Barbara Hershey

Acting

Barbara Hershey

Born 1948-02-05 · Hollywood, California, USA

Barbara Hershey (born Barbara Lynn Herzstein; February 5, 1948) is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including westerns and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965 but did not achieve much critical acclaim until the latter half of the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as "one of America's finest actresses". Hershey won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries/TV Film for her role in A Killing in a Small Town (1990). She received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and for her role in The Portrait of a Lady (1996). For the latter film, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has won two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival for her roles in Shy People (1987) and A World Apart (1988). She was featured in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), for which she was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and Garry Marshall's melodrama Beaches (1988), and she earned a second British Academy Film Award nomination for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010). Description above from the Wikipedia article Barbara Hershey, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Insidious poster
7.0

A family discovers that dark spirits have invaded their home after their son inexplicably falls into an endless sleep. When they reach out to a professional for help, they learn things are a lot more personal than they thought.

Insidious

2011

Insidious: The Last Key poster
6.3

Parapsychologist Elise Rainier and her team travel to Five Keys, NM, to investigate a man’s claim of a haunting. Terror soon strikes when Rainier realizes that the house he lives in was her family’s old home.

Insidious: The Last Key

2018

Insidious: Chapter 2 poster
6.7

The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

Insidious: Chapter 2

2013

Black Swan poster
7.7

A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."

Black Swan

2010

Falling Down poster
7.4

An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.

Falling Down

1993

Strange Darling poster
6.9

Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.

Strange Darling

2024

The Last Temptation of Christ poster
7.2

Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt.

The Last Temptation of Christ

1988

Riding the Bullet poster
5.1

In 1969, while studying at the University of Maine, artist Alan Parker becomes obsessed with death. Believing he is losing his girlfriend, he tries to commit suicide on his birthday but his friends manage to stop him. He receives news that his mother has had a stroke and decides to hitchhike to visit her at the hospital.

Riding the Bullet

2004

The Natural poster
6.9

An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.

The Natural

1984

The Entity poster
6.8

A single mom is raped by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist believes the experience stems from childhood trauma, while she knows something supernatural is at play.

The Entity

1982

The Right Stuff poster
7.4

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

The Right Stuff

1983

Hannah and Her Sisters poster
7.5

Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.

Hannah and Her Sisters

1986

The 9th Life of Louis Drax poster
6.4

A psychologist who begins working with a young boy who has suffered a near-fatal fall finds himself drawn into a mystery that tests the boundaries of fantasy and reality.

The 9th Life of Louis Drax

2016

11:14 poster
6.8

Tells the seemingly random yet vitally connected story of a set of incidents that all converge one evening at 11:14pm. The story follows the chain of events of five different characters and five different storylines that all converge to tell the story of murder and deceit.

11:14

2004

Hoosiers poster
7.0

Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

Hoosiers

1986

Beaches poster
6.7

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.

Beaches

1988

The Portrait of a Lady poster
5.9

Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.

The Portrait of a Lady

1996

Twilight Theater II poster
NR

Leslie Nielsen hosts this comedy special featuring satirical sketches and a debate between G. Gordon Liddy and Moon Unit Zappa.

Twilight Theater II

1982

The Stunt Man poster
6.6

A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out and falls for the leading lady while facing off with his manipulative director.

The Stunt Man

1980

9 Bullets poster
5.3

A former burlesque dancer turned author discovers a second chance at life and redemption when she risks everything to rescue her young neighbor after he witnesses his parents’ murder. Now on the run from the local crime boss, who happens to be her longtime ex, she makes a desperate attempt to get the boy to safety.

9 Bullets

2022

Stay the Night poster
4.0

Based on a true story, Barbara Hershey and Morgan Weisser portray two star crossed lovers who will stop at nothing to be together without any ridicule. "Stay the Night" tells the dark tale of the controversial romance of a small town teenage boy named Michael Kettman and a free-spirited older woman named Jimmie Sue Finger, who suffers from an abusive marriage. Jimmie Sue and her younger lover plot to murder her husband, which leads to either eternal bliss for the both of them or a curse on their relationship.

Stay the Night

1992

Swing Kids poster
6.7

The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazis begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.

Swing Kids

1993

Tin Men poster
6.3

A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.

Tin Men

1987

Abraham poster
7.1

Rather than choosing a great leader or king, God chooses Abraham, an elderly shepherd from Mesopotamia, as the way to establish his Covenant with mankind... A man of great faith, Abraham continues to believe in God even when He seems to have abandoned him.

Abraham

1993