Barbara Hershey

Actresses

Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including westerns and comedies. She made her film debut in With Howard Morris’s Six You Get Eggroll (1968), with Doris Day, Brian Keith, Pat Carroll, Alice Ghostley, and George Carlin. Other roles in the late 1960s include Lee H. Katzin’s Heaven with a Gun (1969), with Glenn FordCarolyn Jones, John Anderson, David Carradine, Noah Beery Jr., and J.D. Cannon; and Frank Perry’s Last Summer (1969), with Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, and Catherine Burns.

Films in the early 1970s include William Wyler’s The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), with Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb, Lola Falana, Anthony Zerbe, Lee Majors, Arch Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Eve McVeagh, and Chill Wills; James Bridges’s The Baby Maker (1970), with Scott Glenn, Collin Wilcox-Horne, and Sam Groom; Robert Mulligan’s The Pursuit of Happiness (1971), with Michael Sarrazin, Robert Klein, Sada Thompson, Ralph Waite, E.G. Marshall, Rue McClanahan, and Barnard Hughes; Paul Williams’s Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972), with Robert F. Lyons, John Lithgow, Charles Durning, Joy Bang, Ellen Barber, and Paul Sorvino; and Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha (1972), with David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey, and John Carradine.

Films in the mid to late 1970s include Nikolai van der Heyde’s Love Comes Quickly (1973), with Ralph Meeker and Ward de Ravet; Arthur Hiller’s The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974), with Timothy Bottoms, George Marshall, Lawrence Pressman, Albert Salmi, and Michael Cristofer; Menahem Golan’s Diamonds (1975), with Robert Shaw, Richard Roundtree, and Shelley Winters; Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Last Hard Men (1976), with Charlton Heston, James Coburn, Jorge Rivero, Michael Parks, and Larry Wilcox; and Andrew Connor’s Trial by Combat (1976), with John Mills, Donald Pleasence, David Birney, Margaret Leighton, Peter Cushing, Brian Glover, and John Savident.

Films in the early 1980s include Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man (1980), with Peter O’Toole, Steve Railsback, Allen Goorwitz, Alex Rocco, Adam Roarke, Sharon Farrell, Philip Bruns, and Chuck Bail; Gus Trikonis’s Take This Job and Shove It (1981), with Robert Hayes, Art Carney, David Keith, Tim Thomerson, Martin Mull, Eddie Albert, Penelope Milford, and David Allan Coe; Sidney J. Furie’s The Entity (1982), with Ron Silver, David Labiosa, Maggie Blye, Jacqueline Brookes, and Rocco; Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (1983), with Charles Frank, Glenn, Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Scott Paulin, Dennis Quaid, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Kim Stanley, Veronica Cartwright, and Pamela Reed; and Barry Levinson’s The Natural (1984), with Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Robert Prosky and Richard Farnsworth.

Films in the mid to late 1980s include Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), with Woody Allen (who also directed), Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen O’Sullivan, Daniel Stern, Max von Sydow, and Dianne Wiest; Hoosiers (1986), with Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper; Tin Men (1987), with Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, John Mahoney, Seymour Cassel, Bruno Kirby, and J.T. Walsh; Andrei Konchalovsky’s Shy People (1987), with Jill Clayburgh and Martha Plimpton; A World Apart (1988), with David Suchet, Jeroen Krabbé, Paul Freeman, Tim Roth, and Jodhi May; The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), with Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Andre Gregory, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, Irvin Kershner, and John Lurie; and Garry Marshall’s Beaches (1988), with Bette Midler, Mayim Bialik, John Heard, James Read, Spalding Gray, and Lainie Kazan.

Films in the 1990s include Tune in Tomorrow (1990), with Keanu Reeves, Peter Falk, and Patricia Clarkson; Martin Campbell’s Defenseless (1991), with Sam Shepard, Mary Beth Hurt, and Walsh; The Public Eye (1992), with Joe Pesci, Stanley Tucci, and Richard Schiff; Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down (1993), with Michael Douglas, Duvall, Rachel Ticotin, Frederic Forrest, and Tuesday Weld; Swing Kids (1993), with Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, and Kenneth Branagh (uncredited); Splitting Heirs (1993), with Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese, and Sadie Frost; and Stephen Gyllenhaal’s A Dangerous Woman (1993), with Debra Winger, Gabriel Byrne, David Strathairn, Chloe Webb, John Terry, and Laurie Metcalf.

