the University
of Minnesota before going to Paris where she studied
mime. She returned to New York City in 1973 and took
acting lessons while working as a waitress and a model
for the Wilhelmina modeling agency.In 1976, Dino De
Laurentiis cast her in his motion picture remake King
Kong, which started and almost ended her career.
The unfavorable reviews were devastating but critics
took notice when she made an 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 Best Actress Academy
Award nomination. She received two nominations that
year, the other as Supporting Actress in the comedy
Tootsie (1982), for which she won. She continuted
giving impressive performances through the 80s and
90s in films such as Sweet Dreams (1984) (playing
country/western singer Patsy Cline), Music Box (1989),
and Blue Sky (1994) for which she won the Best Actress
Academy Award.
In 1992, Lange made her Broadway debut
opposite Alec Baldwin in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar
Named Desire. In 2000, she appeared on the London
stage 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 actor Christian Slater.
She was married to photographer Paco
Grande from 1970-1981. Since 1982, she has lived with
playwright/actor Sam Shepard. She has three children,
Hanna and Walker (with Shepard) and Alexandra (with
dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov).
Politics
Lange has been one of the harshest critics of the
Bush Administration in hollywood, once remarking "I
despise him and his entire administration."
Lange has signed the call of the anti-fascist
group The World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime.
The statement condemns the Iraq war, torture, the
abrogation of habeas corpus, theocracy, the suppression
of science, the attacks on abortion rights, and "a
culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance."
It advocates resistance to, and repudiation of, the
Bush agenda.She currently lives in New York.
Partial filmography
Broken Flowers (2005)
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
Big Fish (2003)
Masked & Anonymous (2003)
Normal (2003) (TV)
Prozac Nation (2001)
Titus (1999)
Hush (1998)
A Thousand Acres (1997)
Rob Roy (1995)
Losing Isaiah (1995)
Blue Sky (1994)
O Pioneers! (1992) (TV)
Cape Fear (1991)
Music Box (1989)
Everybody's All-American (1988)
Crimes of the Heart (1986)
Sweet Dreams (1985)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985) (TV)
Country (1984)
Frances (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980)
All That Jazz (1979)
King Kong (1976)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
More Articles..
