She was a cheerleader and homecoming queen at her small-town Texas high school in 1968, and that determination to prove her worth followed her to Hollywood. Her first breakthrough role was in a classic '70s 'lovers on the run' crime-drama co-starring Martin Sheen. She followed it up with a deeply gripping and grisly role in a film based on a Stephen King horror novel, a role that catapulted her to stardom when it was released later that decade.
This actress then accomplished what so many others could not: she broke the typecasting trap and pivoted to vulnerable, emotionally complex parts in biographical dramas, family epics, and intense character studies with some of the most famous leading men of the era. But, at the height of her fame, she made a conscious decision to move to a rural farm in Virginia with her husband to raise their family outside the Hollywood spotlight.
Now 76, she continues to work in television and film and most recently co-starred with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in a disturbing new drama. Do you know who she is? She is an Oscar winner who was crowned homecoming queen at her small-town Texas high school in 1968.
The Iconic Actress Sissy Spacek
She is Sissy Spacek, star of Terrence Malick's 1973 classic Badlands and Brian De Palma's horror classic Carrie (1976). She was clearly destined for great things, judging by her yearbook photos. At 16, she was crowned homecoming queen. Spacek was photographed wearing a tiara and sporting bangs and a shoulder-length haircut, along with heavy eye makeup.
Another black-and-white photo showed Spacek posing in her cheerleader outfit with a baton in 1967. Other yearbook photos showed Spacek dressed in fashionable yet conservative attire, always with the same straight hair and fringe stopping just short of her thick eyelashes.
As Spacek previously told Texas Monthly, she was outgoing and a born 'ham' during her years at Quitman High School in East Texas, an attitude that would serve her well later on as an actress.
Rise to Stardom
After Spacek's harrowing turn as the telekinetic teen in Carrie – which earned her the first of six Academy Award nominations – what followed were a string of critically acclaimed performances. As the country music legend Loretta Lynn in 1980's Coal Miner's Daughter, Spacek played guitar and performed all of her own singing. It won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Then came 1982's Missing, in which she and Jack Lemmon played a couple searching for their son during the 1973 coup in Chile. Again, she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. The River was a 1984 drama co-starring Mel Gibson that underperformed at the box office, but Spacek still got an Oscar nomination and continued to get impressive roles. Next came 1986's Crimes of the Heart, which garnered a fifth Oscar nod.
In 2001, her portrayal of a grieving mother in In the Bedroom earned her a sixth Academy Award nomination.
Personal Life and Legacy
Back in December, Spacek made a rare public appearance at the New York premiere of Marty Supreme with her husband of more than 50 years, production designer Jack Fisk, 79, and daughter Schuyler Fisk, 43. Their other daughter, Madison Fisk, 37, did not attend.
In April, the couple celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary, something the actress once admitted she never saw coming. 'We never expected a lifelong relationship,' Spacek told People. 'In fact, we even opened a bank account and put $30 in it, because that's how much it cost to get divorced. Now I think it would take something dramatic like death to end it.'
They met on the set of Badlands, when she was the lead actress and he was working as art director and set designer. 'One day he asked me to ride home with him on a boat,' Spacek told Texas Monthly in 1991. 'We loaded up, and there came a terrible flash flood. The boat sank. Right then I knew life with Jack was going to be eventful.'
In 2012, Spacek told the Huffington Post that they have maintained their bond through their shared love of filmmaking. 'We really supported one another and we really understood the business,' she said. 'It was what brought us together. And we were passionate about the same things, including movie-making. And that's something that we continue to share.'
