From King Kong to "cocksucker" to Kennedy

The lovely Jessica Lange celebrates her sixtieth birthday today!

Of Finnish, German and Dutch extraction, Miss Lange was never one of the "leading ladies" of Hollywood, yet she has made a definite impact upon my sensibilities. From her debut in the dreadful remake of King Kong - which I and my sister went to see in the cinema in 1976, and hated - she went on to recover her credibility with an extremely sexy role against Jack Nicholson in the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, an Oscar nomination for her absolutely stunning portrayal of the doomed 30s starlet Frances Farmer in Frances, and parts in several award-winning films including Tootsie and the Patsy Cline bio-pic Sweet Dreams, finally winning an overdue Oscar in 2004 for her part in Blue Sky with Tommy Lee Jones.

And I look forward to seeing her in the recently released movie Grey Gardens, about the weird real-life relatives of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis...

I have a sneaking admiration for Miss Lange - if not just for her sheer determination, after appearing in some shitty movies in her early career, but also for her incredible on-screen presence (to me, she is reminiscent of Faye Dunaway). Admittedly, her latest round of plastic surgery does lend itself to the feeling that this lady's bone structure is about to crumble...

All this leads me to one of her lesser-known parts in a film, and an excuse to post this particular clip (Bye Bye Life) from All That Jazz, in which (right at the very end) she plays "The Angel Of Death"...



And here she is giving what should have been the winning Oscar performance in Frances....("Occupation? Cocksucker!")

Jessica Lange - Frances

Jessica Lange on IMDB