A Gypsy Life

Jessica Phyllis Lange was born on April 20, 1949 to Al and Dorothy Lange in Cloquet, Minnesota. She was the third of four children (having two older sisters, Ann and Jane, and a younger brother, George). As a child, she led a transient life because her father changed jobs often and moved the family constantly. Lange would note later that her family "lived like gypsies" and she herself would inherit this innate desire to travel far and wide into the world when she left Minnesota. Later in life, she would have a powerful connection to her home state but by the time she was out of high school, her only thoughts were to escape.

In the fall of 1967, Jessica enrolled at the University of Minnesota and concentrated her studies in art. She wanted to be a painter but her restless nature and natural curiosity stifled her in the university environment. In the spring of 1968, before her freshman year was completed, Jessica was smitten by a guest photography professor named Paco Grande. Grande was a 24 year old Spaniard and had traveled extensively and he provided Jessica with her ticket out of Minnesota.

Grande and Lange embarked on a trek that would take them to New York, Paris, and New Mexico. They lived out of Grande's van and traveled extensively across Europe where Grande introduced Jessica to many of his underground film community friends. They returned to Minnesota briefly in July of 1970 and were married at the home of Jessica's parents.

The two eventually settled in Soho where Grande continued to work on experimental film projects while Jessica pondered what she wanted to do. She had decided that she didn't have the commitment to paint and thought about dancing instead. One night, however, she attended a screening of the classic 1945 French film "Les Enfants du Paradis" ("The Children of Paradise") and it changed her life. It was Jean-Louis Berrault's performance as the mime who completely captivated Jessica and she made the decision to study the art of mime. She discovered that the greatest mime teacher was Etienne Decroux, who taught in Paris. So, she left for Paris in March of 1971 with three hundred dollars in her pocket to study mime in Paris.

She spent two years there studying mime and the experience eventually perked an interest in acting. Her lessons in mime would greatly influence her acting technique later on. She returned to New York to pursue acting lessons in 1973. By this time, her marriage to Paco Grande had deteriorated. Although Grande did visit Jessica occasionally in Paris, their time together was brief and they began to grow apart. Grande left New York to work on independent films in Jamaica but Jessica remained there to take acting classes. To pay the rent, she worked as a waitress at the Lion's Head Tavern in Greenwich Village and signed with the Wilhelmina Agency as a model.

Although she did not like modeling and did it just to pay the rent, the Wilhelmina Agency would provide an unexpected connection to Hollywood.

A Monster Debut

In the fall of 1975, producer Dino DeLaurentis contacted Wilhelmina looking for fresh faces for the female lead in his big budgeted remake of the 1930's classic "King Kong". An agent at Wilhelmina, who knew that Jessica was very serious about acting, recommended her.

She flew to Hollywood for the screen test but didn't expect anything to come from it. DeLaurentis himself was not impressed with Jessica's looks and felt that she was not attractive enough for the part. However, upon seeing her screen test, his opinion changed. It was obvious that she had talent and she got the part. She was asked to gain weight, have her hair lightened and braces on her teeth removed.

The filming of "King Kong" was a lonely and frustrating experience with most of Jessica's scenes played to a blank wall. Having never really acted before, she was uncertain as to how she was doing and she was not familiar with filmmaking techniques. She did her best, however, and relied heavily on the mime techniques that she had studied for two years in Paris.

"King Kong" was released in time for Christmas of 1976. The reviews were mixed and the public reception was poor although the film did make money at the box office. Jessica received good notices from critics but most of the publicity she received was negative. Journalists seemed to dwell on the fact that she was a "former model" and played her up as the bimbo that she was portraying on screen. The publicity and the film had a negative impact on her career and her acting future looked grim. Six years later, however, Jessica Lange would have the last laugh.

Although she had signed a seven year contract with DeLauntis, Lange did not work for two years following "King Kong". Her marriage to Paco Grande had basically ended although they had not yet divorced. During this time, Lange met the Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and they began dating steadily. Baryshnikov had recently come to America and had acted in the film "The Turning Point". Their six year relationship would produce a daughter, Alexandra, in 1981.

When there were no offers after "King Kong", Lange returned to New York to continue her acting classes. In 1979, Bob Fosse, a close friend, wrote a part especially for her in his autobiographical film "All That Jazz". She also landed a lead role in a lightweight comedy called "How To Beat The High Cost of Living".

She was acting in a play called "Angel on my Shoulder" in North Carolina when she received a call from director Bob Rafelson. Rafelson was remaking the 1940’s classic "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and was searching for an actress to play Cora, the waitress who schemes with her lover to murder her husband for the insurance money. Jack Nicolson would play Frank Chambers, and he had remembered Jessica from a screen test that she did with him back in 1976 for a film called "Goin South". That part went to Mary Steenbergen but Nicholson was impressed by Jessica’s screen test and he thought she would be great for Cora. Rafelson came to North Carolina and Jessica read for the role and was hired soon afterward.

"The Postman Always Rings Twice" would not only put Jessica Lange back on the map as an actress but it would also establish her as an A list actress. "Postman" did not do well at the box office, but critics everywhere marveled at Lange’s performance. As Cora, she was intense and seductive and showed a range of emotions that her former critics never dreamed she had. Her performance in the film gave her the credibility and the opportunity to practically choose any role that she wanted to do.

'Frances' and Recognition

Jessica had first read about Frances Farmer when she was working as a waitress in New York and taking acting lessons. She knew that one day she would play Frances and had even approached Bob Rafelson about directing it but he was not interested. However, Graeme Clifford, an editor on "The Postman Always Rings Twice", was.

