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Jacki Weaver

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Jacki Weaver

Jacqueline Ruth Weaver AO (born 25 May 1947) is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. She emerged in the 1970s during the Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as Stork (1971), Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974). She later starred in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976), Squizzy Taylor (1982), and a number of television films and miniseries. She also starred in Australian productions of plays such as Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Weaver received international attention and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in the crime film Animal Kingdom (2010) and the comedy drama film Silver Linings Playbook (2012), the former of which also earned her the National Board of Review Award. This attention led her to receive roles in further Hollywood projects, including the films The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Parkland (2013), Magic in the Moonlight (2014), The Disaster Artist (2017), Bird Box, Widows (both 2018), Poms (2019), Stage Mother (2020), and Father Stu (2022).

On television, Weaver starred in the Starz comedy series Blunt Talk (2015–2016), the Fox Showcase political thriller Secret City (2016–2019), the Epix thriller Perpetual Grace, LTD (2019), and the Stan science fiction series Bloom (2019–2020). Since 2021, she has played a recurring role as Caroline Warner in the Paramount Network neo-Western series Yellowstone.

Jacqueline Ruth Weaver was born in Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. Her mother, Edith (née Simpson), was a migrant from England, and her father, Arthur Weaver, was a Sydney solicitor. She attended Hornsby Girls' High School and was Dux of her school. She won a scholarship to study sociology at university, but instead embarked upon an acting career.

Weaver has been working in Australian film, stage, and television since the 1960s. In 1963, at the age of 16, Weaver mimed the role of Gretel to the soprano Janet Rutledge in an ABC production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. In 1964 at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, Weaver and a number of other Australian singers such as The Delltones and her then-boyfriend Bryan Davies performed a satire on the Gidget movies, in which Weaver performed as "Gadget". In the mid-1960s, she appeared on the Australian music show Bandstand. In one appearance, she sang a 1920s-style pastiche, the novelty song "I Love Onions". The turning point in her career came in 1965 just before she was about to go to university and was cast in the Australian TV series Wandjina!

In 1971, Weaver made her big screen debut playing the female leading role in the comedy film, Stork directed by Tim Burstall, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award. She later starred in the comedy films Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974). She played supporting role in Peter Weir's critically acclaimed mystery film version of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and a more substantial appearance in Caddie (1976) for which she won her second Australian Film Institute Award. In the following years, Weaver appeared in TV series, miniseries, and made-for-television movies, playing leading and supporting roles. Her notable television movies including Polly Me Love (1976), and Do I Have to Kill My Child? (1976), for which she received Logie Award for Best Individual Performance By An Actress.

Weaver starred in the miniseries Water Under the Bridge (1980) and The Challenge (1986), and 1982 drama film Squizzy Taylor. Also in the 1980s she appeared alongside Sir Les Patterson and politician Barry Jones on Parkinson Contrary to popular belief, Weaver has never appeared in a soap opera. She starred in the 1988 ABC drama series, House Rules about a Melbourne house-wife who becomes a member of parliament. After years off-screen, Weaver returned to film starring in the comedy-drama Cosi.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Weaver found it increasingly difficult to gain roles on screen or television and she devoted much of her energy to the Australian stage, starring in plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Death of a Salesman, Reg Cribb's Last Cab to Darwin, and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya alongside Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in 2010–11. Weaver has performed in more than 80 plays. Her stage abilities were recognised with a "Mo" award. In 2005, she released her autobiography, Much Love, Jac.

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