About Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey was born Barbara Lynn Herzstein in Hollywood, California, to Melrose (Moore) and Arnold Nathan Herzstein, a horse racing columnist. Her father, born in Manhattan, was from a Jewish family (from Hungary and Russia), and her mother, originally from Arkansas, had English and Scots-Irish ancestry.
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 began acting at age 17 in 1965 but did not achieve much critical acclaim until the latter half of the 1980s.
The multi-award-winning actress has been in some of Hollywood's most memorable films. She has been a winner of an Emmy and a Golden Globe for "A Killing in a Small Town". She won two consecutive Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival, (which is unprecedented) for "Shy People" and "A World Apart". She won a Gemini Award for "Anne of Green Gabels" for PBS and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Vienna International Film Festival.
Hershey was nominated for an Academy Award, "The Portait of a Lady."
She's worked with some of the world's great directors, among them - Martin Scorsese, William Wyler, Woody Allen, Jane Campion and Darren Aronofsky.
The 1980's catapulted Hershey's film career, when she starred in "The Stunt Man" with Peter O'Toole, "The Right Stuff", "The Natural" with Robert Redford, "Hannah and Her Sisters" with Woody Allen, "Hoosiers" with Gene Hackman, "Tin Men" , "Shy People", "The Last Temptation of Christ", "A World Apart" and "Beaches", with Bette Midler.
Hershey returned to television in 1990 with her highly lauded performance in "A Killing in a Small Town", "Paris Trout", "Return to Lonesome Dove", the British mini-series, "Daniel Deronda" and the last season of "Chicago Hope".
During the same period, Hershey remained active in features. She was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for "The Portrait of a Lady". She also starred in Merchant-Ivory's "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" and the award-winning Australian film, "Lantana".
Recently, Hershey has recently performed in James Wan's cult-hit, "Insidious" and Darren Aronofsky's award-winning "Black Swan", playing Natalie Portman's insane mother.
Hershey resides in Los Angeles.
