Barbara Hershey
Highest Rated: 98% The Right Stuff (1983)
Lowest Rated: 8% Splitting Heirs (1993)
Birthday: Feb 5, 1948
Birthplace: Hollywood, California, USA
While a prolific screen presence from the late-'60s onward, Barbara Hershey did not truly attain star status until two decades later, finally blossoming to become one of the most acclaimed American actresses of her generation. Born Barbara Herzstein on February 5, 1948, in Hollywood, CA, she studied drama during high school and in 1965 made her professional debut in the teen television romp Gidget. From 1966 to 1967, she was a regular on the series The Monroes and subsequently guest starred in a number of other programs. Hershey made her film bow in 1968's With Six You Get Eggroll, followed by the Western Heaven With a Gun and Last Summer. After a number of other lesser projects, she starred as the title heroine in 1972's Boxcar Bertha, the first major theatrical release from a then-unknown Martin Scorsese. David Carradine, Hershey's onscreen partner in crime, became her offscreen companion as well. Carradine directed them both in Americana (filmed in 1973 but not shown until eight years later), and together they had a child, Free.In another nod to the counterculture, Hershey rechristened herself "Barbara Seagull" and traveled to the Netherlands to film the 1973 drama Angela, winning Best Actress honors for her work at the Berlin Film Festival. Still, box-office success continued to elude her, and her resumé remained littered with undistinguished projects including the 1974 heist drama Diamonds, the 1976 comedy A Choice of Weapons, and the Western The Last Hard Men. By 1977, Hershey -- having dropped the "Seagull" surname -- turned to television, where she appeared in the Irwin Allen disaster production Flood! as well as the miniseries A Man Called Intrepid and the 1979-1980 weekly program From Here to Eternity. The 1980 comedy The Stunt Man, actually shot two years earlier, marked Hershey's return to feature films, and was followed by 1981's Take This Job and Shove It and the 1982 horror picture The Entity. By this point, Hershey -- once viewed as a rising star -- had been largely written off by the Hollywood powers-that-be. However, in 1983, she accepted a small role in Philip Kaufman's acclaimed The Right Stuff which garnered her considerable notice. She followed it with another small but pivotal role in Barry Levinson's 1984 baseball fable The Natural, and after a pair of well-regarded television projects -- the 1985 Errol Flynn bio My Wicked, Wicked Ways and 1986's Passion Flower -- Hershey's name was back on the map. After years of low-budget and low-brow projects, suddenly she was a fixture of high-profile features including Woody Allen's masterful 1986 effort Hannah and Her Sisters, David Anspaugh's Hoosiers, and Levinson's 1987 comedy Tin Men. Also in 1987, Hershey's turn in Andrei Konchalovsky's Shy People won Best Actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival, an award she again took home the following year for her performance in Chris Menges' A World Apart.Hershey also excelled in more mainstream affairs, appearing opposite Bette Midler in the weeper Beaches. In 1988, she and Scorsese reunited for the first time since Boxcar Bertha in The Last Temptation of Christ, in which she appeared as Mary Magdalene, winning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. In 1990, Hershey returned to television to star in the movie A Killing in a Small Town, for which she won an Emmy. Back in the movies, she remained noted for her performances in offbeat fare like 1990's Tune in Tomorrow, 1993's Falling Down, and 1996's The Pallbearer. For her supporting performance in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady, Hershey also earned an Academy Award nomination. In 1998, the actress won further praise for her role as Kris Kristofferson's bohemian wife in A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. The same year, she appeared as a struggling actress in Amos Poe's Frogs for Snakes, and then went on to play Bruce Willis' wife in the highly anticipated 1999 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. She appeared in the dr
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Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
Movies
| Credit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38% | The 9th Life of Louis Drax | Violet | — | 2016 |
