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Jessica Lange - Biography

Actress. Born on April 20, 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota. The daughter of a traveling salesman, she moved frequently in her youth. After attending the University of Minnesota for two years, she studied mime in Paris and danced for several months in the chorus of the Opera Comique. Returning to the U.S. she modeled in New York and was among many hopefuls screen-tested by producer Dino De Laurentis for the lead feminine role in the remake of King Kong (1976). She got the part and was signed by De Laurentis to a seven-year contract. A lovely, toothsome blonde, she emerged in the 80/s as one of the American screen's finest actresses, a superb, intuitive interpreter of a wide range of roles.

She won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, as well as the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics Award, for her performance in the comedy, Tootsie (1982), and in the same year was nominated for another Oscar for her riveting portrayal of actress Frances Farmer in the film biography, Frances.

In the following years, she was nominated for Academy Awards as Best Actress for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985), and Music Box (1989). She also excelled in a TV remake of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ". In 1991, she starred on television in the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation O Pioneers!, and in 1992, made her Broadway debut as Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire". Lange was married briefly early in her life to Spanish photographer Paco Grande. She has a daughter by dancer-actor Mikhail Baryshnikov and a daughter and son by playwright-actor Sam Shepard.