Dianne Wiest

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Dianne Wiest (born March 28, 1948 in Kansas City, Missouri) is two-time Academy Award-winning American actress in stage, television, and film, and has received several awards in her career.

Wiest's original ambition was to be a ballerina, but in late high school she switched her sights to acting in theatre. She made her film debut in 1980, but didn't make a name for herself until her performance as Emma, a prostitute during the Great Depression, in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).

Under Allen's direction, Wiest won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, 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 starring with Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood, for which she received her second Oscar nomination.

In 1990, Wiest starred in Edward Scissorhands. She returned to Woody Allen in 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway, a comedy set in 1920s New York City, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous, and neurotic star of the stage.

She has recently appeared in the film Practical Magic (1998) and the television mini-series The 10th Kingdom (2000).

From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order.

Wiest's early career was in theatre. She studied theatre at the University of Maryland but left after her third term, in order to tour with a Shakespeare troupe. She worked at the Long Wharf theatre, understudied off-Broadway in Kurt Vonnegut's "Happy Birthday, Wanda June." And then made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's "Solitaire/Double Solitaire," taking over in the role of the daughter.

She then went to work at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and became one of their most prized leading actresses, appearing in many plays including a memorable Emily in "Our Town," Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," and leading roles in "The Dybbuk," "The Lower Depths," and "Heartbreak House." She also toured the USSR with the Arena Stage Company.

In 1976 Wiest went to the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and played leading roles in Amlin Gray's "Pirates" and Christopher Durang's "A History of the American Film." Shortly after that, she left Arena Stage, and performed more in New York City. At Joe Papp's Public Theatre she took over the lead in "Ashes," and played Cassandra in "Agamemnon," directed by Andrei Şerban. She was in two plays by Tina Howe, "Museum" and then "The Art of Dining." In the latter play Wiest was deeply hilarious as the shy and awkward authoress Elizabeth Barrow Colt, and she won every off-Broadway theatre award for her performance: an Obie Award, a Theatre World Award, and the prestigious Clarence Derwent Award, given yearly for the most promising performance in New York theatre.

In the 80s she starred on Broadway in "Frankenstein," directed by Tom Moore, and then in 1982 as Desdemona in "Othello" opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. Later the same year she starred in the romantic screwball comedy "Beyond Therapy" by Christopher Durang, directed by John Madden. Playing opposite John Lithgow, she received stellar reviews for her charming and quirky performance as Prudence. A few years later she played opposite Lithgow again in the Herbert Ross film "Footloose."

Also in the 80s she was acclaimed for her performance in "Hedda Gabbler," directed by Lloyd Richards, at Yale Repertory Theatre. And in New York City she was memorable in Harold Pinter's "Another Kind of Alaska," in Janusz Glowacki's "Hunting Cockroaches," and gave a dazzling performance in Lanford Wilson's "Serenading Louie."

Once her film career took off with her work in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and especially "Hannah and Her Sisters," Wiest was available to the stage less frequently, though she performed in the 1990s in "In the Summer House," "Square One," Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl," and Naomi Wallace's "One Flea Spare." In 2003 she acted on Broadway with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei in Oscar Wilde's "Salome." And in 2005 she starred in Kathleen Tolan's "Memory House," and then at Lincoln Center in the late Wendy Wasserstein's final play "Third," directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Wiest lives in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.

[edit] Selected filmography

• Independence Day (1983)
• Falling in Love (1984)
• Footloose (1984)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  • won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
  • nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• Radio Days (1987)
• September (1987)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• Parenthood (1989)
  • nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
  • nominated for Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• Little Man Tate (1991)
• Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
  • won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress;
  • won Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• The Associate (1996)
• The Birdcage (1996)
• Practical Magic (1998)
• The Horse Whisperer (1998)
• The 10th Kingdom (2000)
• Law & Order (2000-2002)
• I Am Sam (2001)
• Merci Docteur Rey (2002)
• The Blackwater Lightship (2004)
• Robots (2005)
• A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

Preceded by Anjelica Huston for Prizzi's Honor	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1986 for Hannah and Her Sisters	Succeeded by Olympia Dukakis for Moonstruck
Preceded by Anna Paquin for The Piano	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway	Succeeded by Mira Sorvino for Mighty Aphrodite

[edit] External links

• Dianne Wiest at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.kolumbus.fi/catherine.jelley/Dianne_Wiest.html
• http://christopherdurang.com/FullBeyond.htm