Part of Titanic featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and Famous After 40 with Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz.
Rise to Fame
She spent two decades working New York theater before Misery happened. A Tony nomination for 'night, Mother in 1983 and an Obie for Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune in 1988 confirmed she could carry a stage, but Hollywood wasn't interested. The Misery role changed that. A horror film based on a Stephen King novel wasn't Oscar bait, but her performance as Annie Wilkes was so complete the Academy had no choice. The win made Misery the only Stephen King adaptation to ever take home a Best Actress Oscar.
In the Spotlight
By the time she won an Emmy for American Horror Story: Coven in 2014, she'd already beaten ovarian cancer (2003) and had been through breast cancer (2012), a double mastectomy, and the lymphedema it caused. She didn't slow down. She testified before Congress in 2019 to push for lymphedema research funding. At 77, she took the lead in CBS's Matlock reboot and became the oldest lead actress Emmy nominee in history. She'd reportedly threatened to retire before taking that job.
Side Notes
She moved to New York in 1970 with $500 from her father and spent years working as a cashier at the Museum of Modern Art and a singing waitress in the Catskills while chasing acting roles. Back in Memphis, she'd been a lonely teenager who wrote sad songs and described herself as chronically dateless through high school. The person who eventually played Annie Wilkes got there via MoMA admission desks and Catskill supper clubs.