Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
Sally and Gillian Owens have always known they were different. Raised by their aunts (Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing) after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but typical--their aunts fed them chocolate cake for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But the invocation of the Owens' sorcery also carries a price--some call it a curse: the men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Now adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that threatens the lives of all the Owens women.
Biography for Dianne Wiest
Date of birth
28 March 1948
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Mini biography
One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1948. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on Broadway. She made her film debut in 1980, but didn't make a name for herself until her performance as Emma, a prostitute during the 1930s Depression, in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Allen was so impressed by Wiest's acting ability that he has directed her on four more occassions since. Under Allen's direction, Wiest won a well deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her brilliant performance as the neurotic, wannabe actress Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before stealing the show from the likes of Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989). Playing Helen Buckman, the divorced mother of two difficult teens, Wiest was both touching and hilarious, and received her second Oscar nomination. Arguably her most beloved role came as Peg Boggs, the kindly Avon Lady who discovers the titular Edward Scissorhands (1990). Wiest returned to Woody Allen in 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway, a superb comedy set in 1920s New York, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her magnificent portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous and neurotic star of the stage, who could made the words "Don't speak!" the funniest sentence ever captured on film. Recently enjoying great success with witchy roles in the film Practical Magic (1998) and the TV mini-series "The 10th Kingdom" (1999), Dianne Wiest lives in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.
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Trivia
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1985" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 37.
2 adopted children: Emily (b. 1987), Lily (b. 1991)
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
This gifted actress enjoys a bright reputation as a New York stage performer (she won a 1983 Best Actress Obie) and director, although she's also worked in films since 1980, beginning with It's My Turn Wiest's predominant screen persona is that of the put-upon mom: Whether defending Kevin Bacon's right to dance in Footloose (1984), coming to grips with adolescent vampires in The Lost Boys (1987), suffering stoically in Bright Lights, Big City (1988), dealing with teen pregnancy and marriage in Parenthood (1989, an Oscar-nominated turn) or, in an extreme case, adopting a manmade kid with razor-sharp digits in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Wiest is usually a tower of strength, maturity, and maternal benevolence. She's also been effective in I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), Independence Day (1983, as a beaten-down wife), and Falling in Love (1984). No one has tapped her versatility quite like Woody Allen, however, who's cast her as a hooker in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), an optimistic man-chaser in Radio Days (1987), Mia Farrow's best friend in September (also 1987), and most memorably, as one of Farrow's eccentric (and neurotic) siblings in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), which won her an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Little Man Tate (1991) gave her one of her meatiest parts, as a former gifted child who now tries to shape other gifted children's lives. Her talent for dithery comedy has been too little used onscreen, and had its best showcase in Cookie (1989), in which she played Peter Falk's sexy mistress. Recent credits include Cops and Robbersons and a hysterical turn as a theatrical grande dame in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), for which she received a second Supporting Actress Oscar.
Portofino (2002)
Not Afraid, Not Afraid (2001) .... Paula
I Am Sam (2001) .... Annie
10th Kingdom: The Making of an Epic, The (2000) (V) .... Evil Queen
"10th Kingdom, The" (2000) (mini) TV Series .... The Evil Queen/Christine Lewis
... aka "10te K�nigreich, Das" (2001) (mini) (Germany: DVD title)
... aka "Zehnte K�nigreich, Das" (2001) (mini) (Germany)
"Law & Order" (1990) TV Series .... District Attorney Nora Lewin (2000-2002)
Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, The (1999) (TV) .... Sarah McClellan
Practical Magic (1998) .... Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
Visions of Grace: Robert Redford and 'The Horse Whisperer' (1998) (TV) .... Herself
Horse Whisperer, The (1998) .... Diane Booker
Associate, The (1996) .... Sally
Birdcage, The (1996) .... Louise Keeley
... aka Birds of a Feather (1996)
Drunks (1995) .... Rachel
Scout, The (1994) .... Doctor H. Aaron
Bullets Over Broadway (1994) .... Helen Sinclair
Cops and Robbersons (1994) .... Helen Robberson
Little Man Tate (1991) .... Jane Grierson
63rd Annual Academy Awards, The (1991) (TV) (uncredited) .... Presenter - Best Sound
Edward Scissorhands (1990) .... Peg Boggs
Parenthood (1989) .... Helen Buckman Lampkin Brodsky
Cookie (1989) .... Lenore
Bright Lights, Big City (1988) .... Mother
September (1987) .... Stephanie
Lost Boys, The (1987) .... Lucy Emerson
Bigfoot (1987) (TV)
Radio Days (1987) .... Bea
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) .... Holly
Purple Rose of Cairo, The (1985) .... Emma
Falling in Love (1984) .... Isabelle
Footloose (1984) .... Vi Moore
Independence Day (1983) .... Nancy Morgan
... aka Follow Your Dreams (1983)
Face of Rage, The (1983) (TV) .... Rebecca Hammil
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) .... Julie Addison
Wall, The (1982/I) (TV) .... Symka Mazor
It's My Turn (1980) .... Gail
... aka Perfect Circle, A (1980)
Out of Our Father's House (1978) (TV) .... Elizabeth Gertrude Stern
Zalmen: or, The Madness of God (1975) (TV) .... Nina