Barbara Hershey Biography

Barbara Hershey

Barbara Hershey has quietly assembled an impressive acting career, which began with a recurring role on the situation comedy Gidget in 1965. Her film career, which began in With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), blossomed in the1980s when she appeared in several high-profile films, including The Stunt Man (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), The Natural (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). She also won critical acclaim, becoming the first to win consecutive Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival for Shy People and A World Apart (1988). She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Madame Merle in Jane Campion's screen adaptation of Henry James's Portrait of a Lady (1996). Although she has concentrated on film, Hershey has frequently returned to television, earning an Emmy and Golden Globe award for the miniseries A Killing in a Small Town (1989). She joined Anthony LaPaglia and Geoffrey Rush in the critically-acclaimed Australian thriller Lantana (2001).