Biography for Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek as Carrie White
In Carrie, adapted from a Stephen King novel, the 'force' at the center of the tale is not an object as with The Shining or Christine, but a person; and the fact that this is an adolescent girl relates the film to the cycle of movies such as The Exorcist, Rosemary's baby and The Omen, in which children become the destructive instruments to the order surrounding them. The heroine, the repressed daughter of a religious obsessive is unpopular at school and made by her classmates the butt of a hideous joke in which she is voted by a rigged ballot as queen of the senior prom, the horribly humiliated by being drenched by a bucket of pigs' blood. However, Carrie has discovered that she possesses telekinetic powers and wreaks an apocalyptic vengeance which reduces the school to rubble. The climactic effects sequence is astonishing, especially the death of Laurie, who after denouncing her daughter as a witch is impaled by a veritable hail of flying knives. As in Dressed to Kill, director de Palma ends the film with a dream sequence calculated to make the audience jump.
Biography for Sissy Spacek
Birth name
Mary Elizabeth Spacek
Date of birth
25 December 1949,
Quitman, Texas, USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a kid, Sissy climbed trees, rode horses, swam, and played in the woods, (other than that, she gave no indication of one day becoming an Oscar-winning actress). She was born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949 in Quitman, Texas. Sissy attended Quitman High School; she was homecoming queen (therefore popular, unlike her portrayal in "Carrie" later). After graduating, Sissy pursued an acting career. Sissy had a cousin in show business, Rip Torn. She relocated to New York, and through him, she enrolled in the N.Y. Actors Studio. Sissy studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Sissy also tried modeling and singing, appearing in West Village showcases such as the Bitter End for $10 a night. The petite (5'2") Sissy broke into movies; one of Sissy's first films was "Badlands" (1973), art direction by Jack Fisk. Onscreen, Sissy and Jack Fisk would do 8 collaborations (Sissy acting, Jack doing film or art direction) together-- offscreen, one can consider marriage a lifetime collaboration, they wed in 1974. Sissy's breakout role was in their joint-venture movie "Carrie" (1976), in which she played the humiliated prom queen who goes postal with her telekinesis. Sissy had a long career in TV and movies, even winning the Oscar for Best Actress for "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980); she seems to take it all in stride. Sissy and Jack and their 2 daughters, Schuyler and Madison, live on their large horse ranch in the foothills of Virginia. For the last several years, the most important thing for Sissy has just been creating a stable home life for her family. And when Sissy isn't working on a movie, she can be seen tooling around town in a pickup, being a mountain mom.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trivia
"Sissy" was a nickname that her brothers used to call her when she was growing up, and so it stayed with her. During her audition for Carrie(1976), she wore a dress that her mother forced her to wear to a seventh grade party when she was younger.
For her Oscar-winning performance in "Coalminer's Daughter" (1980) Spacek was Grammy-nominated for her rendition of the title song in the category: Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1976" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 28.
She appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices That Care."
Attended Quitman High School in Quitman, Texas. Was homecoming queen.
Turned down a cameo appearance in Rage: Rage: Carrie 2, The (1999),
Lives with her husband Jack Fisk and their daughters Schuyler and Madison on their 210-acre northern Virginia horse farm.
Sissy first got into acting when she was visiting her cousin actor Rip Torn.
Attended the Lee Strasburg Institute.
Was the first choice to play the daughter in Terms of Endearment (1983).
Released a country LP titled Hangin' Up My Heart on Atlantic Records in 1983.
Was Homecoming Queen of her Senior Class in High School.
Decided to skip college after her older brother, Robbie, died from leukemia during her senior year in high school. She decided life was way too short to waste it in 4 years of college.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personal quotes
"The business has been good to me. I would be a hypocrite if I tried to convince her not to do this." - about her daughter Schuyler Fisk becoming an actress.
"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, April 1, 2001
"I asked if they could use some backflashes instead. I enjoyed the sequel, but hated my role in the first film. I was awful." - on why she didn't want to appear in The Rage: Carrie 2.
"My cousin, Rip Torn, persuaded me not to change my name: You shouldn't change what you are in the search for success."
"There's a real danger in trying to stay king of the mountain. You stop taking risks, you stop being as creative, because you're trying to maintain a position. Apart from anything else that really takes the fun out of it."
"When I started out in independant films in the early 70s, we did everything for the love of art. It wasn't about money and stardom. That was what we were reacting against. You'd die before you'd be bought."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
This small, freckle-faced, allAmerican-girl type defied conventional casting-director wisdom to become one of the screen's biggest stars of the 1970s and 1980s-something that, in Hollywood's glamour-conscious Golden Age, probably wouldn't have happened. Originally interested in a career as a singer, Spacek sang at Greenwich Village coffee houses, did background vocals for commercials and even recorded a song, "John, You Went Too Far This Time" (under the name Rainbo). She turned to acting, studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatrical Institute, and soon landed her first movie role (not counting her work as an extra in Andy Warhol's 1971 Trash in Michael Ritchie's Prime Cut(1972). Spacek, who's never shaken her Texas accent, raised eyebrows as the teenage companion to the mass murderer played by Martin Sheen in Badlands (1973); it was also on that film that she met her future husband, art director Jack Fisk. She starred in the little-seen Ginger in the Morning (1973), won critical notice-and public attention-in the highly rated TV movie Katherine (1975), then shot to stardom playing the telekinetic teen in the Stephen King shocker Carrie (1976), which earned her an Oscar nomination. (She'd first met the film's director, Brian De Palma, while working as a set decorator on his 1974 film Phantom of the ParadiseNot the easiest actress to cast, she nevertheless found interesting, often challenging roles in such films as Welcome to L.A (1977), Robert Altman's 3 Women (also 1977), the telefilm Verna: USO Girl (1978), and Heart Beat (1979, as Jack Kerouac's soulmate Carolyn Cassady). Then she snagged a perfect part in a mainstream hit, playing country music star Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), for which she did her own singing. The performance earned her an Academy Award.
