Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek (; born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for four British Academy Film Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. For her contributions to the film industry, Spacek was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
After attending the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Spacek made her feature film debut in Michael Ritchie's Prime Cut (1972). Her performance in Terrence Malick's neo-noir crime drama film Badlands (1973), earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Spacek's breakthrough came when she played the abused teen misfit title character with telekinetic powers in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film Carrie (1976), which earned her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She then starred in Robert Altman's psychological drama film 3 Women (1977).
Spacek gave a complex performance as country music star Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted's biographical musical film Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). She portrayed Lynn from early adolescent to near middle age and did her own singing, earning her an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe Award. She received three more Academy Award nominations for her roles in the 1980s: Costa-Gavras' Missing (1982), Mark Rydell's The River (1984) and Bruce Beresford's Crimes of the Heart (1986). Spacek scored another nomination for Todd Field's In the Bedroom in 2001, winning another Golden Globe Award. Other notable films include Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), Tate Taylor's The Help (2011) and David Lowery's The Old Man & the Gun (2018). Spacek remains active, appearing in Sam & Kate in 2022.
In television, Spacek received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role in the Western film The Good Old Boys (1995). She was later Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the drama film Last Call (2002) and the HBO series Big Love (2010–2011), respectively. Spacek played matriarch Sally Rayburn in the Netflix series Bloodline (2015–2017), Ruth Deaver in the Hulu series Castle Rock (2018), and Ellen Bergman in the Amazon Prime Video series Homecoming (2018). Her other notable television work include the films The Migrants (1974), A Place for Annie (1994), If These Walls Could Talk (1996), Midwives (2001) and Pictures of Hollis Woods (2007), and the series Night Sky (2022).
Spacek has also ventured into the music industry. In 1968, under the stage name Rainbo, she recorded her debut single "John You Went Too Far This Time". When sales sputtered, Spacek was dropped by her record label. She later recorded vocals for the soundtrack album to Coal Miner's Daughter, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and garnered her a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Spacek subsequently released her debut studio album, Hangin' Up My Heart (1983).
Early life and education
Mary Elizabeth Spacek was born on Christmas Day 1949, in Quitman, Texas, the daughter of Virginia Frances (née Spilman, 1917–1981) and Edwin Arnold Spacek Sr., a Wood County agricultural agent in Quitman. Her father was of three quarters Czech (Moravian) and one quarter Sudeten-German ancestry; her paternal grandparents were Mary (née Cervenka) and Arnold A. Spacek (who served as mayor of Granger, Texas in Williamson County). Rip Torn was her first cousin; his mother Thelma Torn (née Spacek) was an elder sister of Sissy's father Edwin. Spacek's mother, who was of English and Irish descent, was from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
At the age of six, Spacek performed on stage for the first time in a local talent show. Although her birth name was Mary Elizabeth, she was always called Sissy by her brothers, which led to her nickname, Sissy, derived from 'sister' and a common Southern/Texas nickname. She attended Quitman High School.
Spacek was greatly affected by the 1967 death of her 19-year-old brother Robbie from leukemia, which she has called "the defining event of my whole life." She has said the tragedy made her fearless in her acting career: I think it made me brave. Once you experience something like that, you've experienced the ultimate tragedy. And if you can continue, nothing else frightens you. That's what I meant about it being rocket fuel—I was fearless in a way. Maybe it gave more depth to my work because I had already experienced something profound and life-changing.
Spacek initially aspired to a singing career. In 1968, under the stage name Rainbo, she recorded a single, "John You Went Too Far This Time", the lyrics of which chided John Lennon for his and Yoko Ono's nude album cover for Two Virgins. When sales of her music sputtered, Spacek was dropped by her record label. She switched her focus to acting, enrolling at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Career
1970s: Early work and rise to prominence
Spacek worked as a photographic model (represented by Ford Models) and as an extra at Andy Warhol's Factory. With the help of her cousin, actor Rip Torn, she enrolled in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and later the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Spacek's first credited film role was in the action crime thriller Prime Cut (1972), in which she played Poppy, a girl sold into sexual slavery. The film led to a guest role in the television series The Waltons (1973), which she played twice. Spacek received international attention for her breakthrough role in Terrence Malick's neo-noir crime drama film Badlands (1973); she played Holly, the film's narrator and 15-year-old girlfriend of serial killer Kit (Martin Sheen). Spacek has described Badlands as the "most incredible" experience of her career. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it a "cool, sometimes brilliant, always ferociously American film", and wrote "Sheen and Miss Spacek are splendid as the self-absorbed, cruel, possibly psychotic children of our time." On the set of Badlands, Spacek met art director Jack Fisk, whom she married in 1974. She worked as the set dresser for Brian De Palma's film Phantom of the Paradise (1974).
Spacek's most prominent early role came in De Palma's supernatural horror film Carrie (1976), playing Carrie White, a shy, troubled high school senior with telekinetic powers. Spacek had to work hard to persuade De Palma to cast her in the role. After rubbing Vaseline in her hair and donning an old sailor dress her mother had made for her as a child, she turned up at the audition with the odds against her, but won the part. Spacek's performance was critically acclaimed and led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote: "Though few actresses have distinguished themselves in gothics, Sissy Spacek, who is onscreen almost continuously, gives a classic chameleon performance. She shifts back and forth and sideways: a nasal, whining child; a chaste young beauty at the prom; and then a second transformation when her destructive impulses burst out and age her. Spacek uses her freckled pallor and whitish eyelashes to suggest a squashed, groggy girl who could go in any direction; at times, she seems unborn–a fetus. I don't see how this performance could be any better; she's touching, like Elizabeth Hartman in one of her victim roles, but she's also unearthly—a changeling."
After Carrie's success, Spacek played the role of housekeeper Linda Murray in Alan Rudolph's drama musical romance film Welcome to L.A. (1976) and cemented her reputation in independent film with her performance as Pinky Rose in Robert Altman's psychological drama 3 Women (1977). A review in The New York Times said, "In this film Miss…