Dianne Wiest

Academy Award-winning actress Dianne Wiest began her career as a highly respected New York stage veteran who initially carved out a reputation for intense dramatic chops, but found herself more frequently cast in comedy when her career expanded to include feature films. A favorite of filmmaker Woody Allen, the director offered her every stage actress' dream of playing complex, well-developed characters which she brought to sparkling life in films including "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986), "Radio Days" (1987) and "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994). Hollywood generally gave the versatile actress less adventurous work and Wiest obliged with innumerable supporting roles as underwritten moms, though some of Tinseltown's more visionary directors captured her quirky qualities in "The Lost Boys" (1987), "Parenthood" (1989) and "Edward Scissorhands" (1990). Wiest's steady Hollywood offers financed the actress' frequent returns to the New York stage, and she remained a figure both on- and off-Broadway throughout her film and eventual primetime television career, culminating in the revered role of a therapist on HBO's "In Treatment" (2008-10), all which helped cement her status as one of Hollywood's most esteemed and beloved character actresses.