The fragile, luminous blonde beauty of actress Jessica Lange belies the inner strength and vitality of the off-beat characters she portrays. Though not among Hollywood's most high-profile stars, due in large part to her tendency to eschew big-budget mainstream films in favor of smaller, more dramatic fare and her determination to balance productions with time for raising her children, she is still one of the town's most respected dramatic actresses. For Lange, however, the road to respect was long, due in large part to her disastrous movie debut in the lavish Dino De Laurentis stinker King Kong (1976).

She had a peripatetic childhood. Born a travelling salesman's daughter in Cloquet, Minnesota, Lange moved at least 18 times while growing up. As a young woman, she studied art for two years at the University of Minnesota and then ran off to Paris where she studied mime and danced in the chorus of the Opera Comique. She moved to New York where she worked as a waitress and a model until she was chosen to play the part of a giant gorilla's romantic obsession in the remake of King Kong. Unfortunately, Lange at that time was not yet an actress and was roundly ridiculed for her performance. It would be three years before she appeared in another film. Lange made good use of her time and studied drama. She also began networking with showbiz types. Lange was romantically involved with choreographer/director Bob Fosse when he cast her as the angel of death in All That Jazz (1979). She next played a supporting role in How to beat the High Co$t of Living (1980), but did not breakthrough into major stardom until she starred opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). It was in this film, that she first displayed a dangerous sexuality and galvanizing charisma that would lead pooh-poohing critics to recant their earlier assessment that Lange was all looks and no talent.

The following year was a big one in Lange's career. After much lobbying with numerous directors, she finally employed novice director Graeme Clifford in her self-produced adaptation of former actress Frances Farmer's autobiography Will There Ever Be a Morning? Lange played the title role in the wrenching drama and became so caught up in the many traumas (and allegedly from dealing with more personal tragedies from her own youth) of Farmer's tragic life, that she herself nearly suffered a breakdown. Despite the trials of playing Frances, Lange considers it her favorite role. On a more positive note, while shooting the film, Lange met actor/playwright Sam Shepard, the man who would father two of her three children (Lange's eldest daughter resulted from her relationship with ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov) and become her long term lover. Later in 1982, Lange changed gears and appeared as the beautiful object of Dustin Hoffman's obsession in Tootsie (1982). Though she played the only non-humorous role in the romantic comedy, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She also netted a Best Actress nod making her the first actresss to receive two Oscar nominations in a single year. Over the next decade, Lange would receive Best Actress nominations three more times (for Country, Sweet Dreams, in which Lange, who admits she can't sing, played country music heroine Patsy Cline, and Music Box) before she would win the award for playing a strange military wife in Blue Sky (1994). If her film appearances seem at times sporadic, it is because Lange is not afraid to take time off from film appearances to be at home with her kids. In 1991, she appeared as Blanche Dubois in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams', A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Alec Baldwin. Her stage debut received mixed reviews, something that did not particularly faze Lange, who considers herself a film actress. She later proved this by turning in a more finely rendered Blanche in the 1995 television version of the play. In 1995, Lange also appeared in two major features, notably Rob Roy with Irish actor Liam Neeson. In 1997, she appeared with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Robards in the rural mid-west set A Thousand Acres.