Dianne Wiest

Dianne Wiest was born on March 2, 1948, in Kansas City, Missouri, US. Her father, Bernard John Wiest, was from Pennsylvania and was the dean of a college. He had earlier served as a psychiatric social-worker for the US army. He was of Croatian and German descent. Wiest’s mother, Anne Steward (née Keddie), was from Fife, Scotland, and worked as a nurse. Dianne’s parents met in Algiers and later got married in Naples. She has two brothers, Greg and Don Wiest.

She attended the ‘Nurnberg American High School.’ As a child, she wished to learn ballet and be a ballerina. However, while in high school, she decided to pursue theater.

She attended the ‘University of Maryland’ and graduated in arts and science in 1969. After her third term at the university, she went touring along with a Shakespearean troupe.

Dianne began her acting career in the 1970s with a stage performance. She worked as an understudy in ‘Happy Birthday, Wanda June,’ in 1970.

In 1971, she made her ‘Broadway’ debut in Robert Anderson’s ‘Solitaire.’ She worked for four years with the ‘Arena Stage’ in Washington DC, where she portrayed leading roles in plays such as ‘The Lower Depths’ by Maxim Gorky and ‘Heartbreak House’ by George Bernard Shaw.

Wiest began her TV career in 1975 with the TV movie ‘The Madness of God.’ Around the same time, she traveled to various places in the USSR with the ‘Arena Stage (1976).’ She essayed lead roles in the plays ‘Pirates,’ ‘A History of the American Film’ among others.

Between 1979 and 1980, she received three ‘Off-Broadway’ theater awards for her sterling performance in ‘The Art of Dining.’ This was one of the two plays that she did for Tina Howe, the other being ‘Museum.’

Her first big-screen appearance was in the 1980 film ‘It’s My Turn.’ She then appeared in ‘I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can.’ In the 1980s and the 1990s, she worked in five films directed by Woody Allen, two of which, ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’ (1987) and ‘Bullets over Broadway’ (1995), fetched her ‘Academy Awards’ for the ‘Best Supporting Actress.’

The theater production that brought her massive fame and won her awards was Tina Howe’s ‘The Art of Dining’ (1978–1980). The other significant plays in which she essayed leading roles were ‘The Dybbuk,’ ‘Heartbreak House,’ ‘Ashes,’ and ‘Othello’ (1982).

The films that fetched her many major awards were ‘Hannah & Her Sisters’ (1986), ‘Bullets over Broadway’ (1994), ‘The Birdcage’ (1996), ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’ (2006), and ‘Synecdoche, New York’ (2008). Her noteworthy TV shows were ‘Road to Avonlea’ (1997), ‘The Blackwater Lightship’ (2004), and ‘In Treatment’ (2008–2009).

She received various nominations for her roles in ‘Independence Day’ (1983), ‘Radio Days’ (1987), ‘Parenthood’ (1989), ‘Edward Scissorhands’ (1990), ‘Practical Magic’ (1998), and ‘Rabbit Hole’ (2010). She also earned several nominations for her roles in TV films and series such as ‘The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn’ (1999), ‘Law & Order’ (2000–2002), and ‘In Treatment’ (2008–2009).