Dianne Wiest
{{short description|American actress (born 1948)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dianne Wiest
| image = Dianne Wiest 2009.jpg
| caption = Wiest in 2009
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|3|28}}
| birth_name = Dianne Evelyn Wiest
| birth_place = Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
| years_active = 1970–present
| occupation = Actress
| children= 2
| alma_mater = University of Maryland
| awards = Full list
}}
Dianne Evelyn Wiest{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_text_direct-0=0EB473DB10C4FF31&p_field_direct-0=document_id |title=Deaths: Wiest, Dr. Bernard |work=The Advocate (Louisiana) |publisher=NewsBank |date=3 May 1986 |access-date=2013-12-29}} ({{IPAc-en|w|iː|s|t}};{{YouTube|IoFytregyfk|Dianne Wiest winning Best Supporting Actress for "Hannah and Her Sisters"}}, presenters' announcing her win at the 1987 awards confirm pronunciation, accessed August 20, 2014 born March 28, 1948){{cite web|url= https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-12-28-9004170358-story.html |title= DIANNE WIEST TRYING TO AVOID YET ANOTHER ROLE TRAP |website= Chicago Tribune |date= December 28, 1990 |access-date= March 3, 2021}}{{cite web|url= https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-winner-dianne-wiest-im-766812 |title= Oscar Winner Dianne Wiest: I'm Struggling to Pay My Rent |website= The Hollywood Reporter |date= January 25, 2015 |access-date= March 3, 2021}}{{cite web|url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/dianne_wiest |title= Dianne Wiest |website= Rotten Tomatoes |access-date= March 3, 2021}}{{cite web| url = https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/205884%7C0/Dianne-Wiest/#overview| title = Dianne Wiest - Turner Classic Movies}} is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway (both directed by Woody Allen), one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, 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. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.
Other film appearances by Wiest include Footloose (1984), Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), and September (1987), 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), The Mule (2018), Let Them All Talk (2020), and I Care a Lot (2020). She also appeared in the television series Law & Order (2000–2002), and the CBS comedy Life in Pieces (2015–2019).
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 parents met in Algiers.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/18/garden/dianne-wiest-makes-neurosis-a-success-story.html | work=The New York Times | title=Dianne Wiest Makes Neurosis A Success Story | first=Leslie | last=Bennetts | date=March 18, 1987 | access-date=May 1, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AD&p_theme=ad&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB47451C2818924&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D|title=NewsLibrary Search Results|website=nl.newsbank.com}}{{cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AD&p_theme=ad&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4756D696FE377&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D|title=NewsLibrary Search Results|website=nl.newsbank.com}} Wiest has two brothers, Greg and Don. She attended high school at Nurnberg American High School in Germany. Her ambition was to be a ballet dancer, but she switched her goal to theater during her senior year."Dianne Wiest Lauded in German Press for Role in Senior Play 'Pygmalion,' NHS Trichter, Vol 15, No 3, fall 2003, p. 19. Wiest graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.[http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/MarylandWomenAlumni.cfm The Women of Maryland: Alumni Who Have Made A Difference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119070721/http://newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/MarylandWomenAlumni.cfm |date=2013-01-19 }}. University of Maryland Women Alumni.
Career
=Stage=
Wiest left her theater studies in Maryland after the third term in order to tour with a Shakespearean troupe. Later, she had a supporting role in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Ashes.[http://www.eonline.com/celebrities/profile/index.jsp?uuid=7be0f365-af4e-4883-b0cf-b37132fe3324 Dianne Wiest Profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027165607/http://www.eonline.com/celebrities/profile/index.jsp?uuid=7be0f365-af4e-4883-b0cf-b37132fe3324 |date=2007-10-27 }}. E!Online. She also acted at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, 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.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3573 Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing at the Internet Broadway Database]. Internet Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010[http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=683 Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database listing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115095808/http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=683 |date=2011-11-15 }}. Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010
She made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's Solitaire/Double Solitaire, taking over in the role of the daughter in 1971.{{IBDB name|id=64900}} She landed a four-year job as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.,[https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019272/bio Dianne Wiest Biography]. Yahoo! Movies. 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. She toured the USSR with the Arena Stage.[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=205884 Biography]{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. tcm.com, accessed October 30, 2010 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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=xe-t9G_o9hIC&q=dianne+wiest+agnes+of+god&pg=PA3 Agnes of God A Drama] accessed 11/23/2106
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.[http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2661 The Art of Dining listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115094650/http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2661 |date=2011-11-15 }}. Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010[http://www.villagevoice.com/obies/search Wiest Obie Awards] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530010535/http://www.villagevoice.com/obies/search/ |date=2013-05-30 }}. villagevoice.com, accessed October 30, 2010[http://www.theatreworldawards.org/award.html Theatre World Awards History]. theatreworldawards.org, accessed October 30, 2010[http://www.actorsequity.org/AboutEquity/EquityAwards/derwent_award2007.asp Derwent Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101025103344/http://www.actorsequity.org/AboutEquity/EquityAwards/derwent_award2007.asp |date=October 25, 2010 }}. actorsequity.org, accessed October 30, 2010
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. (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,Gussow, Mel.[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/11/theater/theater-hedda-gabler-by-yale-rep.html Review: 'HEDDA GABLER' BY YALE REP"]. New York Times, March 11, 1981 and in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska (1984, Manhattan Theatre Club),[https://books.google.com/books?id=f-UCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22A+Kind+of+Alaska%22+%22Dianne+Wiest%22&pg=PA90 New York Magazine listing]. New York Magazine, April 30, 1984 Lanford Wilson's Serenading Louie (1984),Rich, Frank.[http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9B02E5DE143BF930A35751C0A962948260 "Review:'Serenading Louie']. The New York Times, February 3, 1984 and Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches (1987, Manhattan Theater Club).Rich, Frank.[http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9B0DE2D9163AF937A35750C0A961948260 Review, 'Hunting Cockroaches']. New York Times, March 4, 1987 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.Bacalzo, Dan. [https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/news/third_6962.html "Review: 'Third].
