Raised in Quitman, Texas

At age six, made first appearance on stage, singing and tap-dancing in a local talent show

After winning a singer-songwriter contest, lived with cousin Rip Torn and his wife Geraldine Page in New York City while trying to break into music industry (aged 17)

Cut single "John, You've Gone Too Far This Time", a novelty song about John Lennon posing nude on an album cover with his wife Yoko Ono; recorded under the name Rainbo; because single failed to sell well was dropped by record company

Worked as photographic model and as extra at Andy Warhol's factory; appeared in "Trash" (1970)

Screen acting debut, "Prime Cut"

TV debut, "The Girls of Huntington House" (ABC), about a group home for unwed mothers

Played recurring role of a potential love interest for John-Boy (Richard Thomas) in episodes of "The Waltons" (CBS)

Breakthrough screen role opposite Martin Sheen in "Badlands"; met future husband Jack Fisk during filming

Worked as a set decorator on "Phantom of the Paradise"

Had title role of a 1960s radical in the TV-movie "Katherine" (ABC)

Earned first Oscar nomination for her leading performance as a telekinetic teenager in "Carrie"; Fisk was the production designer on the movie

Worked as a script supervisor on "Eraserhead", directed by David Lynch

Starred with Shelley Duvall and Janice Rule in "Three Women", directed by Robert Altman

Had title role opposite William Hurt in the PBS production "Verna: USO Girl"

Cast as Carolyn Cassady in the biopic "Heart Beat"; first screen teaming with Nick Nolte

Won Best Actress Academy Award for portraying country singer Loretta Lynn in the biopic "Coal Miner's Daughter"; also did own singing in the role

Directed by husband in "Raggedy Man", co-starring Eric Roberts

Teamed with Jack Lemmon in the political drama "Missing"; earned Best Actress Oscar nomination as the wife of a kidnapped American

Starred in "The River" opposite Mel Gibson; garnered fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination

Had title role of real-life whistle-blower Marie Ragghianti in "MARIE: A True Story"

Portrayed a suicidal woman in "'night Mother", the film adaptation of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer-winning play

Received fifth Best Actress Oscar nomination for "Crimes of the Heart"

Took a four-year break from features

Returned to features in the civil rights drama "The Long Walk Home" alongside Whoopi Goldberg

Had supporting role of Mrs. Jim Garrison in Oliver Stone's controversial "JFK"

Starred in the controversial HBO movie "A Private Matter", about the host of a children's TV show who seeks an abortion after exposure to Thalidomide

Starred as a pediatric nurse who cares for an abandoned baby with HIV in the ABC "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation "A Place for Annie"

Co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones in the TNT TV-movie "The Good Old Boys"; earned first Emmy nomination

Teamed with "Carrie" co-star Piper Laurie in "The Grass Harp"

Starred in the "1974" segment of the anthology TV-movie about a woman's right to reproductive freedom, "If These Walls Could Talk" (HBO)

Played Nick Nolte's patient girlfriend in "Affliction"

Appeared as the matriarch of a family who seeks refuge in a bomb shelter in the 1950s and spends 30 years living below ground in the uneven comedy "Blast From the Past"

Portrayed the daughter of a man who sets out on a lawnmower to travel to meet with his estranged brother in "The Straight Story", directed by David Lynch; husband Jack Fisk served as production designer

Starred opposite Beau Bridges in the TV drama "Songs in Ordinary Time" (CBS)

Co-starred with Tom Wilkinson in the independent feature "In the Bedroom", directed by Todd Field; screened at Sundance; received sixth career Oscar nomination as Best Actress

Starred in the Lifetime TV-movie "Midwives"

Had featured role in "Tuck Everlasting"

Played writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's mentally ill wife in the Showtime miniseries "Last Call"

Cast in Michael Cunningham's "A Home at the End of the World" also starring Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn

Cast in the ensemble "Nine Lives"; Rodrigo García directs a series of vignettes, offering glimpses into the lives of nine women

Cast as Charlize Theron's mother in "North Country"

Co-starred with Donald Sutherland in Courtney Solomon's "An American Haunting"

Played Heather Graham's therapist in the indie feature "Gray Matters"

Played a retired art teacher, who takes in a foster child in the TV movie, "Pictures of Hollis Woods" (CBS); earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie