Grace Zabriskie


Grace Zabriskie is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Palmer in Twin Peaks and its film prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lois Henrickson in Big Love, as well as in cult films such as two of David Lynch's films: Juana Durango in Wild at Heart and Visitor #1 in Inland Empire. Other film roles include Norma Rae, An Officer and a Gentleman, Nickel Mountain, , Leonard Part 6, Drugstore Cowboy, Child's Play 2, My Own Private Idaho, Fried Green Tomatoes, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds, and The Grudge. She is also known for her recurring roles on such shows as Seinfeld, Charmed, and Ray Donovan.
WWW gracezabriskie.com

Early life

Zabriskie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Marion Grace, of Wyckoff, New Jersey, and Roger Thomas "Tom" Caplinger. Her mother had distant Polish and Dutch ancestry, and was a relative of James Zabriskie, a 19th-century railroad industrialist and early pioneer of California. Zabriskie has said that her family was visited by Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote during her childhood. Her father owned the famous French quarter gay bar Cafe Lafitte in Exile.
In the early 1960s, Zabriskie was among a circle of the New Orleans friends of author and Discordianism co-founder Kerry Thornley. At one point, Thornley began work on a novel about her titled Can Grace Come Out and Play? Thornley later claimed to have had an "eight-year-long, off-again-on-again, affair/friendship/rivalry/ego-game/karmic unraveling" with her, but Zabriskie described it as "four and a half minutes in bed" after a discussion on the exclusion of sex from their friendship—shared with Zabriskie's then-husband Rob—as being "irrational".
Her sister, Lane Caplinger, worked as a typist in New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's office. Caplinger is reputed to have covertly produced all five copies of the first edition of the Principia Discordia in 1965.

Career

After making her major film debut in Norma Rae, Zabriskie went on to appear in dozens of other works, including the 1981 Roger Corman horror film Galaxy of Terror and the 1981 miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden. She played the nanny in The Private Eyes, Debra Winger's mother in An Officer and a Gentleman, Heather Langenkamp's mother in Nickel Mountain, and Paul Le Mat's mother in The Burning Bed. She had a small but crucial part in the fifth season finale of Knots Landing. In 1988, she played Richard Mulligan's love interest "Eva Barrett" on the hit NBC sitcom Empty Nest.
She appeared in 1989's Drugstore Cowboy and as the ill-fated orphanage owner Grace Poole in Child's Play 2. Other movies include the 1991 film adaptation Fried Green Tomatoes and Philip Ridley's 1995 film The Passion of Darkly Noon.
Zabriskie is perhaps most familiar for her television work. After a recurring role on the soap opera Santa Barbara, she appeared on David Lynch's Twin Peaks and its spin-off film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as Sarah Palmer, the eerily psychic mother of the doomed Laura Palmer.
Zabriskie also appeared in Lynch's Wild at Heart—notably as the twin sister of a character played by Isabella Rossellini, an actress eleven years her junior. David Lynch later cast her as a sinister Polish neighbor in Inland Empire in 2006.
Zabriskie may best be remembered as Mrs. Ross, a recurring character on the sitcom Seinfeld. She played the mother of another doomed daughter, Susan Ross—George Costanza's fiancée—who died after licking cheap envelope adhesive when mailing out her wedding invitations. Zabriskie's character's husband on the series, who also appeared in a recurring role, was played by her former Twin Peaks co-star, Warren Frost.
She also made a brief but memorable appearance in the episode "S'ain't Valentine's" on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens, as the emotionally disturbed and alcoholic mother of Spence Olchin. While the character Veronica Olchin would reappear throughout the series, Zabriskie would not portray her again, having been replaced by Anne Meara. She also appeared twice in Aaron Spelling's series Charmed as "The Crone".
She has worked in radio, collaborating with radio dramatist/monologist Joe Frank several times. In one episode of Frank's show, "Home ", she talks at length about her childhood in New Orleans, with a focus on her father.
Zabriskie appeared in the 2004 American remake of The Grudge, in which she played a senile elderly woman sensitive to the paranormal occurrences in her home.
From 2006 to 2011, she played "Lois Henrickson" on the hit HBO series Big Love. The drama series seriously explored the issue of polygamy,
In 2013, she played "Mama Dips" on The Killing.
In 2015, she played "Miss Monassian" on the hit Showtime series Ray Donovan. Then in 2016, she played "Mildred" on Outcast.
In 2017, she reprised her role as Sarah Palmer on the Showtime revival of Twin Peaks. Also in 2017, she played the role of "Mrs. Baković" on the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet.
In 2018, she played "Enid" on the hit HBO series Ballers, opposite Dwayne Johnson. Also in 2018, she played "John's grandmother" on The Alienist.
In 2020, she starred in the music video for Grouplove's "Youth", directed by Christopher Blauvelt.
In 2022, she portrayed "Camille D'Amato" in the Hulu limited series Mike, opposite Trevante Rhodes as Mike Tyson.

Personal life

In her early 20s, Zabriskie "had an intense friendship” with Kerry Wendell Thornley; this friendship was "centered around an intense shared love for and fascination with the philosophy of Ayn Rand". Although Thornley claimed that he and Zabriskie had an affair that lasted over a decade, Zabriskie denies this and states that their friendship ended due to Thornley's belief that she was involved in a conspiracy.
In May 1963, she married John Dunham MacEachron. Zabriskie has two daughters: Helen, who became an actress and Marion Lane, a painter. In 1993, Helen died of Hodgkin's disease. Marion died in 2019, aged 56, of cancer. In 2006, she told the Los Angeles Times, "You can make your life an absolute bummer out of the inevitability of death. Or you can decide to absorb this blow and figure out a way to exist with as much energy and creativity and lack of fear as you can".

