Cast Page This article is about a cast member. Where possible, this should be written to the Wikipedia standard and merged there.

Jessica Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She portrayed the main character Constance Langdon in the first season of American Horror Story. In the second season, Lange portrayed Sister Jude. Se has been confirmed to return with an all-new role in Season 3.Having worked in film, theatre, and television, Lange has been the recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and one Emmy. She is often regarded as one of the premiere female actors of her generation.

Personal Life Edit

Lange was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, to Dorothy Florence and Albert John Lange, a teacher and traveling salesman, respectively. She was the third of their four children. Lange's maternal grandparents were of Finnish decent, while her paternal grandparents were of German and Dutch decent. Due to her father's profession, Lange and her family move quite often during her childhood, but they eventually returned to and settled in Minnesota.

Lange studied Art and Photography at the The University of Minnesota. There she began a relationship with photographer Francisco "Paco" Grande. Lange dropped out of the university, favoring travelling throughout the United States with Grande. The two of them lived out of a beat-up van during the late 1960s. They married in 1970, then relocated to Paris, Fance, where the two would eventually separate.

In 1973, Lange returned to New York and began supporting herself by becoming a waitress at the Lion's Head Tavern, while sharing an apartment with soon-to-be-famous fashion models Jerry Hall and Grace Jones in Manhattan. She was discovered by fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez and briefly modeled fashion for the Wilhelmina Models Agency before being discovered by Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis.

Lange and Grande eventually finalized a divorce in 1981. Since 1982, she has lived with playwright/actor Sam Shepard. She has three children: Alexandra (born in 1981) with dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov (whom she met in 1979 and had a relationship with until after her daughter's birth), Hannah Jane (born 1985), and Samuel Walker (born 1985), who are both her children with Shepard.

Career Edit

Lange made her professional film debut in 1976's King Kong. The film was a box office hit, but both the film and Lange's performance were dismissed by film critics and most of Hollywood. Despite this, her role would receive her the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year and the film became the fifth highest-grossing movie of 1976. Lange did not work on another film for almost three years, but still determined to become a professional actress, she continued to be a waitress at the Lion's Head Tavern while attending classes at the Actor's Studio in Greenwich Village.

In 1979, Lange portrayed the "Angel of Death" in Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical film, All That Jazz. Lange and Fosse had carried on a short-lived affair after her film debut, but soon became close friends after Lange formed a relationship with Russian ballet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Later on, Bob Rafelson offered Lange the infamous lead role, opposite Jack Nicholson, in 1981's The Postman Always Rings Twice. During filming, Nicholson became quite enamored with Lange for both her "beauty and strength". He was quoted as referring to Lange as "a cross between a delicate fawn and a Buick." Lange was unanimously praised for her performance, some even citing it as her "true film debut". Major critical and financial success followed Lange throughout the next three decades, including today.

In 2011, Lange joined the cast of American Horror Story. The series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk originally wrote the role of "Constance", a nosy neighbor, as a supporting character. After Lange acquired the role, they expanding it considerably. They finally categorized her character as a "third lead". Murphy has stated that he repeatedly saw Lange as "wikipedia:Blanche DuBois" in the Broadway rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire during 1992. Afterward, he grew "obsessed" with her and cited her and her performance as his ultimate favorites.

Since American Horror Story's debut as FX's highest-rated premiere (and becoming one of the network's highest-rated shows ever), Lange has seen a resurgence in her popularity and has received rave reviews for her controversial role.

She has won best supporting actress in a televison series at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards for her performance in American Horror Story.

Trivia Edit

Lange used to work with Sarah Paulson (Billie Dean) in a Broadway play - The Glass Menagerie. ^[1]