Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
December 25, 1949
Place of Birth:
Quitman, Texas, USA
Mary Elizabeth 'Sissy' Spacek (born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four British Academy Film Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. Spacek was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
Born and raised in Texas, she initially aspired to a career as a recording artist. In 1968, at age 18, she recorded a single, "John, You Went Too Far This Time," under the name Rainbo. She began her professional acting career in the early 1970s, making her debut as an extra in Andy Warhol's Women in Revolt (1971). Her breakout role came with Terrence Malick's influential crime film Badlands (1973), which earned her a nomination for the British Academy Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Carrie White in Brian De Palma's horror film Carrie (1976), for which she received her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. After appearing in the acclaimed films Welcome to L.A. (1976) and Robert Altman's 3 Women (1977), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in the biographical musical film Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).
Her other Oscar-nominated roles include Missing (1982), The River (1984), Crimes of the Heart (1986), and In the Bedroom (2001). Her other prominent films include Raggedy Man (1981), JFK (1991), Affliction (1997), The Straight Story (1999), Tuck Everlasting (2002), Nine Lives (2005), North Country (2005), Four Christmases (2008), Get Low (2010), The Help (2011), and The Old Man & the Gun (2018). She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the television films The Good Old Boys (1995) and Last Call (2002), and for her guest role on the HBO drama series Big Love (2011). She portrayed matriarch Sally Rayburn on the Netflix drama thriller series Bloodline (2015–2017), Ruth Deaver on the Hulu psychological horror series Castle Rock (2018), and Ellen Bergman on the Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller series Homecoming (2018).
She has also ventured into music, and recorded vocals for the soundtrack album of Coal Miner's Daughter, which peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart and garnered her a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She released a studio album, Hangin' Up My Heart (1983), which was critically well-received and peaked at number 17 on Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
Year | Movie | Role |
---|---|---|
2025 | Die My Love | Pam |
2022 | Sam & Kate | Tina |
2021 | Without Getting Killed or Caught | Narrator / Voice of Susanna Clark (voice) |
2018 | The Old Man & the Gun | Jewel |
2016 | HyperNormalisation | Self (archive footage) |
2016 | Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl | Self / Loretta Lynn |
2016 | River of Gold | Narrator |
2014 | And the Oscar Goes To... | Self (archive footage) |
2013 | Making Badlands | Self |
2012 | Deadfall | June |
2011 | The Help | Missus Walters |
2010 | Get Low | Mattie Darrow |
2008 | Four Christmases | Paula |
2008 | Lake City | Maggie |
2007 | Hot Rod | Marie Powell |
2007 | Pictures of Hollis Woods | Josie Cahill |
2007 | Gray Matters | Dr. Sydney |
2005 | An American Haunting | Lucy Bell |
2005 | The Ring Two | Evelyn |
2005 | North Country | Alice Aimes |
2005 | Nine Lives | Ruth |
2004 | A Home at the End of the World | Alice Glover |
2003 | Absence of Malick | Self |
2003 | A Decade Under the Influence | Self |
2002 | Tuck Everlasting | Mae Tuck |
2002 | Last Call | Zelda Fitzgerald |
2002 | Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Film on Terrence Malick | Self |
2001 | In the Bedroom | Ruth Fowler |
2001 | Acting 'Carrie' | Self |
2001 | Visualizing 'Carrie' | Self (archive footage) |
2001 | Midwives | Sibyl Danforth |
2000 | Songs In Ordinary Time | Marie Fermoyle |
1999 | The Straight Story | Rose |
1999 | Blast from the Past | Helen |
1999 | The Rage: Carrie 2 | Carrie White (archive footage) (uncredited) |
1997 | Affliction | Margie Fogg |
1996 | If These Walls Could Talk | Barbara Barrows |
1996 | The Grass Harp | Verena Talbo |
1996 | Beyond the Call | Pam O'Brien |
1995 | The Good Old Boys | Spring Renfro |
1994 | Trading Mom | Mommy / Mama / Mom / Natasha |
1994 | A Place for Annie | Susan Lansing |
1993 | Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy | Self |
1992 | Hard Promises | Christine Ann Coalter |
1992 | A Private Matter | Sherri Finkbine |
1992 | Fonda on Fonda | Self - The 53rd Annual Academy Awards (archive footage) |
1991 | JFK | Liz Garrison |
1991 | Voices That Care | Self - Choir Member |
1991 | The Talking Eggs | Narrator (voice) |
1990 | The Long Walk Home | Miriam Thompson |
1986 | 'night, Mother | Jessie Cates |
1986 | Crimes of the Heart | Babe Magrath |
1986 | Violets are Blue | Augusta "Gussie" Sawyer |
1985 | Marie: A True Story | Marie Ragghianti |
1984 | The River | Mae Garvey |
1983 | The Man with Two Brains | Anne Uumellmahaye (uncredited) (voice) |
1982 | Missing | Beth Horman |
1981 | Raggedy Man | Nita |
1980 | Coal Miner's Daughter | Loretta Lynn |
1980 | Heart Beat | Carolyn Cassady |
1978 | Verna: USO Girl | Verna Vane |
1977 | 3 Women | Mildred "Pinky" Rose |
1977 | Rolling Stone Magazine: The 10th Anniversary | Self |
1976 | Carrie | Carrie |
1976 | Welcome to L.A. | Linda Murray |
1975 | Katherine | Katherine Alman |
1974 | Badlands | Holly Sargis |
1974 | The Migrants | Wanda Trimpin |
1973 | Ginger in the Morning | Ginger Brown |
1973 | The Girls of Huntington House | Sara |
1972 | Prime Cut | Poppy |
Year | TV Show | Role |
---|---|---|
2025 | Dying for Sex | Gail |
2022 | Night Sky | Irene York |
2018 | Castle Rock | Ruth Deaver |
2018 | Homecoming | Ellen Bergman |
2018 | GQ Presents: Iconic Characters | Self |
2015 | Bloodline | Sally Rayburn |
2014 | Off Camera with Sam Jones | Self |
2006 | Big Love | Marilyn Densham |
1997 | The View | Self |
1996 | The Rosie O'Donnell Show | Self - Guest |
1995 | Streets of Laredo | Lorena |
1995 | Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain | Martha Jefferson Randolph (voice) |
1994 | Inside the Actors Studio | Self |
1992 | Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories | Narrator (Voice) |
1987 | Seitenblicke | self |
1975 | Saturday Night Live | Self - Host |
1975 | Les Rendez-vous du dimanche | Self |
1972 | The Rookies | |
1972 | The Waltons | |
1971 | Great Performances | Verna Vane |
1953 | The Oscars | Self |
1951 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Susan Lansing |