| No Score Yet | The Natural: The Best There Ever Was | Actor | — | 2016 |
| No Score Yet | Childless | Natalie | — | 2015 |
| No Score Yet | Sister | Susan Presser | — | 2014 |
| 40% | Insidious: Chapter 2 | Lorraine Lambert | $71.5M | 2013 |
| No Score Yet | Left to Die | Sandra Chase | — | 2012 |
| 9% | Answers to Nothing | Marilyn | $22.5K | 2011 |
| 66% | Insidious | Lorraine Lambert | $53.8M | 2011 |
| 84% | Black Swan | Erica Sayers/The Queen | $107M | 2010 |
| No Score Yet | Nick Nolte: No Exit | Actor | — | 2009 |
| No Score Yet | Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning | Anne Shirley | — | 2009 |
| No Score Yet | Albert Schweitzer | Helene Schweitzer | — | 2009 |
| 71% | Love Comes Lately | Rosalie | — | 2008 |
| No Score Yet | Uncross the Stars | Hilda Limberlost | — | 2008 |
| No Score Yet | Drowning on Dry Land | Kate | — | 2008 |
| No Score Yet | Bird Can't Fly | Melody | — | 2007 |
| 26% | Riding the Bullet | Jean Parker | $0.2M | 2004 |
| No Score Yet | Paradise | Elizabeth | — | 2004 |
| 92% | 11:14 | Norma | — | 2003 |
| No Score Yet | The Stranger Beside Me | Ann Rule | — | 2003 |
| No Score Yet | Hunger Point | Marsha Hunter | — | 2003 |
| No Score Yet | Daniel Deronda | Actor | — | 2002 |
| 90% | Lantana | Valerie | $4.3M | 2002 |
| No Score Yet | Outer Space | Actor | — | 2002 |
| No Score Yet | A World Apart | Actor | — | 2001 |
| No Score Yet | The Sinister Saga of Making 'The Stunt Man' | Actor | — | 2000 |
| 26% | Breakfast of Champions | Celia Hoover | — | 1999 |
| 27% | Frogs for Snakes | Eva | — | 1999 |
| 77% | A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries | Marcella | — | 1998 |
| No Score Yet | The Staircase | Mother Madalyn | — | 1998 |
| 45% | The Portrait of a Lady | Madame Serena Merle | — | 1996 |
| 45% | The Pallbearer | Ruth Abernathy | — | 1996 |
| 69% | Last of the Dogmen | Lillian Sloan | — | 1995 |
| 71% | When a Man Loves a Woman | Actor | — | 1994 |
| No Score Yet | Abraham | Sarah | — | 1994 |
| 55% | A Dangerous Woman | Frances | — | 1993 |
| 8% | Splitting Heirs | Duchess Lucinda | — | 1993 |
| 53% | Swing Kids | Frau Müller | — | 1993 |
| 74% | Falling Down | Beth | — | 1993 |
| 63% | The Public Eye | Kay Levitz | — | 1992 |
| No Score Yet | Defenseless | Thelma Knudsen Katwuller | — | 1991 |
| No Score Yet | Paris Trout | Hanna Trout | — | 1991 |
| 50% | Tune in Tomorrow... (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) | Aunt Julia | — | 1990 |
| 39% | Beaches | Hillary Whitney Essex | — | 1988 |
| 80% | The Last Temptation of Christ | Mary Magdalene | — | 1988 |
| 91% | A World Apart | Diana Roth | — | 1988 |
| 64% | Shy People | Ruth Sullivan | — | 1987 |
| 81% | Tin Men | Actor | — | 1987 |
| No Score Yet | Legends - Live at Montreux 1997 | Nora Tilley | — | 1987 |
| 89% | Hoosiers | Myra Fleener | — | 1986 |
| No Score Yet | Passion Flower | Julia Gaitland | — | 1986 |
| 91% | Hannah and Her Sisters | Lee | — | 1986 |
| No Score Yet | My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn | Lili Damita | — | 1985 |
| 82% | The Natural | Harriet Bird | — | 1984 |
| 98% | The Right Stuff | Glennis | — | 1983 |
| 64% | The Entity | Clara Morgan | — | 1982 |
| No Score Yet | Working | Actor | — | 1982 |
| No Score Yet | Americana | Jess' daughter | — | 1981 |
| No Score Yet | Take This Job and Shove It | J.M. Halstead | — | 1981 |
| 89% | The Stunt Man | Nina Franklin | — | 1980 |
| No Score Yet | Woman Accused | Ellen | — | 1977 |
| No Score Yet | In the Glitter Palace | Ellen | — | 1977 |
| No Score Yet | Flood! | Mary Cutler | — | 1976 |
| No Score Yet | The Last Hard Men | Susan Burgade | — | 1976 |
| No Score Yet | Choice of Weapons | Marion | — | 1976 |
| No Score Yet | Diamonds | Sally | — | 1975 |
| 52% | Boxcar Bertha | Boxcar Bertha | — | 1972 |
| No Score Yet | Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues | Susan | — | 1972 |
| No Score Yet | The Pursuit of Happiness | Jane Kauffman | — | 1971 |
| No Score Yet | The Liberation of L.B. Jones | Nella Mundine | — | 1970 |
| No Score Yet | The Baby Maker | Tish Gray | — | 1970 |
| 78% | Last Summer | Sandy | — | 1969 |
| No Score Yet | Heaven with a Gun | Leloopa | — | 1969 |
| No Score Yet | With Six You Get Eggroll | Stacey Iverson | — | 1968 |
| No Score Yet | Experiments in Terror | Actor | — | 1961 |
| No Score Yet | Turkey Shoot: Beaches | Actor | — |
TV
