Dianne Wiest

Dianne Evelyn Wiest[1] (/wiːst/;[2] born March 28, 1946)[3] is an American actress. She has twice won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for the Woody Allen films Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets over Broadway (1994), and appeared in three other films by Allen: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), and September (1987). She also received an Academy Award nomination for Parenthood (1989), and won a Golden Globe Award for Bullets over Broadway.

Dianne Wiest
Wiest in 2009
Born	Dianne Evelyn Wiest March 28, 1946 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Maryland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–present
Children	2

Wiest's other film appearances include Footloose (1984), The Lost Boys (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Little Man Tate (1991), The Birdcage (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Dan in Real Life (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Rabbit Hole (2010), and Sisters (2015). She won the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment (2008–09). Her other television credits include Law & Order (2000–02), and the CBS comedy series Life in Pieces (2015–2019). Diane Wiest's latest offering comes in the 2021 release of a dark action thriller, "I care a lot" ...starring opposite Rosemund Pike.

Early life

Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother, Anne Stewart (née Keddie), was a nurse. Her father, Bernard John Wiest, was a college dean and former psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Army. Her mother was Scottish, from Auchtermuchty, while her father was an American of Croatian and German descent.[4] They met in Algiers.[5][6][7] Wiest has two brothers, Greg and Don. Her original ambition was to be a ballet dancer, but she switched her goal to theater in her senior year at Nurnberg American High School.[8] Wiest graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.[9]

Career

Stage

Wiest at the 1990 Academy Awards

Wiest studied theater at the University of Maryland, leaving after her third term to tour with a Shakespearean troupe. Later, she had a supporting role in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Ashes.[10] She also acted at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, CT, playing the title role in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. She was an understudy both off-Broadway and on Broadway, in Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June in 1970.[11][12]

She made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's Solitaire/Double Solitaire, taking over in the role of the daughter in 1971.[13] She landed a four-year job as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.,[14] in such roles as 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 George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House.[4] She toured the USSR with the Arena Stage.[15] In 1976, Wiest attended the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and starred in leading roles in Amlin Gray's Pirates and Christopher Durang's A History of the American Film. At Joe Papp's Public Theater she took over the lead in Ashes, and played Cassandra in Agamemnon, directed by Andrei Șerban. In 1979, she originated the role of Agnes in Agnes of God in its first production in Waterford, Connecticut.[16]

She appeared in two plays by Tina Howe: Museum and The Art of Dining. In the latter, Wiest's performance as the shy and awkward author Elizabeth Barrow Colt won three off-Broadway theater awards: an Obie Award (1980), a Theatre World Award (1979–1980), and the Clarence Derwent Award (1980), given yearly for the most promising performance in New York theatre.[17][18][19][20]

On Broadway she appeared in Frankenstein (1981), directed by Tom Moore, portrayed Desdemona in Othello (1982) opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer and co-starred with John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's romantic screwball comedy Beyond Therapy (1982), directed by John Madden.[13] (She played opposite Lithgow again in the Herbert Ross film Footloose). During the 1980s, she also performed in Hedda Gabler, directed by Lloyd Richards at Yale Repertory Theatre,[21] and in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska (1984, Manhattan Theatre Club),[22] Lanford Wilson's Serenading Louie (1984),[23] and Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches (1987, Manhattan Theater Club).[24] As Wiest became established as a film actress through her work in Woody Allen's films, she was less frequently available for stage roles. However, she did appear onstage during 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. She also starred in a production of Wendy Wasserstein's final play Third (directed by Daniel Sullivan) at Lincoln Center.[25]

Recent New York theater roles include performances as Arkadina in an off-Broadway revival of The Seagull (opposite Alan Cumming's Trigorin) and as Kate Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, opposite John Lithgow, Patrick Wilson, and Katie Holmes.[26] 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 an American veteran seriously wounded in Iraq, José Pequeño.[27] Wiest spent September 2010 as a visiting teacher at Columbia University's Graduate Acting Program,[28] working with a group of 18 first-year MFA Acting students on selected plays by Anton Chekhov and Arthur Miller.

