Name: Sissy Spacek

Birth Name: Mary Elizabeth Spacek

Birthdate: Dec. 25, 1949

Birthplace: Quitman, Texas

Growing up a bit of a Texas tomboy, Spacek decided on an acting career with the help of her cousin, Rip Torn, who showed her the ropes in New York and introduced her to the Lee Strasberg Actors Studio. She released one single as a country singer ("John, You Went Too Far This Time", about John Lennon) under the name "Rainbo," but found her true entertainment groove with film and television work. Her breakout film role was in Carrie (1976) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, though it was her turn as Loretta Lynn in the 1980 Coal Miner's Daughter that actually sent her home with the shiny gold statuette named Oscar. Other films for which Spacek is best known are The River (1984), Crimes of the Heart (1986), JFK (1991) and In the Bedroom (2001).


1. She was homecoming queen at Quitman High School and, therefore popular, unlike her character in Carrie.
2. "Sissy" is a nickname that her brothers used to call her when she was growing up.
3. Not only did she win an Oscar for her performance in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), but she was nominated for a Grammy for her rendition of the title song in the category Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
4. She decided to skip college after her older brother Robbie died at 18 in 1967 from leukemia during her senior year in high school. She decided life was way too short to waste it in four years of college.
5. Along with Piper Laurie, Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster, she is one of the few actresses to have been nominated for an Oscar for a performance in a horror movie.


"I had a dozen years to act before starting a family then found that motherhood dwarfed everything else. Once or twice a year, I take a project that appeals to me for its redeeming social value."
Parade, 2001


Husband: Jack Fisk, production/art director, born Dec. 19, 1945, married April 12, 1974
Daughter: Schuyler Elizabeth Fisk, actress, born July 10, 1982
Daughter: Madison Fisk, cinematographer, born 1990

2002: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role, In the Bedroom; Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), In the Bedroom

1987: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Crimes of the Heart; Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical), Crimes of the Heart

1985: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role, The River; Golden Globe nomination: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), The River

1983: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Missing; Golden Globe nomination: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), Missing

1982: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actress (Drama), Raggedy Man

1981: Academy Award: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Coal Miner's Daughter; Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture Actress (Musical/Comedy), Coal Miner's Daughter

1977: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Carrie

 

FILMS

Gray Matters - (2007) - Actor
Hot Rod - (2007) - Actor
An American Haunting - (2006) - Actor
Nine Lives - (2005) - Actor
North Country - (2005) - Actor
The Ring Two - (2005) - Actor
A Home at the End of the World - (2004) - Actor
Last Call - (2003) - Actor
Tuck Everlasting - (2002) - Actor
In the Bedroom - (2001) - Actor
Blast From the Past - (1999) - Actor
The Straight Story - (1999) - Actor
Affliction - (1997) - Actor
Beyond the Call - (1996) - Actor
The Grass Harp - (1996) - Actor
If These Walls Could Talk - (1996) - Actor
The Good Old Boys - (1995) - Actor
Streets of Laredo - (1995) - Actor
Trading Mom - (1994) - Actor
Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories - Feature-Length Volume 1 - (1994) - Narrator
A Place for Annie - (1993) - Actor
Hard Promises - (1992) - Actor
A Private Matter - (1992) - Actor
Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories - V. 4 - (1992) - Narrator
The Long Walk Home - (1991) - Actor
JFK - (1991) - Actor
Crimes of the Heart - (1986) - Actor
Night Mother - (1986) - Actor
Violets Are Blue - (1986) - Actor
Marie - A True Story - (1985) - Actor
The River - (1984) - Actor
Missing - (1982) - Actor
Raggedy Man - (1981) - Actor
Coal Miner's Daughter - (1980) - Actor
Heart Beat - (1980) - Actor
3 Women - (1977) - Actor
Carrie - (1976) - Actor
Katherine - (1975) - Actor
Badlands - (1973) - Actor
Ginger in the Morning - (1973) - Actor
The Girls of Huntington House - (1973) - Actor
The Migrants - (1973) - Actor
Prime Cut - (1972) - Actor