| Credit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 74% |
The X-Files 1993-2018 |
Erika Price |
2018 |
| 11% |
Damien 2016 |
Ann Rutledge |
2016 |
| 80% |
Once Upon a Time 2011-2018 |
Geppetto/Marco Cora Greg Mendell |
2016 2015 2013 2012 2011 |
| 63% |
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland 2013-2014 |
Cora |
2014 |
| No Score Yet |
Masterpiece 1971-2014 |
Mrs. Hubbard Contessa Maria Alcharisi |
2010 2003 |
| 10% |
The Mountain 2004-2005 |
Gennie Carver |
2005 2004 |
| No Score Yet |
Chicago Hope 1994-2000 |
Dr. Francesca Alberghetti |
2000 1999 1997 1995 |
| No Score Yet |
American Playhouse 1982-1996 |
Lenore |
1982 |
| No Score Yet |
Kung Fu 1972-1975 |
Nan Chi |
1974 |
| No Score Yet |
The High Chaparral 1967-1971 |
Moonfire |
1968 |
QUOTES FROM Barbara Hershey CHARACTERS
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: Take off your shirt.
Nina says: No.
Dr. Valerie Somers says: Does she know about you?
Patrick Phelan says: I assume so. She would sense it wouldn't she?
Dr. Valerie Somers says: It depends on how good he is at deceiving her.
Patrick Phelan says: Or how good she is at deceiving herself.
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What happened to my sweet little girl?
Nina says: She's gone!!!
Nina says: She's gone!
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: You can't handle this!
Nina Sayers/ The Swan Queen says: I can't? I'm the Swan Queen! You're the one who never left the corps.
CC Bloom says: Hilary you got so fat!
Hillary Whitney Essex says: I'm not fat I'm having a baby
Hillary Whitney Essex says: I'm not fat I'm having a baby.
CC Bloom says: You're not, You're having a baby?
CC Bloom says: You're not. You're having a baby?
Hillary Whitney Essex says: I'm Three Months Pregnant
Hillary Whitney Essex says: I'm three months pregnant.
CC Bloom says: That's great
CC Bloom says: That's great.
Hillary Whitney Essex says: Before I caught him with that woman we made love and that's when it ...
CC Bloom says: (interrupts) What woman?
Hillary Whitney Essex says: There was this woman I caught them together ...
CC Bloom says: (interrupts) Michael?
Hillary Whitney Essex says: Of course Michael and that's when it happened, and he doesn't want it because he's going to marry her. Can you believe it he's going to marry her?
CC Bloom says: (to bartender) Would you make this a double please?
CC Bloom says: (to Hillary) Let me get this straight. You caught Michael with another woman?
Hillary Whitney Essex says: Yes
Hillary Whitney Essex says: Yes.
CC Bloom says: And now you're going to have a baby all on your own
Hillary Whitney Essex says: Mmhmm (shakes head)
CC Bloom says: Oh Hillary I think that's wonderful
Hillary Whitney Essex says: You do?
CC Bloom says: I think it's the most exciting thing and if it's a girl will you name it after me? (hugs Hillary)
Hillary Whitney Essex says: (quietly) Yes
Hillary Whitney Essex says: (quietly) Yes.
Ruth Sullivan says: Sometimes people see what they want to see.
Lorraine Lambert says: I asked it what do you want...it said Dalton....I can still hear that voice
Lorraine Lambert says: I asked it, 'Who are you?' ... I said 'What do you want?' ... I can still hear that voice.
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What Happerned To My Sweet Girl
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What happened to my sweet girl?
Nina Sayers/ The Swan Queen says: SHES GONE !!!
Nina Sayers/ The Swan Queen says: She's gone!
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: You're not my Nina right now!
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: It's the role, isn't it? It's all this pressure? I knew it would be too much. I knew it!
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: "Everything will be better in the morning. It always is"
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: Everything will be better in the morning. It always is.
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What happened to my sweet girl?
Nina Sayers/The Swan Queen says: She's gone!!!
Norma says: You'll burn for what you did to my daughter!
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: Where have you been?
Nina says: To the moon.
Lilly says: ...And back.
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What were you doing?
Nina says: Mom, you want to know their names?
Erica Sayers/The Queen says: What happend to my sweet girl?
Nina says: SHE'S GONE!