Her husband directed her in Raggedy Man (1981); then she won Oscar nominations for Missing (1982, as the young wife of a missing American in Latin America) and The River (1984, as a farm mother). She was effective as the true-life heroine Marie (1985), and after tackling downbeat drama in 'Night Mother and Violets are Blue (both 1986), she earned another Oscar nomination for her uncharacteristic (and quite funny) performance as the ditziest of three eccentric Southern sisters in Crimes of the Heart(also 1986). Since then she's focused more on raising a family than maintaining a starring career; her sporadic credits include The Long Walk Home (1990), JFK (1991, as Kevin Costner's wife), Hard Promises (also 1991), A Private Matter (1992, telefilm), Trading Mom (1994), and A Place for Annie (also 1994, telefilm).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Links:
Gray Matters (2005) (pre-production)
Class Action (2005) (pre-production)
An American Haunting (2006) (filming) .... Lucy Bell
The Ring Two (2005) (post-production)
Nine Lives (2005) .... Ruth
A Home at the End of the World (2004) .... Alice Glover
Last Call (2002/I) (TV) .... Zelda Fitzgerald
... aka Fitzgerald (USA)
Tuck Everlasting (2002) .... Mae Tuck
Acting 'Carrie' (2001) (V) .... Herself
Midwives (2001) (TV) .... Sibyl Danforth
In the Bedroom (2001) .... Ruth Fowler
Songs in Ordinary Time (2000) (TV) .... Mary Fermoyle
Straight Story, The (1999) .... Rose Straight
... aka Une histoire vraie (1999) (France)
Rage: Carrie 2, The (1999) (archive footage) .... Carieta 'Carrie' N. White
Blast from the Past (1999) .... Helen Thomas Webber
Someone Is Waiting (1997) .... Mrs. Richards
Affliction (1997) .... Margie Fogg
Beyond the Call (1996) (TV) .... Pam O'Brien
Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain (1996) (V) (voice) .... Martha Jefferson
If These Walls Could Talk (1996) (TV) .... Barbara Barrows (segment "1974")
"Streets of Laredo" (1995) (mini) TV Series .... Lorena Parker
... aka "Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo" (1995) (mini)
Grass Harp, The (1995) .... Verena Talbo
Good Old Boys, The (1995) (TV) .... Spring Renfro
Trading Mom (1994) .... Mommy/Mama/Mom/Natasha
... aka Mommy Market, The (1994) (USA)
Place for Annie, A (1994) (TV) .... Susan Lansing
Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy (1992) (also archive footage) .... Herself (interviewed)
Private Matter, A (1992) (TV) .... Sherri Finkbine
JFK (1991) .... Liz Garrison
Hard Promises (1991) .... Chris
Long Walk Home, The (1990) .... Miriam Thompson
Crimes of the Heart (1986) .... Rebeca 'Babe'/'Becky' Magrath Botrelle
Violets Are Blue... (1986) .... Gussie Sawyer
'Night Mother (1986) .... Jessie Cates
Marie (1985) .... Marie Ragghianti
... aka Marie: A True Story (1985)
River, The (1984) .... Mae Garvey
Terror in the Aisles (1984) (archive footage) .... Carrie White (segment "Carrie")
... aka Time for Terror (1984) (Europe: English title: video title)
Man with Two Brains, The (1983) (voice) (uncredited) .... Anne Uumellmahaye
Missing (1982) .... Beth Horman
Raggedy Man (1981) .... Nita
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) .... Loretta Lynn
Heart Beat (1980) .... Carolyn Cassady
Verna: USO Girl (1978) (TV) .... Verna
Welcome to L.A. (1977) .... Linda Murray
3 Women (1977) .... Pinky Rose
... aka Three Women (1977) (USA)
Carrie (1976) .... Carrie White
Katherine (1975) (TV) .... Katherine Alman
... aka Radical, The (1975) (TV)
Migrants, The (1974) (TV) .... Wanda Trimpin
Badlands (1973) .... Holly
Ginger in the Morning (1973) .... Ginger
Girls of Huntington House, The (1973) (TV) .... Sara
Prime Cut (1972) .... Poppy
Trash (1970) (uncredited) .... Girl extra at bar
... aka Andy Warhol's Trash (1970) (International: English title)
Miscellaneous Crew
Eraserhead (1977) (special thanks)
Ginger in the Morning (1974) (songs)
Art Director
Death Game (1977)
... aka Mrs. Manning's Weekend
... aka The Seducers
Art Department
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) (set dresser)
... aka Phantom
... aka Phantom of the Fillmore