Later 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.The New York Times, "Two Fathers Are Learning Lessons of 'All My Sons'." Cohen, Patricia. November 12, 2008 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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090520011132/http://www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert/features/families.html "The Concert 2009 Features Families of Disabled Vets"] PBS.org Wiest spent September 2010 as a visiting teacher at Columbia University's Graduate Acting Program,[http://arts.columbia.edu/theatre-faculty-overview Faculty] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206022431/http://arts.columbia.edu/theatre-faculty-overview |date=2010-12-06 }}. columbia.edu, accessed October 30, 2010 working with a group of 18 first-year MFA Acting students on selected plays by Anton Chekhov and Arthur Miller.
In 2016, Wiest took on the role of "Winnie" in The Yale Repertory Theatre's production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/theater/review-happy-days-an-unsettling-glimpse-into-the-existential-abyss.html|title=Review: 'Happy Days,' an Unsettling Glimpse Into the Existential Abyss|first=Charles|last=Isherwood|newspaper=The New York Times|date=9 May 2016}} She reprised the role for Theatre for a New Audience in downtown Brooklyn, New York, in the spring of 2017,{{cite web|url=http://www.tfana.org/1617season/happydays/overview|title=Overview|work=Theatre for a New Audience |date=10 November 2010}} and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2019.{{Cite web|url=https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/mark-taper-forum/2018-19/happy-days/|title=Happy Days|website=Center Theatre Group|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-23}}
=Film and television=
Her early screen roles include small roles in It's My Turn (credited onscreen as Diane Wiest) 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.[http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1288475703891 Wiest Academy Award wins and nominations]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. awardsdatabase.oscars.org, accessed October 31, 2010 She also appeared in three other Woody Allen films: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987) and September (1987).{{cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dianne-Wiest| work=Encyclopaedia Britannica| title= Dianne Wiest Biography | first=Patricia | last=Bauer | access-date=2019-03-20}}
File:Defense.gov photo essay 110529-N-TT977-379.jpg
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's remake of La Cage aux Folles.
On television, her performance on the series Road to Avonlea in 1997 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 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 also 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), whom she worked with on Practical Magic. Rabbit Hole 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. In 2020, Wiest starred in Steven Soderbergh's drama Let Them All Talk alongside Meryl Streep, and Candice Bergen. That same year she also starred opposite Rosamund Pike in the action thriller I Care a Lot.{{cite news |last1=Catsoulis |first1=Jeannette |title='I Care a Lot' Review: The Art of the Steal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/movies/i-care-a-lot-review.html |access-date=2 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=18 February 2021}}
Since 2021, she has starred in the Paramount+ crime thriller series Mayor of Kingstown.{{Cite web |last=Andreeva |first=Nellie |date=March 18, 2021 |title=Dianne Wiest Joins Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan's 'Mayor of Kingstown' Series For Paramount+ |url=https://deadline.com/2021/03/dianne-wiest-cast-taylor-sheridan-mayor-of-kingstown-series-paramount-plus-1234717071/ |access-date=October 9, 2024 |website=Deadline Hollywood |archive-date=August 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831054946/https://deadline.com/2021/03/dianne-wiest-cast-taylor-sheridan-mayor-of-kingstown-series-paramount-plus-1234717071/ |url-status=live }}
Personal life
Wiest was in a relationship with her talent agent Sam Cohn for three years in the mid-1980s.{{cite news|title=Sam Cohn, Powerful Talent Broker, Dies at 79|first=Bruce|last=Weber|date=May 6, 2009|access-date=May 7, 2009|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/arts/07cohn.html}}{{cite web| url = https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1987-04-06-0120160240-story.html| title = Dianne Wiest -- Hannah's Fragile Sister |website= Orlando Sentinel|date=April 6, 1987}} She adopted two daughters: Emily and Lily.
