Dianne Evelyn Wiest (born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She made her film debut in Claudia Weill’s It’s My Turn (1980), with Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, Charles Grodin, Beverly Garland, and Steven Hill. Other films in the early 1980s include I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), with Clayburgh, Nicol Williamson, Geraldine Page, Albert Salmi, Ellen Greene, Joseph Maher, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, and Dan Hedaya; Independence Day (1983), with Kathleen Quinlan, David Keith, Cliff DeYoung, and Frances Sternhagen; Herbert Ross’s Footloose (1984), with Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Chris Penn, and Sarah Jessica Parker; Falling in Love (1984), with Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, David Clennon, Jane Kaczmarek, George Martin, and Harvey Keitel; and Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), with Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny Aiello.
She won her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), with Allen (who also directed), Michael Caine, Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Barbara Hershey, Julie Kavner, Maureen O’Sullivan, Daniel Stern, Max von Sydow, and John Turturro. She gained a second Academy Award nomination in the same category for Ron Howard’s Parenthood (1989), with Steve Martin, Tom Hulce, Rick Moranis, Martha Plimpton, Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards, and Mary Steenburgen.
Other films in the mid to late 1980s include Radio Days (1897), with Seth Green, Farrow, Kavner, Kenneth Mars, Josh Mostel, Wallace Shawn, and Michael Tucker; Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987), with Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Corey Haim, Edward Herrmann, Barnard Hughes, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamison Newlander, and Alex Winter; September (1987), with Denholm Elliott, Farrow, Elaine Stritch, Jack Warden, and Sam Waterston; James Bridges’s Bright Lights, Big City (1988), with Michael J. Fox, Sutherland, Phoebe Cates,, Robards, and Swoosie Kurtz; and Susan Seidelman’s Cookie (1989), with Peter Falk, Emily Lloyd, Michael V. Gazzo, Brenda Viccaro, Adrian Pasdar, Lionel Stander, and Jerry Lewis.
Films in the early 1990s include Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990), with Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Alan Arkin, and Vincent Price; Little Man Tate (1991), with Jodie Foster (who also directed), Adam Hann-Byrd, Harry Connick Jr., David Hyde Pierce, Debi Mazar, and P.J. Ochlan; Michael Ritchie’s Cops & Robbersons (1994), with Chevy Chase, Jack Palance, and Robert Davi; The Scout (1994), Albert Brooks, Brendan Fraser, Lane Smith, Michael Rapaport, and Jean Simmons; and Bullets Over Broadway (1994), with Jim Broadbent, John Cusack, Harvey Fierstein, Chazz Palminteri, Mary-Louise Parker, Rob Reiner, Jennifer Tilly, Tracey Ullman, Joe Viterelli, and Jack Warden – winning her second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Films in the mid to late 1990s include Drunks (1995), with Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Spalding Gray, Amanda Plummer, Parker Posey, Sam Rockwell, Calista Flockhart, and Kevin Corrigan; The Associate (1996), with Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth, alongside Austin Pendleton, Lainie Kazan, and Eli Wallach; Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage (1996), with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Hank Azaria, Dan Futterman, Flockhart, and Christine Baranski; Griffin Dunne’s Practical Magic (1998), with Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Višnjić; and The Horse Whisperer (1998), with Robert Redford (who also directed), Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Cooper.
Films in the early to mid 2000s include I Am Sam (2001), with Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Richard Schiff, Loretta Devine, and Laura Dern; Merci Docteur Rey (2002), with Jane Birkin, Simon Callow, Jerry Hall, Vanessa Redgrave, Bulle Ogier, and Stanislas Merhar; a voice role in Robots (2005), with Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, and Williams; and Dito Montiel’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), with Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Rosario Dawson, Melonie Diaz, Eric Roberts, Channing Tatum, and Palminteri.
Films in the late 2000s include Justin Theroux’s Dedication (2007), with Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, Tom Wilkinson, Christine Taylor, Bob Balaban, Amy Sidaris, Martin Freeman, Bobby Cannavale, and Peter Bogdanovich; Peter Hedges’s Dan in Real Life (2007), with Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Allison Pill, Dane Cook, John Mahoney, and Emily Blunt; Rodrigo García’s Passengers (2008), with Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse, Andre Braugher, Clea DuVall, and Chelah Horsdal; Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York (2008), with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, and Tom Noonan; and Sally Potter’s Rage (2009), with Jude Law, Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi, John Leguizamo, and Lily Cole.
Films in the 2010s include John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole (2010), with Kidman,
Aaron Eckhart, Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Tenney, and Sandra Oh; The Big Year (2011), with Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Brian Dennehy, Anjelica Huston, Rashida Jones, Rosamund Pike, and JoBeth Williams; Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion (2012), with Mark Duplass, Richard Jenkins, Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Elisabeth Moss, Sam Shepard, and Ayelet Zurer; The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), with Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, CJ Adams, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston,Morse and Common; Barry Levinson’s The Humbling (2014), with Al Pacino, Greta Gerwig, Nina Arianda, Dylan Baker, Charles Grodin, Dan Hedaya, Billy Porter, Kyra Sedgwick, and Mary Louise Wilson; Five Nights in Maine (2015), with David Oyelowo, Teyonah Parris, and Rosie Perez; Sisters (2015), with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, James Brolin, John Cena, Leguizamo, and Bobby Moynihan; and The Mule (2018), with Clint Eastwood (who also directed), Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Andy García, Taissa Farmiga, Alison Eastwood, Richard Herd, Eugene Cordero, and Clifton Collins Jr.
