Lange, Jessica (1949-…), is an American actress. She won an Academy Award as best actress for her performance as the mentally unbalanced wife of a military officer in Blue Sky (1994). She also won a best supporting actress Oscar for her performance as a soap opera actress in the comedy Tootsie (1982). Lange won Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Edith Bouvier Beale, the aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in the cable television movie Grey Gardens (2009); and for performances in two different roles in the cable television miniseries “American Horror Story” in 2012 and 2014. Lange won a 2016 Tony Award for her performance as Mary Tyrone in the Broadway revival of the 1956 play Long Day’s Journey into Night by the American dramatist Eugene O’Neill.
Jessica Phyllis Lange was born on April 20, 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota. She studied mime in Paris and later moved to New York City, New York, where she worked as a model in the 1970’s. Lange made her motion-picture debut in a 1976 remake of the 1933 adventure classic King Kong . In 1979, she had a small but notable role as the Angel of Death in director and choreographer Bob Fosse ‘s semiautobiographical film All That Jazz. In 1981, Lange gained notice for her performance in a remake of the 1946 film noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice. Film noir is a term first used by French critics to describe certain American crime movies of the 1940’s and 1950’s. In 1982, Lange won acclaim for her portrayal of the American actress Frances Farmer in Frances. In 1985, Lange also won acclaim for her portrayal of the American country music singer Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams.
Lange’s other notable films include the made-for-television movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984), based on the 1955 play by the American playwright Tennessee Williams ; the drama Country (1984); the thriller Music Box (1989); a 1991 remake of the 1962 thriller Cape Fear; the historical drama Rob Roy (1995); the fantasy Big Fish (2003); and the crime drama The Gambler (2014).
Lange has also acted in a number of other television series. In 2017, she starred in the cable television miniseries Feud, in which she portrayed the American actress Joan Crawford during the filming of the 1962 horror film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
In 1992, Lange made her Broadway debut as Blanche DuBois in a revival of Williams’s 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire . Lange reprised the role in a 1995 made-for-television movie. Other stage roles include the 2000 revival of Long Day’s Journey into Night at London’s Lyric Theatre and the 2005 Broadway revival of Williams’s 1944 play The Glass Menagerie .
