My Favorite Sissy Spacek Performances

16.

Helen, Blast from the Past



Spacek got a nice change of pace here playing the mother of a young man (Brendan Fraser) who she raised in a bomb shelter and is now freaking out with his first journey to the earth's surface.

15

Rose, The Straight Story



Spacek brought a real edginess to a kind of cliched character playing the mentally challenged daughter of a man (Richard Farnsworth) she is trying to talk out of making a dangerous journey to visit his dying brother.

14.

Liz Garrison, JFK



Spacek was part of the impressive all-star cast for Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning epic regarding the assassination of JFK. Spacek played the wife of New Orleans District attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) whose obsession into finding out exactly what happened to JFK has distanced himself from his family.

13.

Sara, The Girls of Huntington House



Spacek made an early impression as a student in a school for unwed mothers to be.

12.

Nita, Raggedy Man



Spacek is luminous in this romantic drama playing a young divorcee starting over with her two sons who has brief romance with a sailor on leave (Eric Roberts), while fighting off a pair of drooling neanderthals who are stalking her because they think divorcees are "hot to trot."

11.

Mae Garvey, The River


Spacek received a Best Actress nomination for her solid performance as farmer's wife trying to hold her farm and family together while her husband (Mel Gibson) is dealing with flooding destroying their farm and the out of town job he is forced to take to pay the bills.

Coal Miner’s Daughter

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10.

Verena Talbo, The Grass Harp



One of the rare times Spacek has played the villain of the piece. She plays a wealthy southern widow who has agreed to take in her nephew (Edward Furlong), wile simultaneously trying to deal with her mentally fragile older sister (Piper Laurie).

Never heard of this. Will put it in my watchlist.

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9.

Babe, Crimes of the Heart



Spacek plays a woman who returns home for a reunion with her sisters (Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange) and quietly announces that she has just shot her husband.

8.

Gussie Sawyer, Violets are Bue




Once again directed by her husband Jack Fisk, Spacek is lovely in this drama playing a photojournalist who returns to her hometown for the first time in 13 years and finds herself drifting into an affair with her high school sweetheart (Kevin Kline) despite the fact he is now married with a teenage son.

7.

Jessie Cates, 'night Mother



Spacek is appropriately intense and sad in this film version of the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Marsha Norman as a woman who is organizing her home for the return of her mother (the late Anne Bancroft) and informs her that in a few hours she is going to kill herself.

6.

Miriam Thompson, The Long Walk Home



Spacek is superb in a complex role playing a wealthy housewife whose life is turned upside down by the boycott of busses after the Rosa Parks incident. The boycott keeps her housekeeper (Whoopi Goldberg) from getting to work and Miriam finds herself in the middle of a firestorm when she begins driving her housekeeper to work herself.

For me, 'Coal Miner's Daughter' is hands-down her best performance.

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Never heard of this. Will put it in my watchlist.

Excellent movie.

Cannot stand Whoopi Goldberg in any way, shape or form so will be skipping this movie.

5.

Holly, Badlands



Spacek was appropriately fragile as am introverted teen goes on the run with a dangerous sociopath (Martin Sheen).

4.

Pinky Rose, 3 Women



Under the direction of Robert Altman, Spacek was extraordinary in this moody psychological drama about a woman who finds a job and a new roommate (Shelley Duval) at a remotely located senior citizen facility who under.goes a cringe-worthy change in her personality.

3.

Carrie White, Carrie (1976)



It's the role that really put her on the map and earned her her first Oscar nomination. Spacek plays an introverted teenager who lives with a psychotic mother and is being bullied at school who discovers she has the power of telekinesis and uses it to exact revenge on the people who have wronged her.

2.

Loretta Lynn, Coal Miner's Daughter



Thought this was going to be #1 didn't you? Spacek won the Academy Award for her performance in the film that set the standard for the Hollywood biopic in this rags to riches portrayal of country superstar Loretta Lynn.

Well, that's #2...hope curiosity is piqued...before I post my favorite Sissy Spacek performance, I do have a couple of honorable mentions:

Beth Holman, Missing
Linda Holman, Welcome to LA
Marie Rhagianti, Marie
Marie Powell, Hot Rod

And now, my # 1 favorite Sissy Spacek performance:

1.

Ruth Fowler, In the Bedroom



Twenty one years after winning the Oscar for Coal Miner's Daughter, Spacek was robbed of a second Best Actress Oscar for her blistering performance as a mother who cannot reconcile the death of her college age son, manifested through his toxic affair with a married woman (Marisa Tomei) and along with her husband (Tom Wilkenson) decide to seek the only kind of justice that they feel is satisfactory.









Hope someone enjoyed the list.