¬ Announcement: ShareTV is now streaming full-length episodes of TV Shows from ABC & ABC Family

Dianne Wiest

Age: 61
Height: 5' 5"

Birth Place: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Born: Mar. 28th, 1948

+ Add to My Celebs

Dianne Wiest's Main TV Roles

Show	Character(s)
The 10th Kingdom	The Evil Queen
In Treatment	Gina
The Return of Jezebel James	Talia Tompkins
Category 6: Day of Destruction	Shirley Abbott

NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB

BIOGRAPHY:

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 (I), Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves, and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard (I)'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:

She is 'Brad Pitt' (qv)'s favorite actress.
Last name is pronounced 'Wee-st'.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1985" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 37.
She received both of her Oscars for performances in a 'Woody Allen' (qv) movie.
Graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.
2 adopted children: Emily (b. 1987), Lily (b. 1991).