Filming "Frances" was intense and grueling and it took an emotional toll on Jessica. She used every bit of rage that she had pent up over the past years and put it into her role. She said later that playing that part almost did her in. Kim Stanley, who played Frances’ mother advised Jessica to do a comedy afterward. She took her advice when she was offered a part in "Tootsie", a comedy to be directed by Sydney Pollack. "Frances" and "Tootsie" were released simultaneously in late 1982. Although "Frances" received lukewarm reviews as a film, no one could deny that Jessica Lange had given a performance of a lifetime. In the meantime, "Tootsie" was one of the biggest hits of the year. When the Academy Award nominations were announced in February 1983, no one was surprised to hear that Lange was nominated for Best Actress. What was surprising, however, was that she had another nomination as well, that of Best Supporting Actress for her work in "Tootsie". No actress had been nominated twice in one year since Teresa Wright did it in 1942. Jessica would lose the Best Actress award to Meryl Streep but she did win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year.

Jessica herself had a hand in producing her next film. "Country" was about the plight of Midwestern farm families and government foreclosures on their land. It was a subject that Jessica was concerned with and she had lobbied Congress on the issue. The film featured a sensitive performance which earned her another Academy Award nomination. "Country" also starred Sam Shepard, an actor and playwright whom Jessica had become involved with on the set of "Frances". They still live together today and have two children, Hannah and Samuel, in addition to Alexandra, who was fathered by Mikhail Baryshinov.

Her next film was "Sweet Dreams", the life story of country/western singer Patsy Cline. Jessica was a fan of Cline and she lip synced to her songs in the film. The role won her yet another Academy Award nomination. She continued to accept movie roles that appealed to her personally and never took a job for the financial aspects of it. Her films throughout the later part of the 80's were mostly low profile ones that did not fare too well at the box office but still brought her outstanding reviews. A fifth Academy Award nomination came in 1990 for her role as Ann Talbot, her first ethnic role, in "Music Box".

Lange's film work during the 90's has been somewhat sporadic due to her taking time off to raise her children and her increasing interest in stage work. She first appeared on Broadway in 1992 as Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire". She repeated the role in 1996 to greater reviews on the London stage. In November of 2000, she appeared in London again as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". She received the best stage reviews of her career and earned an Olivier Award (the British equivalent to the Tony) nomination.

 

A Career Based on Choice

Jessica Lange’s twenty-five year career as an actress has been highlighted by her intelligent and powerful performances in over 20 films. She has excelled in playing Midwestern women who endure physical and emotional hardships ("Country", "O Pioneers!"," A Thousand Acres") as well as women who find their lives thrown into extraordinary circumstances ("Music Box", "Men Don’t Leave", "Losing Isaiah") She also seems to have a strong affinity for Southern women characters. As a child, she loved the novel "Gone With The Wind" and would act out all the parts. Her most memorable roles have been Southern women like Meg MacGrath in "Crimes of the Heart", Patsy Cline in "Sweet Dreams", and of course Carly Marshall in "Blue Sky". And then there are Tennessee Williams’s works in which she has played Maggie the "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire". DuBois is probably her favorite character. "I think this character is fairly inexhaustible; I never tire of the discovery with Blanche."

Jessica Lange never set out to be a "box office" attraction and instead chose roles that held a special interest to her. Only a handful of her films have been big financial hits ("Tootsie", "Cape Fear") - most have been rarely seen, including "Blue Sky", which she won her second Academy Award for in 1995. In 1997, she said, "I don't do the kind of films that make the studios rich. I don't do films that gross $100 million or whatever. That's all right. I never set out to do that. I have made decisions based from purely an actor's point of view. I could be making a lot more money now if I had chosen a different kind of movie, but none of that matters to me - it didn't matter to me then, and now it's too late to start thinking in those terms. I've done the parts I wanted to do."

She has also chose not to live a high profile Hollywood lifestyle. Instead, she and Sam Shepard have always lived quietly in the country. They now live in Minnesota not far from where Jessica grew up. They previously lived on a horse farm in Virginia and a ranch in New Mexico. The most important thing in Jessica’s life are her children. She takes them with her wherever she must go to do a film or a play and has said that she does not do well without them. She said in an interview with a British newspaper "They're the only thing I think in my life that ever really anchored me, that I've ever felt cemented to. And I just enjoy them more than anyone else in the world. And I'd rather hang out with them than anyone else. I'd rather be with them than with anyone else. I find them infinitely fascinating."

During the past five years, she has chosen such wide-ranging roles as Mary MacGregor in "Rob Roy", to Honore de Balzac’s "Cousin Bette" and Shakespeare’s Tamora in "Titus". She admits that she no longer feels that ambitious in her career and will only take a part if she is intrinsically interested in it. Her most recent success has been on the London stage as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s "Long Days Journey Into Night". Like Blanche, Mary was a part that Lange longed to play. She told a Los Angeles Times writer, "Blanche and Mary had been in my mind for some time. I'd wanted to play Blanche since I was young, and Mary for at least 10 years now. If ever anyone asked me what roles I'd want to do on stage, I'd have said these two. So I didn't look for anything else. When the chance to play these roles came along, I put things in motion."

She opened in yet another Tennessee William's revival, "The Glass Menagerie" in March 2005. It ran for 120 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Her future plans include adapting the Jayne Anne Phillips’ novel "Machine Dreams" which she hopes to direct herself. She has also optioned Collette’s novel "Cheri", about a courtesan who has an affair with a much younger man. When not working, she enjoys photography and gardening. She is also politically vocal, and is concerned about the environment and human rights. She became a Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF in 2003.