Jessica Lange is known for starring in some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and 1980s.
Some of her top films include King Kong with Jeff Bridges, The Postman Always Rings Twice with Jack Nicholson and Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman.
And she also worked in theater in productions such as Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire with Alec Baldwin and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Tommy Lee Jones.
More recently, the versatile screen star scored points with her portrayal of Hollywood Golden Age star Joan Crawford in Feud: Bette And Joan about her rivalry with Bette Davis, who was played by Susan Sarandon.
The 76-year-old icon made a rare sighting in New York City on Wednesday as she wore all black with a beige crossbody purse while picking up a green smoothie. It is the first time she has been seen in months.
See what the Oscar-winning actress looks like now…
Jessica Lange is known for starring in some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and 1980s – pictured in 1976 epic King Kong
Lange is seen with Dustin Hoffman in the smash hit movie Tootsie from 1982 – which landed her an Oscar
Lange was born in Minnesota before moving to Paris, where she studied theater and dance.
The beauty was discovered by fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez and became a model for the Wilhelmina modelling agency.
In 1973, she moved to New York City then was discovered by Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis, who was looking to cast an ingenue for his remake of King Kong.Â
Lange made her film debut in the 1976 King Kong.
She told Interview magazine it was a quick ride to fame: ‘It happened so fast, like over night. They called me in the evening and said could I fly to Los Angeles in the morning to test. I said sure. Because I figured if nothing else it was like a trip to L.A. and I’d never been there before and it was a chance to do a screen test. I was never thinking past the moment. I did the screen test and I got the part. I started shooting the next week and then it was eleven months shooting and another two or three months of publicity tours.’
She then starred in How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980) with Jane Curtin. And she worked with Nicholson in a remake of the classic film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).
She then took on the challenging role of playing tragic actress Frances Farmer in 1982. Lange fell for her costar Sam Shepard. The movie drained her so much she then took on a lighter role as a ditzy soap opera actress loved by Hoffman’s crossdresser in Sydney Pollack’s comedy Tootsie (1982).
Lange next produced and starred, again opposite Shepard, in 1984’s Country, a topical film depicting a family during the farm crisis.Â
And she worked with Jack Nicholson in a remake of the classic film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
She was the beauty who fell under the spell of a newcomer in her small town
The next year she portrayed legendary country singer Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams, opposite Ed Harris and John Goodman.Â
Lange was also in Crimes of the Heart (1986), Far North (1988), and Everybody’s All-American (1989).
She then worked with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro in a remake of Cape Fear (1991).
In 1994, Lange played a manic depressive army wife in the 1960s in Blue Sky then starred in 1995’s Losing Isaiah, opposite Halle Berry and A Thousand Acres with Michelle Pfeiffer.
Lange starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in Hush, and then Titus, Julie Taymor’s 1999 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Prozac Nation, Normal, Tim Burton’s Big Fish, Broken Flowers and Don’t Come Knocking followed.
Hoffman’s character pretended to be a woman to land a soap opera role
Lange with Jones in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof in 1984
Seen in her film Blue Sky which also starred Tommy Lee Jones in 1994
In 2009, Lange co-starred as Big Edie, opposite Drew Barrymore, in HBO’s Grey Gardens.
In 2011, Lange joined the cast of FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story and appeared in several subsequent seasons. Lange won praise for her role as Crawford in FX’s anthology series, Feud: Bette and Joan (2017).
She also acted in the FX on Hulu miniseries Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024) as Truman Capote’s deceased mother Lillie Mae Faulk.Â
The 76-year-old icon made a rare sighting in New York City Wednesday
She a wore all black with a beige crossbody purse while picking up a green smoothieÂ
The star had on sunglasses that hid her face as she wore her blonde hair down
There has been talk about Lange starring in a Marlene Dietrich biopic produced by Ryan Murphy for Netflix centered on Dietrich’s time in Las Vegas.
Lange was married to photographer Francisco ‘Paco’ Grande from 1970 to 1982.
From 1976 to 1982, she was partnered with renowned Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, with whom she had her first child, Aleksandra Lange ‘Shura’ Baryshnikov (born 1981).
She also dated choreographer, dancer, actor, filmmaker and stage director Bob Fosse.
In 1982, she met and entered a relationship with playwright Sam Shepard. They had two children: daughter Hannah Jane Shepard (born 1986) and son Samuel Walker Shepard (born 1987). Â
