Dianne Wiest

Dianne Wiest
Wiest in 1990
Years active	1970–present

Dianne Wiest (born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.

Early life

Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father was a college dean and former psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Army, and her Scottish-born mother, Anne, worked as a nurse; her parents met in Algiers. She has two brothers: Greg and Don Wiest. Wiest's original ambition was to be a ballerina, but in late high school she switched her goal to theatre. She made her film debut in It's My Turn (1980), but did not establish herself as a film actress until her work for Woody Allen in the 1980s.

Stage career

Wiest studied theatre at the University of Maryland, leaving after her third term in order to tour with a Shakespearean troupe, eventually appearing in a supporting role in the New York Shakespeare Festival production Ashes. She appeared at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, playing the title role in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and understudied off-Broadway in Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's Solitaire/Double Solitaire, taking over in the role of the daughter in 1971. She landed a four-year job as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., appearing in many plays including a memorable Emily in Our Town, Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and leading roles in S. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths and Shaw's "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. At Joe Papp's Public Theatre she took over the lead in Ashes, and played Cassandra in Agamemnon, directed by Andrei Şerban. She appeared in two plays by Tina Howe, Museum and the The Art of Dining. In the latter, Wiest's role as the shy and awkward authoress Elizabeth Barrow Colt won every off-Broadway theatre award for her performance: an Obie Award, a Theatre World Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award, given yearly for the most promising performance in New York theatre. In early 1980, she appeared on Broadway in Frankenstein, directed by Tom Moore, portrayed Desdemona in Othello opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer and co-starred with John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's romantic screwball comedy Beyond Therapy, directed by John Madden. (A few years later she played opposite Lithgow again in the Herbert Ross film Footloose). Also in the 80s she was acclaimed for her performances in Hedda Gabler, directed by Lloyd Richards at Yale Repertory Theatre, and in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska, Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches, and Lanford Wilson's Serenading Louie. Her most recent New York theatre appeareances included performances as Arkadina in an off-Broadway revival of The Seagull (opposite Alan Cumming's Trigorin) and as Kate Keller in a controversial Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, opposite John Lithgow, Patrick Wilson, and Katie Holmes. In 2009, Wiest appeared in the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. in a dialogue with Katie Holmes celebrating the life of a American veteran seriously wounded in Iraq, José Pequeño.

Film and Television

After Wiest became established as a strong film actress through her work in Woody Allen's films, she was available for 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 appeared with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei in Oscar Wilde's Salome. 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.

Under Allen's direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She also appeared in Allen's films The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days and September.

She followed her Oscar 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 loud star of the stage.

Wiest appeared in the films The Birdcage (1996) and Practical Magic (1998) and the television mini-series The 10th Kingdom (2000). From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed interim District Attorney Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order.

In 2007, Wiest starred alongside Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life and also as Gabriel Byrne's therapist Gina Toll on the television series In Treatment. For the latter, it was announced on 17 July 2008 that Wiest had received an Emmy nomination (her third overall) as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She received the Emmy for her role in the HBO Original Series In Treatment 21 September 2008.

Wiest had a key supporting role in 2008's Synecdoche, New York.

Personal life

Wiest has never been married but has two adopted daughters, Emily (b. 1987) and Lily (b. 1991). She graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences. She was in a long-term relationship with a New York talent agent, Sam Cohn, for many years.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1980	It's My Turn	Gail	as Diane Wiest
1982	I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can	Julie Addison
1983	Face of Rage	Rebecca Hammil
	Independence Day	Nancy Morgan
1984	Falling in Love	Isabelle
	Footloose	Vi Moore
1985	The Purple Rose of Cairo	Emma
1986	Hannah and Her Sisters	Holly	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1987	Radio Days	Bea	Nominated – BAFTA Award
	September	Stephanie
	The Lost Boys	Lucy Emerson
1988	Bright Lights, Big City	Mother
1989	Parenthood	Helen Buckman	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
	Cookie	Lenore
1990	Edward Scissorhands	Peg
1991	Little Man Tate	Jane Grierson
1994	Bullets Over Broadway	Helen Sinclair	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture
	Cops and Robbersons	Helen Robberson
	The Scout	Doctor H. Aaron
1995	Drunks	Rachel
1996	The Associate	Sally Dugan
	The Birdcage	Louise Keeley	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998	Practical Magic	Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
	The Horse Whisperer	Diane Booker
2000	The 10th Kingdom	The Evil Queen	TV mini-series
2000-2002	Law & Order	D.A. Nora Lewin	Twice nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2001	I Am Sam	Annie Cassell
2002	Merci Docteur Rey	Elisabeth Beaumont
2004	The Blackwater Lightship	Lily	TV
2004	Category 6: Day of Destruction	Secretary of Energy Shirley Abbott	TV mini-series
2005	Robots	Mrs. Copperbottom
2006	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Flori
2007	Dedication	Carol
	Dan in Real Life	Nana Burns
2008	In Treatment	Dr. Gina Toll	(2008–) – Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
	Passengers	Toni
	Synecdoche, New York	Ellen Bascomb/Millicent Weems
2009	Rage	Miss Roth

External links

• Dianne Wiest at IMDb
• Dianne Wiest at the Internet Broadway Database

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