Grace Zabriskie (born May 17, 1941) is an American actress. She has appeared in many popular American films and television series.

Zabriskie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father founded Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Lafitte's in Exile,^[1] a cafe and bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and Zabriskie has said that her family was visited by Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote during her childhood.^[2] After making her major film debut in 1979's Norma Rae, Zabriskie went on to appear in dozens of other works, including the 1981 miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, 1989's Drugstore Cowboy, the 1991 film adaptation of Fried Green Tomatoes and 1995's The Passion of Darkly Noon.

Zabriskie is perhaps most familiar, however, for her television work. After appearing in a recurring role on the soap opera Santa Barbara, she played a major role on the David Lynch series Twin Peaks and its spin-off film, Fire Walk With Me as Sarah Palmer, the eerily psychic mother of the doomed Laura Palmer. Zabriskie had previously 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.

She was also chosen by David Lynch to appear as a sinister Polish neighbour in Inland Empire in 2006. Zabriskie may best be remembered, albeit not by name, as Mrs. Ross, a recurring character on the sitcom, Seinfeld. She played the mother of another doomed daughter, Susan Ross -- George Costanza's fiancee -- who died after licking closed dozens of cheap envelopes, which the stingy Costanza bought, while mailing out her wedding invitations. Zabriskie's character's husband on the show, also a recurring role, was played by her former Twin Peaks co-star Warren Frost.

She has at times worked in radio, collaborating with radio dramatist/monologist Joe Frank several times. Zabriskie recently appeared in the American remake The Grudge, in which she played a senile grandmother sensitive to the paranormal occurrences in her home. She also stars in Big Love, an HBO drama series that seriously explores the issue of polygamy.

References

External links

• Grace Zabriskie at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Site

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