In 2016 she took on the role of "Winnie" in The Yale Repertory Theatre's production of Samuel Beckett's, Happy Days.[29] She reprised the role for Theatre for a New Audience in downtown Brooklyn, NY, in the spring of 2017[30] and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2019.[31]

Film and television

Her early screen roles include small roles in It's My Turn and I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, both starring Jill Clayburgh in the lead roles. In 1984, she starred in Footloose, as the reverend's wife and Ariel's mother. Under Woody Allen's direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987 and Bullets over Broadway in 1995.[14][32] She also appeared in three other Woody Allen films: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987) and September (1987).[33]

Wiest (left) in 2011

She followed her first Oscar success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988). She also starred 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. Other major film roles include Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990), Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate (1991) and The Birdcage (1996), Mike Nichols' remake of La Cage aux Folles.

On television, her performance on the series Road to Avonlea in 1989 brought her her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Dramatic Series. She received another nomination for her performance in the 1999 telefilm The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, co-starring Sidney Poitier. She starred in the television mini-series The 10th Kingdom in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed interim District Attorney Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order. She also played the character in two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the pilot episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Wiest starred alongside Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche in Dan in Real Life (2007) and had a key supporting role in Charlie Kaufman's 2008 film Synecdoche, New York. In 2008, she appeared as Gabriel Byrne's therapist, Gina Toll, on the HBO television series In Treatment, for which she received her second Emmy Award, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She received another nomination (in the same category) for the second season, in 2009, but did not win. She starred alongside Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole (2010), which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Wiest also co-starred in Lawrence Kasdan's 2012 comedy Darling Companion, alongside Kevin Kline and Diane Keaton.

Personal life

Wiest was in a relationship with her talent agent Sam Cohn (1929–2009) for many years.[34] She adopted two daughters: Emily and Lily.[15]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	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
1983	Independence Day	Nancy Morgan
1984	Falling in Love	Isabelle
1984	Footloose	Vi Moore
1985	The Purple Rose of Cairo	Emma
1986	Hannah and Her Sisters	Holly
1987	Radio Days	Bea
1987	September	Stephanie
1987	The Lost Boys	Lucy Emerson
1988	Bright Lights, Big City	Mrs. Conway
1989	Parenthood	Helen Buckman
1989	Cookie	Lenore Voltecki
1990	Edward Scissorhands	Peg Boggs
1991	Little Man Tate	Jane Grierson
1994	Bullets over Broadway	Helen Sinclair
1994	Cops & Robbersons	Helen Robberson
1994	The Scout	Doctor H. Aaron
1995	Drunks	Rachel
1996	The Associate	Sally Dugan
1996	The Birdcage	Louise Keeley
1998	Practical Magic	Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
1998	The Horse Whisperer	Diane Booker
2001	I Am Sam	Annie Cassell
2002	Merci Docteur Rey	Elisabeth Beaumont
2005	Robots	Lydia Copperbottom	Voice only
2006	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Flori Montiel
2007	Dedication	Carol
2007	Dan in Real Life	Nana Burns
2008	Passengers	Toni
2008	Synecdoche, New York	Ellen Bascomb/Millicent Weems
2009	Rage	Miss Roth
2010	Rabbit Hole	Nat
2011	The Big Year	Brenda Harris
2012	Darling Companion	Penny Alexander
2012	The Odd Life of Timothy Green	Ms. Crudstaff
2014	The Humbling	Carol Stapleford
2015	Five Nights in Maine	Lucinda
2015	Sisters	Deana Ellis
2018	The Mule	Mary Stone
2020	I Care a Lot	Jennifer Peterson
2020	Let Them All Talk	Susan