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1978'Widow CumminsTV movie
1979Concrete CowboysMrs. Kate BarnabyEpisode: "Concrete Cowboys"
1979Freedom RoadRuth LaitTV movie
1980CBS Afternoon PlayhouseEpisode: "Lost in Death Valley"
1980Blinded by the LightEmilyTV movie
1981East of EdenMrs. Catherine AmesTV miniseries
1981Hart to HartEthylEpisode: "A Couple of Harts"
1982'Kathryne BakerTV movie
1983Tales of the Gold MonkeyDr. ClouetEpisode: "Last Chance Louie"
1983M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk DriversSilvie Alice KohlerTV movie
1983Cagney & LaceyAdeleEpisode: "Affirmative Action"
1984My Mother's Secret LifeMaggie RyanTV movie
1984Knots LandingChambermaidEpisode: "Negotiations"
1984'Flossie HughesTV movie
1984Paper DollsCathyEpisode: "1.8"
1985ABC Afterschool SpecialMrs. LintonEpisode: "One Too Many"
1985Santa BarbaraTheda Bassett17 episodes
1985North Beach and RawhideHearings OfficerTV movie
1985Shadow ChasersMary KomatarEpisode: "Shadow Chasers: Part 1"
1986Hill Street BluesTerry SylvestriEpisode: "Das Blues"
Episode: "Scales of Justice"
1986Cagney & LaceyEva SikorskiEpisode: "Model Citizens"
1987Falcon CrestMabel BurtonEpisode: "When the Bough Breaks"
Episode: "The Cradle Will Fall"
1987MistressDeanieTV movie
1988'Mrs. BarrisEpisode: "Ties That Bind"
1988My Father, My SonMouzaTV movie
1988ShooterSister MarieTV movie
1988Empty NestEva BarrettEpisode: "Pilot"
1989The Ryan White StoryGloria WhiteTV movie
1989UnsubAlmaEpisode: "White Bone Demon"
1989'PsychologistTV movie
1989MoonlightingRitaEpisode: "In 'N Outlaws"; uncredited
1990Tales from the CryptMrs. ColbertEpisode: "The Secret"
1990Hometown Boy Makes GoodHelen GearyTV movie
1990–1991Twin PeaksSarah Palmer13 episodes
1991Prison Stories: Women on the InsideGenevieveTV movie
1991Blood TiesThe WomanTV movie
1991Intimate StrangerDana P. AshleyTV movie
1992Freshman DormEpisode: "Pilot"
1992'RubyTV movie
1992,
1996–1998		SeinfeldMrs. Ross5 episodes
1993Bonds of LoveEmmaTV movie
1993Miracle ChildAdeleine NewberryTV movie
1993Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore StoryEthelTV movie
1993Banner TimesMommaTV movie
1993Double DeceptionDr. KesterTV movie
1993SirensFemale Store OwnerEpisode: "Keeping the Peace"
1993Angel FallsCuemaEpisode: "Fall from Grace"
1994Lifestories: Families in CrisisSandy HenryEpisode: "A Body to Die For: The Aaron Henry Story"
1995Crazy for a KissPearl KinrossTV movie
1995Children of the DustRoseTV movie
1995Under SuspicionLily CassinsEpisode: "Hostage Standoff"
Episode: "Wrongful Shooting"
1995Empty NestScarlettEpisode: "Life Goes On: Part 1"
Episode: "Life Goes On: Part 2"
1995Fallen AngelsVirnaEpisode: "The Black Bargain"
1995NYPD BlueWanda PadzikEpisode: "The Bookie and the Kooky Cookie"
1996'Francie HarperTV movie
1996Second NoahMrs. ChevalEpisode: "Stormy Weather"
1996Murder at My DoorGrandmaTV movie
1996'Retired CIA AgentEpisode: "Touch of the Dead"
1997NYPD BlueMillie BanksEpisode: "A Remington Original"
1997High IncidentMattieEpisode: "Remote Control"
1997Over the TopDollyEpisode: "The Southern Story"
1997'Rose DeMarcoTV movie
1998Dharma & GregNaomiEpisode: "It Takes a Village"
1998HoudiniMrs. WeissTV movie
1998ProfilerMrs. BoudreauxEpisode: "The Sum of Her Parts"
1999'VeronicaEpisode: "S'ain't Valentine's"
2000JesseGrandma RoseEpisode: "Jesse Gives Birth"
2000'IsobelEpisode: "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part II"
2002'JudithEpisode: "The Dead"
2002Sylvia GoodsteinTV movie
2002–2003John DoeYellow Teeth6 episodes
2003CharmedThe CroneEpisode: "Baby's First Demon"
Episode: "Sense and Sense Ability"
2005MediumConnie BuckleyEpisode: "The Other Side of the Tracks"
2006–2011Big LoveLois Henrickson52 episodes
2013The KillingMama Dips3 episodes
2015Ray DonovanMiss Monassian6 episodes
2016OutcastMildred4 episodes
2017Santa Clarita DietMrs. Baković2 episodes
2017Twin Peaks: The ReturnSarah Palmer6 episodes
2018The AlienistJohn's Grandmother4 episodes
2018BallersEnid2 episodes
2019Hot StreetsSenkah Episode: "Super Agent 2"
2022MikeCamille D'Amato3 episodes

YearTitleRoleNotes
1993VoyeurMargaret HawkeActress
2022The QuarryEliza VorezVoice, motion capture and likeness