She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady (1996), with Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, Shelley Duvall, Richard E. Grant, Winters, Viggo Mortensen, Valentina Cervi, Christian Bale, and John Gielgud. Other films in the mid to late 1990s include Last of the Dogmen (1995), with Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, Kurtwood Smith, Steve Reevis, and Mark Boone Junior; Matt Reeves’s The Pallbearer (1996), with David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Michael Vartan, and Michael Rapaport; Amos Poe’s Frogs for Snakes (1998), with Robbie Coltrane, Harry Hamlin, Ian Hart, John Leguizamo, Lisa Marie, Debi Mazar, Ron Perlman, and Clarence Williams III; Merchant Ivory’s A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998), with Kris Kristofferson, Leelee Sobieski, Jane Birkin, Dominique Blanc, Jesse Bradford, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Harley Cross, Isaac De Bankolé, and Virginie Ledoyen; Alan Rudolph’s Breakfast of Champions (1999), with Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte, Glenne Headly, Lukas Haas, Omar Epps, Vicki Lewis, Buck Henry, Ken Campbell, and Jake Johannsen; Passion (1999), with Richard Roxburgh, Emily Woof, Claudia Karvan, Simon Burke, Julia Blake, Bille Brown, and Roy Billing; and Drowning on Dry Land (1999), with Naveen Andrews, John Doe, and Carol Lynley.

Films in the 2000s include Lantana (2001), with Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Kerry Armstrong, Rachael Blake, Vince Colosimo, Russell Dykstra, Daniela Farinacci, Peter Phelps, Leah Purcell, and Glenn Robbins; 11:14 (2003), with Rachael Leigh Cook, Ben Foster, Clark Gregg, Colin Hanks, Shawn Hatosy, Stark Sands, Hilary Swank, Patrick Swayze, and Henry Thomas; Riding the Bullet (2004), with Jonathan Jackson, David Arquette, Cliff Robertson, and Matt Frewer; The Bird Can’t Fly (2007), with Tony Kgoroge and John Kani; Love Comes Lately (2007), with Otto Tausig, Rhea Perlman, Olivia Thirlby, Tovah Feldshuh, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Elizabeth Peña; Uncross the Stars (2008), with Daniel Gillies, Perlman, and Irma P. Hall; Childless (2008), with Joe Mantegna, James Naughton, and Diane Venora; and Albert Schweitzer (2009), with Jeroen Krabbé, Judith Godrèche, and Samuel West.

Films in the 2010s include Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), with Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, and Winona Ryder; James Wan’s Insidious (2010) had sequel Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), with Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Leigh Whannell, and Angus Sampson; Answers to Nothing (2011), with Elizabeth Mitchell, Dane Cook, and Julie Benz; Sister (2014), with Reid Scott, Grace Kaufman, Serinda Swan, and Illeana Douglas; and The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016), with Jamie Dornan, Sarah Gadon, Aiden Longworth, Oliver Platt, Molly Parker, Julian Wadham, Jane McGregor, and Aaron Paul.

Films in the 2020s include The Manor (2021), with Bruce Davison, Stacey Travis, Ciera Payton, Jill Larson, and Mark Steger; 9 Bullets (2022), with Lena Headey, Sam Worthington, Dean Scott Vazquez, and Colleen Camp; and Strange Darling (2023), with Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, and Ed Begley Jr.

She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie in A Killing in a Small Town (1990), with Brian Dennehy and Hal Holbrook. Other TV movies and miniseries include Flood! (1976), with Robert Culp, Martin Milner, Richard Basehart, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Cameron Mitchell, and Teresa Wright; Just a Little Inconvenience (1977), with Lee Majors, James Stacy, and Jim Davis; My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985), with Duncan Regehr, Darren McGavin, and Hal Linden; Abraham (1993), with Richard Harris, Maximilian Schell, and Vittorio Gassman; The Staircase (1998), with William Peterson and Diane Ladd; Hunger Point (2003), with Christina Hendricks, Susan May Pratt, and John Getz; The Stranger Beside Me (2003), with Billy Campbell; and Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (2008), with Hannah Endicott-Douglas, Rachel Blanchard, and Shirley MacLaine.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters.