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Zalmen: or, The Madness of God	Nina	Television film[35]
1978	Great Performances: Out of Our Father's House	Elizabeth Gertrude Stern	Television film
1997	Road to Avonlea	Lillian Hepworth	Episode: "Woman of Importance"
1999	The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn	Sarah McClellan	Television film
2000	The 10th Kingdom	The Evil Queen/Christine White	10 episodes
2000–2002	Law & Order	D.A. Nora Lewin	46 episodes
2001	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	D.A. Nora Lewin	Episode: "One"
2001–2002	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	D.A. Nora Lewin	2 episodes
2004	The Blackwater Lightship	Lily Devereux Breen	Television film
2004	Category 6: Day of Destruction	Secretary of Energy Shirley Abbott	2 episodes
2008–2009	In Treatment	Dr. Gina Toll	17 episodes
2008	The Return of Jezebel James	Talia Tompkins	2 episodes
2014	The Blacklist	Ruth Kipling	Episode: "The Judge"
2015–2019	Life in Pieces	Joan Short	79 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Venue
1977	Agamemnon	Cassandra	Delacorte Theatre
1979	The Art of Dining	Elizabeth Barrow Colt	Joseph Papp Public Theatre
1981	Frankenstein	Elizabeth Lavenza	Palace Theatre
	Hedda Gabler	Hedda Gabler	Yale Repertory Theatre
1982	Othello	Desdemona	Winter Garden Theatre
	Beyond Therapy	Prudence	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
	Three Sisters	Masha	Manhattan Theatre Club
1984	After the Fall	Maggie	Playhouse 91
	A Kind of Alaska	Deborah	Manhattan Theatre Club
1997	One Flea Spare	Mrs. Darcy Snelgrave	The Public Theater
2003	Salome	Herodias	Ethel Barrymore Theatre
2005	Third	Laurie Jameson	Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre
2008-2009	All My Sons	Kate Keller	Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
2008	The Seagull	Arkadina	CSC Theatre
2011	The Cherry Orchard	Madame Ranevskaya
2016-2019	Happy Days	Winnie	Yale Repertory Theatre
			Theatre for a New Audience
			Mark Taper Forum

Accolades

References

1. "Deaths: Wiest, Dr. Bernard". The Advocate (Louisiana). NewsBank. May 3, 1986. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
2. Dianne Wiest winning Best Supporting Actress for "Hannah and Her Sisters" on YouTube, presenters' announcing her win at the 1987 awards confirm pronunciation, accessed August 20, 2014
3. Stated as being 44, at the time, in an interview published on January 15, 1991, see here
4. Dianne Wiest biography. Film Reference.com.
5. Bennetts, Leslie (March 18, 1987). "Dianne Wiest Makes Neurosis A Success Story". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
6. "NewsLibrary Search Results". nl.newsbank.com.
7. "NewsLibrary Search Results". nl.newsbank.com.
8. "Dianne Wiest Lauded in German Press for Role in Senior Play 'Pygmalion,' NHS Trichter, Vol 15, No 3, fall 2003, p. 19.
9. The Women of Maryland: Alumni Who Have Made A Difference Archived 2013-01-19 at the Wayback Machine. University of Maryland Women Alumni.
10. Dianne Wiest Profile Archived 2007-10-27 at the Wayback Machine. E!Online.
11. Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing at the Internet Broadway Database. Internet Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010
12. Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database listing Archived 2011-11-15 at the Wayback Machine. Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010
13. Dianne Wiest at the Internet Broadway Database
14. Dianne Wiest Biography. Yahoo! Movies.
15. Biography. tcm.com, accessed October 30, 2010
16. Agnes of God A Drama accessed 11/23/2106
17. The Art of Dining listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database Archived 2011-11-15 at the Wayback Machine. Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010
18. Wiest Obie Awards Archived 2013-05-30 at the Wayback Machine. villagevoice.com, accessed October 30, 2010
19. Theatre World Awards History. theatreworldawards.org, accessed October 30, 2010
20. Derwent Awards. actorsequity.org, accessed October 30, 2010
21. Gussow, Mel.Review: 'HEDDA GABLER' BY YALE REP". New York Times, March 11, 1981
22. New York Magazine listing. New York Magazine, April 30, 1984
23. Rich, Frank."Review:'Serenading Louie'. New York Times, February 3, 1984
24. Rich, Frank.Review, 'Hunting Cockroaches'. New York Times, March 4, 1987
25. Bacalzo, Dan. "Review: 'Third.
26. The New York Times, "Two Fathers Are Learning Lessons of 'All My Sons'." Cohen, Patricia. November 12, 2008
27. "The Concert 2009 Features Families of Disabled Vets" PBS.org
28. Faculty Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine. columbia.edu, accessed October 30, 2010
29. Isherwood, Charles (May 9, 2016). "Review: 'Happy Days,' an Unsettling Glimpse Into the Existential Abyss" – via www.nytimes.com.
30. "Overview". November 10, 2010.
31. "Happy Days". Center Theatre Group. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
32. Wiest Academy Award wins and nominations. awardsdatabase.oscars.org, accessed October 31, 2010
33. Bauer, Patricia. "Dianne Wiest Biography". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
34. Weber, Bruce (May 6, 2009). "Sam Cohn, Powerful Talent Broker, Dies at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
35. "Zalmen: or, The Madness of God". January 13, 1975 – via www.imdb.com.

External links

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