Jessica Lange, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota. She studied art briefly at the University of Minnesota before going to Paris where she studied mime. She returned to New York City in 1973 and took acting lessons while working as a waitress and a fashion model for the Wilhelmina modelling agency.

In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis cast her in his motion picture remake King Kong,.  She also made an impressive appearance in Bob Rafelson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).       Her performance in her next film, Frances (1982), in which she portrayed actress Frances Farmer, was highly lauded and earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination. She received two nominations that year, the other as Supporting Actress in the comedy Tootsie (1982), for which she won. She continued giving impressive performances through the 80s and 90s in films such as Sweet Dreams (1984) (playing country/western singer Patsy Cline), Music Box (1989), Men Don't Leave (1990), and Blue Sky (1994) for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award.   Lange once stated that her role as Patsy Cline in the film Sweet Dreams was her all time favourite role because of Cline’s fascinating character.

In 1992, Lange made her Broadway debut opposite Alec Baldwin in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2000, she appeared on the London stage as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 2005, she returned to Broadway in another Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie with actor Christian Slater which was acclaimed by the European press.