"Amazing Grace" Zabriskie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She wrote
her own original poetry, then performed at coffee shops and various
artist hangouts in Atlanta. She was also a wonderful silk-screen
printmaker. She moved to Hollywood and made her acting debut in
Norma Rae (1979). She went on to appear in over 80 movies. She gave an acclaimed
performance as Mrs. Ames in
East of Eden (1981), the adaptation of
John Steinbeck's novel.
Grace appeared in the highly acclaimed and Oscar-nominated
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and
The Big Easy (1986), set in her beloved New Orleans. She worked with producer and
director
David Lynch, and was a series regular in the cult favorite
Twin Peaks (1990)
as Sarah Palmer, the part with which she is most often identified. She
also appeared in Lynch's
Wild at Heart (1990) the same year. She has played a wide
variety of roles, and gave a terrific performance in the
Oscar-nominated
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and showed great character depth as the lonely
and despondent widow in
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995).
Grace's more recent roles were in the zany
Sparkler (1997) and in the big-name
feature
No Good Deed (2002), based on a short story by
Dashiell Hammett. A woman of many
talents, she is currently creating her own original paintings, unique
sculptures and woodwork art that can be viewed in Los Angeles
galleries.
Her visual arts, which include creating lamps or "sculptures with
light" as she calls them, are available from the L.A.-based
ArtHaus.