Claim: Jessica Lange's first film role was in King Kong.

Jessica Phyllis Lange -LRB- -LSB- læŋ -RSB- born April 20 , 1949 -RRB- is an American actress who has received worldwide acclaim for her work in film , theater , and television . The recipient of several awards , including two Academy Awards , one Tony Award , three Emmy Awards , five Golden Globe Awards , one Screen Actors Guild Award , and three Dorian Awards ; in 1998 , Entertainment Weekly listed Lange among the 25 Greatest Actresses of the 1990s . In 2016 , Lange became the twenty-second thespian in history to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting .   Lange was discovered by producer Dino De Laurentiis while modeling part-time for the Wilhelmina modelling agency . She made her professional film debut in his 1976 remake of the 1933 action-adventure classic King Kong , for which she won her first Golden Globe Award , for New Star of the Year . In 1982 , she became the first performer in 40 years to receive two Oscar nominations within the same year ; she won her second Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie , and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress Frances Farmer , in Frances . Lange received three more nominations before garnering a sixth Oscar nomination and winning , along with her third Golden Globe Award , the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a manic depressive housewife in Blue Sky -LRB- 1994 -RRB- . In 1995 , Lange became the second actress in Oscar history , after Meryl Streep , to win Best Actress after winning Best Supporting Actress ; an achievement that was only repeated again after nearly 20 years by Cate Blanchett in 2014 .   In 2010 , she won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ' famed aunt , Big Edie , in HBO 's Grey Gardens -LRB- 2009 -RRB- . Between 2011 and 2014 , she won her first Screen Actors Guild Award , fifth Golden Globe Award , and second and third Emmy Awards for her performances in the first and third seasons of FX 's horror anthology series American Horror Story -LRB- 2011 -- 2015 -RRB- . In 2016 , Lange won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play , an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her critically acclaimed performance in the Broadway revival of Long Day 's Journey into Night . During 2017 , Lange portrayed film legend Joan Crawford in the first season of the television series Feud , for which she received universal critical acclaim .   In addition to acting , Lange is a photographer with three published works . She has also been a foster parent and currently holds a Goodwill Ambassador position for UNICEF , specializing in HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Russia .