• With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) – directed by Howard Morris
• Heaven with a Gun (1969) – directed by Lee H. Katzin
• Last Summer (1969) – directed by Frank Perry
• The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970) – directed by William Wyler
• The Baby Maker (1970) – directed by James Bridges
• The Pursuit of Happiness (1971) – directed by Robert Mulligan
• Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972) – directed by Paul Williams
• Boxcar Bertha (1972) – directed by Martin Scorsese
• Love Comes Quietly (1973) – directed by Nikolai van der Heyde
• You and Me (1974) – directed by David Carradine
• The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) – directed by Arthur Hiller
• Diamonds (1975) – directed by Menahem Golan
• The Last Hard Men (1976) – directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
• Trial by Combat (1976) – directed by Kevin Connor
• Flood (1976) – directed by Earl Bellamy – TV movie
• In the Glitter Palace (1977) – directed by Robert Butler – TV movie
• Just a Little Inconvenience (1977) – directed by Theodore J. Flicker – TV movie
• Sunshine Christmas (1977) – directed by Glenn Jordan – TV movie
• A Man Called Intrepid (1978) – directed by Peter Carter – miniseries
• The Stunt Man (1980) – directed by Richard Rush
• An Angel on My Shoulder (1980) – directed by John Berry – TV movie
• Americana (1981) – directed by David Carradine
• Take This Job and Shove It (1981) – directed by Gus Trikonis
• The Entity (1982) – directed by Sidney J. Furie
• The Right Stuff (1983) – directed by Philip Kaufman
• The Natural (1984) – directed by Barry Levinson
• My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985) – directed by Don Taylor – TV movie
• Passion Flower (1986) – directed by Joseph Sargent – TV movie
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – directed by Woody Allen
• Hoosiers (1986) – directed by David Anspaugh
• Tin Men (1987) – directed by Barry Levinson
• Shy People (1987) – directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
• A World Apart (1988) – directed by Chris Menges
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – directed by Martin Scorsese
• Beaches (1988) – directed by Garry Marshall
• A Killing in a Small Town (1990) – directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal – TV movie
• Tune in Tomorrow (1990) – directed by Jon Amiel
• Paris Trout (1991) – directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal – TV movie
• Defenseless (1991) – directed by Martin Campbell
• Stay the Night (1992) – directed by Harry Winer – TV movie
• The Public Eye (1992) – directed by Howard Franklin
• Falling Down (1993) – directed by Joel Schumacher
• Swing Kids (1993) – directed by Thomas Carter
• Splitting Heirs (1993) – directed by Robert Young
• A Dangerous Woman (1993) – directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
• Return to Lonesome Dove (1993) – directed by Mike Robe – miniseries
• Abraham (1993) – directed by Joseph Sargent – miniseries
• Last of the Dogmen (1995) – directed by Tab Murphy
• The Pallbearer (1996) – directed by Matt Reeves
• The Portrait of a Lady (1996) – directed by Jane Campion
• Frogs for Snakes (1998) – directed by Amos Poe
• The Staircase (1993) – directed by Karen Arthur – TV movie
• A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998) – directed by James Ivory
• Breakfast of Champions (1999) – directed by Alan Rudolph
• Passion (1999) – directed by Peter Duncan
• Drowning on Dry Land (1999) – directed by Carl Colpaert
• Lantana (2001) – directed by Ray Lawrence
• Daniel Deronda (2002) – directed by Tom Hooper – miniseries
• Hunger Point (2003) – directed by Joan Micklin Silver – TV movie
• The Stranger Beside Me (2003) – directed by Paul Shapiro – TV movie
• 11:14 (2003) – directed by Greg Marcks
• Riding the Bullet (2004) – directed by Mick Garris
• Paradise (2004) – directed by Frank Pierson – TV movie
• The Bird Can’t Fly (2007) – directed by Threes Anna
• Love Comes Early (2007) – directed by Jan Schütte
• Uncross the Stars (2008) – directed by Kenny Golde
• Childless (2008) – directed by Charlie Levi
• Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (2008) – directed by Kevin Sullivan – TV movie
• Albert Schweitzer (2009) – directed by Gavin Millar
• Black Swan (2010)* – directed by Darren Aronofsky
• Insidious (2010) – directed by James Wan
• Answers to Nothing (2011) – directed by Matthew Leutwyler
• Left to Die (2012) – directed by Leon Ichaso – TV movie
• Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) – directed by James Wan
• My Sister (2014) – directed by David Lascher
• The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016) – directed by Alexandre Aja
• Insidious: The Last Key (2018) – directed by Adam Robitel
• The Manor (2021) – directed by Axelle Carolyn
• 9 Bullets (2022) – directed by Gigi Gaston
• Insidious: The Red Door (2023) – directed by Patrick Wilson
• Strange Darling (2023) – directed by JT Mollner