Person · Actor

Dianne Wiest

Born

March 28, 1948

From

Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Height

1.65 m (5'5")

Also:
Actress

Credits on file

Decades active

Awards

In short · Acting since 1952, 8 decades active, 71 credits, 3 Academy Award wins.

Known for

Ranked by community engagement + sustained interest across this person's credits in our database.

Now & next

1995
Award win
Golden Globe Awards — Golden Globe — Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1994
Award win
Academy Awards — Oscar — Actress in a Supporting Role
1986
Award win
Academy Awards — Oscar — Actress in a Supporting Role

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Biography

Dianne Wiest, one of three children with two brothers, Greg and Don, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Initially aspiring to be a ballerina, she developed an interest in acting through stage work, most notably playing Desdemona in a Broadway production of *Othello* opposite James Earl Jones. She made her film debut in 1980, but it was not until her role as Emma, a prostitute during the 1930s Depression, in Woody Allen's *The Purple Rose of Cairo* (1985) that she gained recognition. Impressed by her performance, Allen directed her four more times. For her role as the neurotic, aspiring actress Holly in *Hannah and Her Sisters* (1986), Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with roles in *The Lost Boys* (1987) and *Bright Lights, Big City* (1988), before receiving critical acclaim for her performance as Helen Buckman, a divorced mother of two difficult teenagers, in Ron Howard's *Parenthood* (1989), for which she received a second Oscar nomination. Perhaps her most beloved role was as Peg Boggs, the kind-hearted Avon Lady in *Edward Scissorhands* (1990). She returned to work with Woody Allen in *Bullets Over Broadway* (1994), a comedy set in 1920s New York, for which she won her second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the boozy, glamorous, and neurotic stage star Helen Sinclair. In later years, Wiest appeared in the comedy film *Practical Magic* (1998) and the television miniseries *The 10th Kingdom* (2000), playing witch-like roles. She currently resides in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.