
Jessica Lange
Biography
Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She is the 13th actress to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award and five Golden Globe Awards.
Lange made her professional film debut in Dino De Laurentiis's 1976 remake of the 1933 action-adventure classic King Kong, for which she also won her first Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. In 1979, she starred in the acclaimed musical film All That Jazz. In 1983, she won her second Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie (1982) and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress Frances Farmer in Frances (1982). Lange received three more nominations for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985) and Music Box (1989), before winning her third Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a bipolar housewife in Blue Sky (1994).
In 2010, Lange won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's aunt Big Edie in HBO's Grey Gardens (2009). Between 2011 and 2014, she won her first Screen Actors Guild Award, first Critics Choice Award, fifth Golden Globe Award, three Dorian Awards and her second and third Emmy Awards for her performances in the first, second and third seasons of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story (2011–2015, 2018). In 2016, Lange won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her performance in the Broadway revival of Long Day's Journey into Night. She also had a supporting role in Louis C.K.'s Peabody Award-winning web series Horace and Pete. In 2017, for her portrayal of actress Joan Crawford in the miniseries Feud, Lange received her eighth Emmy, 16th Golden Globe, sixth Screen Actors Guild Award and second TCA Award nominations. In 2019, she received a tenth Emmy nomination for her performance in American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
Lange is also a photographer with four published books of photography. She has been a foster parent and holds a Goodwill Ambassador position for UNICEF, specializing in HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Russia.
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Known For
Acting History
2025
Long Day's Journey into Night as Mary Tyrone
2024The Great Lillian Hall as Lillian Hall
2023Marlowe as Dorothy Quincannon
2019The Politician as Dusty Jackson
2018Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco as Self
2017Inside Look: Feud - Bette and Joan as Self
2017FEUD as Joan Crawford
2017FEUD as Lillie Mae Faulk
2016Wild Oats as Maddie
2016Horace and Pete as Marsha
2015Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter as Self
2014The Gambler as Roberta
2014Variety Studio: Actors on Actors as Self
2014Scorsese's Women as Star
2014Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self
2014In Secret as Madame Raquin
2012Behind the Fright: The Making of American Horror Story as Self
2012Shepard & Dark as Self (archive footage)
2012The Vow as Rita Thornton
2011American Horror Story as Fiona Goode
2011American Horror Story as Constance Langdon
2011American Horror Story as Sister Jude Martin
2011American Horror Story as Elsa Mars
2009Grey Gardens as Big Edie
2008A Better Man: The Making of 'Tootsie' as Self
2007Sybil as Dr. Cornelia Wilbur
2006Bonneville as Arvilla Holden
2005The Peace! as Self
2005Neverwas as Katherine Pierson
2005Don't Come Knocking as Doreen
2005Broken Flowers as Carmen
2004Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines as Self - Narrator (voice)
2003Big Fish as Sandra Bloom (senior)
2003Masked and Anonymous as Nina Veronica
2003Normal as Irma Applewood
2001The Making of 'Cape Fear' as Self
2001Prozac Nation as Mrs. Wurtzel
2001A Hollywood Life: Remembering Frances as Herself
1999Titus as Tamora
1998Cousin Bette as Cousin Bette
1998Hush as Martha Baring
1997A Thousand Acres as Ginny Cook Smith
1997The View as Self
1995A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche DuBois
1995Rob Roy as Mary MacGregor
1995Losing Isaiah as Margaret Lewin
1994Blue Sky as Carly Marshall
1994Inside the Actors Studio as Self
1993Intimate Portrait as Self
1992Night and the City as Helen Nasseros
1992O Pioneers! as Alexandra Bergson
1991Cape Fear as Leigh Bowden
1990Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond as Self - Host
1990Men Don't Leave as Beth Macauley
1989Music Box as Ann Talbot
1988Far North as Kate
1988Everybody's All-American as Babs Rogers Grey
1986King Kong Lives as Dwan (archive footage)
1986Crimes of the Heart as Meg Magrath
1985Sweet Dreams as Patsy Cline
1984Hollywood '84 as Self
1984Country as Jewell Ivy
1984Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Maggie
1983Notre Dame de la Croisette as Self (uncredited)
1982Tootsie as Julie Nichols
1982Frances as Frances Farmer
1981The Postman Always Rings Twice as Cora Papadakis
1980How to Beat the High Cost of Living as Louise
1979All That Jazz as Angelique
1976King Kong as Dwan
1973The American Film Institute Salute to ... as Self
1953The Oscars as Self
1952Today as Self
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Alexandra Bergson
1948Bambi as Self
—The Year of Magical Thinking as Joan Didion






