Remember When: Sissy Spacek Won an Oscar for Playing Loretta Lynn

The worlds of country music and Hollywood collided when Loretta Lynn‘s life was turned into the 1980 film, Coal Miner’s Daughter. Named after Lynn’s greatest hit, the film explored her poor upbringing in the rural town of Butcher Holler (or Butcher Hollow), Kentucky, and her rise to becoming a country legend.

Sissy Spacek was cast as Lynn while future Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Lynn’s husband Oliver Doolittle. In addition to achieving critical acclaim, the film was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Spacek won her first and only Academy Award for Best Actress at the 1981 ceremony.

“This is the greatest, for the first time in my life, I’m speechless,” an overwhelmed Spacek said in her acceptance speech. “I started to work on Coal Miner’s Daughter with a bunch of strangers and I finished working on Coal Miner’s Daughter with a bunch of friends.” She thanked Lynn, who was sitting in the audience next to her husband, along with the film’s director Michael Apted and “My Doolittle,” her costar Jones. She went on to thank her other costar Beverly D’Angelo, who appeared as Lynn’s friend Patsy Cline, and other members of the cast and crew. “And the lady who gave me all that hair,” Spacek joked. “All the cast and crew that worked on Coal Miner’s Daughter, I share this with you and I love you.”

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Lynn hand-picked Spacek for the role, the singer revealing the news on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson even before Spacek had accepted the role. The actress was hesitant at first and said she wanted to do her own singing in an effort to deter studio executives from hiring her. In her 2012 memoir, My Extraordinary Ordinary Life, Spacek shared how she was torn between taking Coal Miner’s Daughter and another film she was pitched, but after praying for a sign about which role to take, she heard “Coal Miner’s Daughter” playing on the radio days later.

The two remained longtime friends, with Spacek appearing at the 2018 CMT Artists of the Year ceremony in Nashville where Lynn received the CMT Artist of a Lifetime honor. “From the moment we met, she’s been my cheerleader, my sister, my best friend,” Spacek said tearfully. “It’s still like that almost 40 years later.” Lynn passed away on October 4, 2022, at the age of 90.

(Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns) Getty