Films in the 2020s include I Care a Lot (2020), with Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Chris Messina, Macon Blair, Alicia Witt, Damian Young, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.; Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk (2020), with Streep, Candice Bergen, Lucas Hedges, and Gemma Chan; a voice role in My Father’s Dragon (2022), with Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Rita Moreno, Chris O’Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, Goldberg, and Ian McShane; and Apartment 7A (2024), with Julie Garner, Jim Sturgess, and Kevin McNally.
She won the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea (1990 – 1996), and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment (2008 – 2021), with Gabriel Byrne. She was also part of the main cast of seasons 11 and 12 of long running crime drama Law & Order (2000 – 2002), with Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Angie Harmon, and Waterston; the sitcom Life in Pieces (2015 – 2019), with Colin Hanks, Betsy Brandt, Thomas Sadoski, Zoe Lister-Jones, Dan Bakkedahl, Angelique Cabral, Niall Cunningham, Holly J. Barrett, Giselle Eisenberg, Brolin, Hunter King, and Ana Sophia Heger; and the first two seasons of the crime series Mayor of Kingstown (2021 – ), with Jeremy Renner.
TV movies and miniseries include Zalmen: or, the Madness of God (1975), with Joseph Wiseman and Robert Prosky; Out of Our Father’s House (1978), with Maureen Anderman, Jackie Burroughs, Carol Kane, Kaiulani Lee, and Jan Miner; The Wall (1982), with Rosanna Arquette, Tom Conti, Dunne, Lisa Eichhorn, and Wallach; The Face of Rage (1983), with Danny Glover and John Goodman; Bigfoot (1987), with James Sloyan, Joseph Maher, and Colleen Dewhurst; The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999), with Sidney Poitier, Parker, and George Newbern; The 10th Kingdom (2000), with Kimberly Williams, Scott Cohen, Ed O’Neill, Rutger Hauer, John Larroquette, Daniel Lapaine, and Ann-Margret; The Blackwater Lightship (2004), with Gina McKee, Keith McErlean, Sean Campion, Brían F. O’Byrne, and Angela Lansbury; and Category 6: Day of Destruction (2004), with Nancy McKeon, Thomas Gibson, Chandra West, Randy Quaid, and Dennehy.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Zalmen: or, the Madness of God (1975) – directed by Peter Levin & Alan Schneider – TV movie
- It’s My Turn (1980) – directed by Claudia Weill
- The Wall (1982) – directed by Robert Markowitz – TV movie
- I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) – directed by Jack Hofsiss
- Independence Day (1983) – directed by Robert Mandel
- Face of Rage (1983) – directed by Donald Wrye – TV movie
- Footloose (1984) – directed by Herbert Ross
- Falling in Love (1984) – directed by Ulu Grosbard
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) – directed by Woody Allen
- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – directed by Woody Allen
- Radio Days (1987) – directed by Woody Allen
- Bigfoot (1987) – directed by Danny Huston – TV movie
- The Lost Boys (1987)** – directed by Joel Schumacher
- September (1987) – directed by Woody Allen
- Bright Lights, Big City (1988) – directed by James Bridges
- Parenthood (1989) – directed by Ron Howard
- Cookie (1989) – directed by Susan Seidelman
- Edward Scissorhands (1990) – directed by Tim Burton
- Little Man Tate (1991) – directed by Jodie Foster
- Cops & Robbersons (1994) – directed by Michael Ritchie
- Bullets Over Broadway (1994) – directed by Woody Allen
- The Scout (1994) – directed by Michael Ritchie
- Drunks (1995) – directed by Peter Cohn
- The Birdcage (1996) – directed by Mike Nichols
- The Associate (1996) – directed by Donald Petrie
- The Horse Whisperer (1998) – directed by Robert Redford
- Practical Magic (1998) – directed by Griffin Dunne
- The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999) – directed by Gregg Champion – TV movie
- The 10th Kingdom (2000) – directed by David Carson & Herbert Wise – miniseries
- I Am Sam (2001) – directed by Jessie Nelson
- Not Afraid, Not Afraid (2001) – directed by Annette Carducci
- Merci Docteur Rey (2002) – directed by Andrew Litvack
- The Blackwater Lightship (2004) – directed by John Erman – TV movie
- Category 6: Day of Destruction (2004) – directed by Dick Lowry – TV movie
- Robots (2005) – directed by Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha
- A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) – directed by Dito Montiel
- Dedication (2007) – directed by Justin Theroux
- Dan in Real Life (2007)* – directed by Peter Hedges
- Synecdoche, New York (2008) – directed by Charlie Kaufman
- Passengers (2008) – directed by Rodrigo García
- Rage (2009) – directed by Sally Potter
- Rabbit Hole (2010) – directed by John Cameron Mitchell
- The Big Year (2011) – directed by David Frankel
- Darling Companion (2012) – directed by Lawrence Kasdan
- The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) – directed by Peter Hedges
- Poe (2013) – directed by Michael Sporn
- The Humbling (2014) – directed by Barry Levinson
- Five Nights in Maine (2015) – directed by Maris Curran
- Sisters (2015) – directed by Jason Moore
- The Mule (2018) – directed by Clint Eastwood
- I Care a Lot (2020) – directed by J Blakeson
- Let Them All Talk (2020) – directed by Steven Soderbergh
- My Father’s Dragon (2022) – directed by Nora Twomey
- Apartment 7A (2024) – directed by Natalie Erika James
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