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Jessica Lange is an American actress famous for her work in film, theater and television, who is also a professional photographer. She is one of the very few greatest actors of her generation to have received two Oscars, three Emmys, five Golden Globes, one SAG Award and three Dorian Awards. Here are 50 interesting facts about the Academy Award winner -
- Jessica Phyllis Lange was born on April 20, 1949 in Cloquet, Minnesota.
- She was born to Albert John Lange, a teacher and travelling salesman and Dorothy Florence, a housewife.
- She had three siblings: elder sisters – Ann and Jane and a younger brother – George.
- She graduated from Cloquet High School in her hometown. However she had to move from town to town due to her father’s job.
- She studied Art and Photography at University of Minnesota in 1967.
- She met Spanish Photographer Paco Grande, during her time at the University and started dating him.
- She married Grande in 1971 and opted to travel throughout United States and Mexico with him in a pickup truck. They subsequently drifted apart in Paris.
- She studied Mime theatre, mentored by Etienne Decroux in Paris. She joined Opera Comique as a dancer.
- Lange shared an apartment with Grace Jones and Jerry Hall. She became a model for the Wilhelmina modeling agency, after being discovered by fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez.
- She worked as a waitress at the Lion's Head Tavern in Greenwich Village in New York City in the year 1973.
- Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis noticed her during her modeling time and made her as the female lead in his upcoming movie.
- Her first starring role was in the movie “King Kong” in 1976, remake of the original from 1933, courtesy Dino De Laurentiis.
- She beat actresses Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn for the role of Dwan and her performance was well received.
- Renowned film critic Pauline Kael praised Lange and said “The movie is sparked by Lange’s fast yet dreamy comic style. Her one liners are so dumb that audience laughs and moans at the same time.”
- She won Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year in 1976.
- She was in an relationship with renowned Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, since the year 1976. The couple had a daughter named Aleksandra ("Shura") Baryshnikov (born 1981). They separated by 1982.
- She was cast as “Angel of Death” in the 1979 movie “All That Jazz.” The film is semi-autobiographical about Bob Fosse, who had a casual romantic affair with Lange.
- She starred in the 1981 movie “The Postman Always Rings Twice” by Bob Rafelson, alongside Jack Nicholson. The final choice for the role was between her and Meryl Streep and she bagged it successfully.
- The director visited her at Summer Stock Theater and was impressed by her telephone conversation before their meeting. He had placed her name in a sealed envelope, reflecting his decision, even though he auditioned several actresses after their meeting.
- During the editing of “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” Graeme Clifford decided to cast Lange as the lead in his first movie as director – “Frances.”
- She portrayed the character of Frances Farmer in the movie, which is biographical film on the actress whose family background couple with her time in Hollywood, led to a tragic path.
- Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Best Actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival.
- The role required her to do emotional scenes from the start to the end and to perform well, she would connect it with her own life. This made her physically and mentally spent. Her co-star Kim Stanley advised her to do a light film to overcome the stress.
- She acted alongside Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie” by director Sydney Pollack in 1982. She found it very difficult to adjust to the comedic performance after the intense emotional movie “Frances.”
- During the shoot of an angry scene she had barged out of the dressing room and tore the set apart. “After the take, there was this incredible stillness,” remembers Lange.
- Her character of Julie earned her a Golden Globe Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, The New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award and Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award.
- She received an Academy Award for Best Actress in Supporting Role for her performance in “Tootsie.” This was the only award the movie could muster out of the 10 nominations it received.
- With this Academy Award, Lange became the first actress in 40 years to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year.
- She met playwright Sam Shepard and was involved in a romantic relationship with him. The duo lived together till 2009 in Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota, and New York City. They have two children together - Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Samuel Walker (born 1987).
- In 1984, she played the character Jewell Ivy in the movie “Country” alongside Shepard. This is her second collaboration with Shepard.
- She received nominations for Best Actress at both Academy Awards as well as Golden Globe Awards for her performance in the movie.
- She portrayed the legendary country singer Patsy Cline in the movie “Sweet Dreams”, the next year, directed by Karel Reisz. Once again, she received nominations for Best Actress at Oscar, National Board of Review Award, and National Society of Film Critics Award.
- Meryl Streep has often stated in several of her interviews that she begged the director Reisz for the lead role in the movie “Sweet Dreams,” but it was Lange who bagged it.
- Praising Lange for her performance in the movie, Streep had mentioned her as “beyond wonderful” and stated that “I couldn’t imagine doing it as well or even coming close to what Jessica did, because she was so amazing in it.”
- She starred in 1989 movie “Music Box” by director Costa Gavras. She played the role of a Hungarian Lawyer, defending her father of Nazi war crimes. Her performance in the movie earned her nominations again for Best Actress at both Academy Awards as well as Golden Globe Awards.
- After the release of the movie, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas’s father Istvan Eszterhas was accused of war crimes in Hungary.
- She played the role of a depressing army wife alongside Tommy Lee Jones, in the 1994, movie “Blue Sky” named after the original “Project Blue Sky by government involving nucleat testing.
- She was awarded with Best Actress title at the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Utah Film Critics Association Award and Sant Jordi de Cine Award. This Oscar is her second and final Academy Award till date.
- She starred as Big Edie in “Grey Gardens” directed by Michael Sucsy in 2009. The movie is based on a documentary of the same name from 1975.
- She won Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for the first time. She also earned nominations at various other Awards.
- She saw a sudden rise in her popularity when she was cast in the horror TV series “American Horror Story” in the year 2011.
- She won her second Primetime Emmy Award, fifth Golden Globe Award, first Screen Actors Guild Award, for her performance in the series.
- Her character of Constance Langdon was initially created as a supporting role, but co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk made it the lead role, just after Lange was cast.
- In 2012, she returned to star in the lead role of Sister Jude Martin in the second season of “AHS” titled American Horror Story: Asylum, for which she once again received a number of awards and nominations.
- The third season in the series, in which she was cast as Fiona Goode, along with fellow film actors, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett. She also returned to the fourth season named “American Horror Story: Freak Show” as Elsa Mars, and the season garnered the highest ratings ever in the history of “AHS.” However, following the end of the season, Lange said she was done with the series, though her roles in “American Horror Story” earned her many awards as Best Actress.
- Her work in the film and television industry, garnered her The L'Oreal Paris Legend Award in November 2014. She is also the first actress to receive the Kirk Douglas Award for excellence in film industry.
- Besides her career in acting, she is also a professional photographer with two published works and she was also honored with George Eastman House Honors Award in 2009.
- She holds the position of Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), with specialization in HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- She currently has a road-trip comedy movie “Wild Oats,” in the pipeline, to be released by the 2015 fall, in which she will star opposite Shirley MacLaine and Demi Moore.
- Lange will be back to Broadway in the 2016 spring, in the revival of “Long Day's Journey Into Night” to star alongside Gabriel Byrne and John Gallagher Jr.
