Biography for
Dianne Wiest

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One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1948. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on Broadway. She made her film debut in 1980, but didn't make a name for herself until her performance as Emma, a prostitute during the 1930s Depression, in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Allen was so impressed by Wiest's acting ability that he has directed her on four more occasions since. Under Allen's direction, Wiest won a well deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her brilliant performance as the neurotic, wannabe actress Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before stealing the show from the likes of Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves, and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989). Playing Helen Buckman, the divorced mother of two difficult teens, Wiest was both touching and hilarious, and received her second Oscar nomination.

Arguably her most beloved role came as Peg Boggs, the kindly Avon Lady who discovers the titular Edward Scissorhands (1990). Wiest returned to Woody Allen in 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway (1994), a superb comedy set in 1920s New York, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her magnificent portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous and neurotic star of the stage, who could made the words "Don't speak!" the funniest sentence ever captured on film. Recently enjoying great success with witchy roles in the film Practical Magic (1998) and the TV mini-series "The 10th Kingdom" (2000), Dianne Wiest lives in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.

Trivia

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1985" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 37.

2 adopted children: Emily (b. 1987), Lily (b. 1991).

Last name is pronounced 'Wee-st'.

She is Brad Pitt's favorite actress.

She received both of her Oscars for performances in a Woody Allen movie.

Graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.

Personal Quotes

[speaking in 1987] "All I've done since is three days on 'Bright Lights, Big City' as 'Michael J. Fox'' mother. That's what an Oscar does for you."

"My first meeting with Woody Allen lasted 30 seconds. He looked at me, said hello, asked someone to take a Polaroid, thanked me very much and I was shown the door. When I came out, the woman due after me was still doing the same thing as when I went in. She was shocked - 'What happened?' But that's how it is. My agent had warned me. Not hers. She was stunned."

"I'd like to play a real cold, mean mass murderer. Some cruel, hard-bitten women, like the roles Glenn Close gets, just to show that I am capable of not being vulnerable and not being fragile on screen." (on being typecast as fragile or neurotic characters)

Where Are They Now

(April 2003) Co-starring in "Salome: The Reading" with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei on Broadway

(October 2006) Resides in the Upper West Side of New York City

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