Sissy Spacek

Sissy Spacek (1949) is an American actress and singer with an enduring and award-winning career in film and television. She became a star with her Oscar-nominated performance in Carrie (1976), in which she played a humiliated prom queen who goes postal with her telekinesis. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as country singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, C.P.C.S. Cda 33132.


Press photo. Sissy Spacek and William Katt in Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976).

A young woman sold as a sex slave

Mary Elizabeth ‘Sissy’ Spacek was born in Quitman, Texas, in 1949. She was the daughter of Virginia Frances and Edwin Arnold Spacek Sr., a county agricultural agent. Spacek was nicknamed ‘Sissy’ by her older brothers. She attended Quitman High School and was the homecoming queen.

During her senior year in 1967, she was violently shaken by the death of her 18-year-old brother Robbie from leukaemia. She decided life was way too short to waste it in four years of college and she moved to New York. Spacek began her career as a country singer. Under the name ‘Rainbo’, she recorded the single, ‘John, You Went Too Far This Time’, about John Lennon.

When sales of her music sputtered, Spacek was dropped by her record label. She switched her focus to acting. 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 was able to enrol at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.

In her early career, she often played girls younger than her age. Her first film role was in Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972), starring Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman in which she played a young woman sold as a sex slave. The film led to a guest role in the television series The Waltons (1973), which she played twice.

The first role in which she was noticed was in Terrence Malick's Neo Noir Badlands (1973). She played Holly, the film's narrator and 15-year-old girlfriend of serial killer Kit (Martin Sheen). Her performance earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. On the set, she met art director Jack Fisk, whom she would later marry. She worked as the set dresser for Brian De Palma's film Phantom of the Paradise (1974), to assist Fisk, who was the film's production designer.


Chinese postcard. Sissy Spacek in Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973).


Vintage card with the remains of an autograph.

An unpopular and emotionally confused teenager with telekinetic abilities

Sissy Spacek broke through with the lead role in the supernatural Horror film Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976). She played an unpopular and emotionally confused teenager with telekinetic abilities. For this role, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which, however, was not cashed.

She then starred in Robert Altman's psychological drama 3 Women (1977). Spacek helped finance Eraserhead (1977), David Lynch's directorial debut and is thanked in the film's credits.

She received the Oscar in 1980 for Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980), in which she played country star Loretta Lynn from the age of about 13 to near middle age and did her own singing. The soundtrack 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).

She received four more Academy Award nominations for her roles in Costa-Gavras's biographical thriller drama Missing (1982) opposite Jack Lemmon, the drama The River (Mark Rydell, 1984) with Mel Gibson, Crimes of the Heart (Bruce Beresford, 1986), and In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001). Spacek won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of the grieving Ruth Fowler in In the Bedroom. Her other notable films include Raggedy Man (Jack Fisk, 1981), 'Night, Mother (Tom Moore, 1986) opposite Anne Bancroft, JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997), The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999), North Country (Niki Caro, 2005) starring Charlize Theron, and the period drama The Help (Tate Taylor, 2011).

In 2011, Sissy Spacek received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2012, she published her memoir, 'My Extraordinary Ordinary Life', with co-author Maryanne Vollers. Spacek married Jack Fisk in 1974 and they had two daughters, Schuyler Elizabeth and Madison Fisk. Schuyler Fisk also acts in films. Spacek lives with her family on a horse ranch near Charlottesville, Virginia. She is an activist for women's rights. Her recent films include The Old Man & the Gun (David Lowery, 2018) starring Robert Redford, and Sam & Kate (Darren Le Gallo, 2022) with Dustin Hoffman.


German poster collector card by Cinema. Image: Universal Film. German poster for 'Night, Mother (Tom Moore, 1986), starring Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft.


Dutch Press photo by Kippa to promote the TV screening by EO in 1996. Sissy Spacek in A Place for Annie (John Gray, 1994).

Sources: KD Haisch (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.