Filmography
= Film =
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1980
|Gail |Credited as Diane Wiest |
| 1982
|Julie Addison | |
| rowspan="2" |1983
|Face of Rage |Rebecca Hammil | |
| Independence Day
|Nancy Morgan | |
| rowspan="2" |1984
|Isabelle | |
| Footloose
|Vi Moore | |
| 1985
|{{sortname|The|Purple Rose of Cairo}} |Emma | |
| 1986
|Holly | |
| rowspan="3" |1987
|Bea | |
| September
|Stephanie | |
| {{sortname|The|Lost Boys}}
|Lucy Emerson | |
| 1988
|Mrs. Conway | |
| rowspan="2" |1989
|Helen Buckman | |
| Cookie
|Lenore Voltecki | |
| 1990
|Peg Boggs | |
| 1991
|Jane Grierson | |
| rowspan="3" |1994
|Helen Sinclair | |
| Cops & Robbersons
|Helen Robberson | |
| {{sortname|The|Scout|dab=1994 film}}
|Doctor H. Aaron | |
| 1995
|Rachel | |
| rowspan="2" |1996
|{{sortname|The|Associate|The Associate (1996 film)}} |Sally Dugan | |
| {{sortname|The|Birdcage}}
|Louise Keeley | |
| rowspan="2" |1998
|Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens | |
| {{sortname|The|Horse Whisperer|The Horse Whisperer (film)}}
|Diane Booker | |
| 2001
|Annie Cassell | |
| 2002
|Elisabeth Beaumont | |
| 2005
|Lydia Copperbottom |Voice |
| 2006
|{{sortname|A|Guide to Recognizing Your Saints}} |Flori Montiel | |
| rowspan="2" |2007
|Carol | |
| Dan in Real Life
|Nana Burns | |
| rowspan="2" |2008
|Toni | |
| Synecdoche, New York
|Ellen Bascomb / Millicent Weems | |
| 2009
|Rage |Miss Roth | |
| 2010
|Nat | |
| 2011
|Brenda Harris | |
| rowspan="2" |2012
|Penny Alexander | |
| {{sortname|The|Odd Life of Timothy Green}}
|Ms. Crudstaff | |
| 2014
|Carol Stapleford | |
| rowspan="2" |2015
|Lucinda | |
| Sisters
|Deana Ellis | |
| 2018
| The Mule |Mary Stone | |
| rowspan="2" |2020
|Jennifer Peterson | |
| Let Them All Talk
|Susan | |
| 2022
|Iris the Rhinoceros |Voice |
| 2024
|Minnie Castevet | |
= Television =
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1975
|Zalmen: or, The Madness of God |Nina | rowspan="2" |Television film |
| 1978 |
| 1997
|Lillian Hepworth |1 episode |
| 1999
|The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn |Sarah McClellan |Television film |
| 2000
|The Evil Queen/Christine White |Miniseries, 5 episodes |
| 2000–02
| rowspan="3" |D.A. Nora Lewin |Lead role, 46 episodes |
| 2001
|1 episode |
| 2001–02
|Law & Order: Special Victims Unit |2 episodes |
| rowspan="2" |2004
|Lily Devereux Breen |Television film |
| Category 6: Day of Destruction
|Secretary of Energy Shirley Abbott |2 episodes |
| 2008–09
|Dr. Gina Toll |Main role, 17 episodes |
| 2008
|Talia Tompkins | rowspan="2" |2 episodes |
| 2011
|Herself |
| 2014
|Ruth Kipling |1 episode |
| 2015–19
|Joan Short |Main role, 79 episodes |
| 2021–23
|Mariam McLusky |Main role, 19 episodes |
| class="wikitable"
|+ Key | style="background:#FFFFCC;"| {{dagger|alt=Films that have not yet been released}} | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
= Stage =
Awards and honors
{{Main article|List of awards and nominations received by Dianne Wiest}}
Wiest has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress receiving two wins for her performances in the Woody Allen films Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994). She has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her work on television, winning two awards for Road to Avonlea (1996) and In Treatment (2008). She has also received two Golden Globe Award nominations and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Dianne Wiest}}
- {{iMDb name|0001848}}
- {{IBDB name}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Dianne Wiest
|list =
{{AcademyAwardBestSupportingActress 1981-2000}}
{{Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{EmmyAward DramaSupportingActress 2001–2025}}
{{EmmyAward DramaGuestActress 1976-2000}}
{{GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1981-2000}}
{{IndependentSpiritBestSupportingFemale 1987-1999}}
{{Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress}}
{{Satellite Award Best Actress Television Miniseries or Film}}
{{ScreenActorsGuildAward FemaleSupportMotionPicture}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiest, Dianne}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Actresses from Kansas City, Missouri
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of Croatian descent
Category:American people of German descent
Category:American people of Scottish descent
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Clarence Derwent Award winners
Category:Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female winners
Category:Obie Award recipients
Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners