Coal Miner's Daughter
Encyclopedia
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music
icon Loretta Lynn
. It stars Sissy Spacek
in her Academy Award for Best Actress
winning role, Tommy Lee Jones
, Beverly D'Angelo
and Levon Helm
, and was directed by Michael Apted
.
. Loretta Lynn was one of eight children born to Ted Webb (Levon Helm
), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky
, pronounced by locals as "Butcher Holler". She married Oliver Vanetta (Doolittle) "Mooney" Lynn
(Tommy Lee Jones
) when she was 13 years old.
A mother of four by the time she was 19 (and a grandmother by age 29), Lynn began singing the occasional song at local honky-tonks on weekends as well as making the occasional radio appearance.
At the age of 25, Norm Burley owner of Zero Records a small Canadian record label heard her sing on one of her early Northern Washington radio appearances and gave the couple the money needed to travel to Los Angeles, to cut a demo tape from which her first single Honky Tonk Girl would be made.
After returning home from the sessions, Mooney suggested that they go on a promotional tour in order to push the record. He took his own publicity photo, spent many late nights tirelessly writing each individual radio disc jockey from a published list of country radio stations all over the South along with show promoters and after Loretta receives an emergency phone call from home telling her that her father has passed away, she and Mooney hit the road with records, photos and kids in tow.
After the funeral and dropping the kids off at Loretta's mother's house in Kentucky, Loretta and Mooney used the remaining money provided for the trip to L.A. to record, to embark on an extensive radio station promotional tour of the Greater South.
Enroute, and unbeknownst to the pair, Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl", had hit the charts based on radio as well as jukebox plays and earned her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry
. After seventeen straight weekly performances on the Opry, she was invited to sing at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Midnite Jamboree
after her Opry performance that night. Country-female superstar Patsy Cline
, one of Loretta's idols had recently been hospitalized from a near-fatal car wreck, and so Loretta used her time to dedicate Patsy's newest hit I Fall to Pieces
to the singer herself as a musical get-well card.
Cline was in fact listening to the broadcast that night from her hospital room and sent her husband Charlie Dick down to Tubbs' record shop to fetch Loretta so the two could meet. A long and close friendship with Patsy Cline followed, ended only by the tragic death of her idol in a plane crash on March 5, 1963.
Extensive touring, keeping up her image, overwork and a great deal of stress from trying to keep her family and marriage together caused a nervous breakdown
, however after a year off at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN she was back out on the road in fine form as the First Lady of Country Music.
Some months later, Mooney drives Loretta at breakneck speed out to what we discover is a proposed site for a new house. They argue about where to put the bedrooms, and finally, Mooney somewhat jokingly says if they can't settle the issue about where to put the bedrooms, he's going to go live in a treehouse up at the top of a hill. The film ends with Loretta performing the title track as well as her signature song to a sold out crowd, and we hear a medley of Loretta Lynn hits performed live over the credits which does not appear on any album.
that "Sissy Spacek is going to play me," the actress was torn between friends who advised her to do Lynn's film and those who advised her to choose instead a Nicolas Roeg
project due to start filming at the same time. Talking it over with her mother-in-law that evening, Spacek was advised to pray for a sign, which she did. She and her husband subsequently went for a drive in his mother's car, where the radio was tuned to a classical music
station that changed formats at sunset every evening. As the couple pulled out of the parking garage, the title line of the song "Coal Miner's Daughter" sallied forth from the radio.
For her performance, Spacek won an Academy Award, as well as "Best Actress" awards from the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle
. Her co-star Beverly D'Angelo
, who played Loretta's mentor, Patsy Cline
, also chose to do her own singing rather than lip-synching; she was nominated for a Golden Globe, as was Tommy Lee Jones. Levon Helm (drummer for the rock group The Band
) made his screen debut as Loretta's father, Ted Webb. Ernest Tubb
, Roy Acuff
, and Minnie Pearl
all make cameo appearances as themselves.
(Sissy Spacek), and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
(John W. Corso
, John M. Dwyer
), Best Cinematography
, Best Film Editing
, Best Picture
, Best Sound (Richard Portman
, Roger Heman
and James R. Alexander
) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
.
label. It included music by Beverly D'Angelo
, Levon Helm
, and Sissy Spacek
except for the "End Credits Medley" and material by other artists which were not under contract to MCA.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
icon Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
. It stars Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
in her Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
winning role, Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
, Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
and Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, and was directed by Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
.
Background
The film was adapted from Lynn's 1976 autobiography written with George VecseyGeorge Vecsey
George Vecsey is an American non-fiction author and sports columnist for The New York Times. Vecsey is best known for his work in sports, but has co-written several autobiographies with non-sports figures.-Career:...
. Loretta Lynn was one of eight children born to Ted Webb (Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky
Butcher Hollow, Kentucky
Butcher Hollow is a coal-mining community located in Johnson County, Kentucky, USA. Its claim to fame is being the birthplace of country music legend Loretta Lynn, who paid tribute to the community in the song Coal Miner's Daughter, which begins with the lyrics"Well, I was born a coal miner's...
, pronounced by locals as "Butcher Holler". She married Oliver Vanetta (Doolittle) "Mooney" Lynn
Oliver Lynn
Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. , better known as Doolittle Lynn was an American talent manager and country music figure, best-known as the husband of country music legend Loretta Lynn...
(Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
) when she was 13 years old.
At the age of 25, Norm Burley owner of Zero Records a small Canadian record label heard her sing on one of her early Northern Washington radio appearances and gave the couple the money needed to travel to Los Angeles, to cut a demo tape from which her first single Honky Tonk Girl would be made.
After returning home from the sessions, Mooney suggested that they go on a promotional tour in order to push the record. He took his own publicity photo, spent many late nights tirelessly writing each individual radio disc jockey from a published list of country radio stations all over the South along with show promoters and after Loretta receives an emergency phone call from home telling her that her father has passed away, she and Mooney hit the road with records, photos and kids in tow.
After the funeral and dropping the kids off at Loretta's mother's house in Kentucky, Loretta and Mooney used the remaining money provided for the trip to L.A. to record, to embark on an extensive radio station promotional tour of the Greater South.
Enroute, and unbeknownst to the pair, Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl", had hit the charts based on radio as well as jukebox plays and earned her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
. After seventeen straight weekly performances on the Opry, she was invited to sing at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Ernest Tubb Record Shop is an album by American country singer Ernest Tubb, released in 1960 . It is named after Tubb's record shop in Nashville.-Reception:...
Midnite Jamboree
Midnite Jamboree
The Midnite Jamboree was started by Ernest Tubb and is broadcast to this day on WSM radio each Saturday night at midnight, following the Grand Ole Opry....
after her Opry performance that night. Country-female superstar Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
, one of Loretta's idols had recently been hospitalized from a near-fatal car wreck, and so Loretta used her time to dedicate Patsy's newest hit I Fall to Pieces
I Fall to Pieces
"I Fall to Pieces" is a single released by Patsy Cline in 1961, and was featured on her 1961 studio album, Patsy Cline Showcase. "I Fall to Pieces" was Cline's first #1 hit on the Country charts, and her second hit single to cross over onto the Pop charts...
to the singer herself as a musical get-well card.
Cline was in fact listening to the broadcast that night from her hospital room and sent her husband Charlie Dick down to Tubbs' record shop to fetch Loretta so the two could meet. A long and close friendship with Patsy Cline followed, ended only by the tragic death of her idol in a plane crash on March 5, 1963.
Extensive touring, keeping up her image, overwork and a great deal of stress from trying to keep her family and marriage together caused a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
, however after a year off at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN she was back out on the road in fine form as the First Lady of Country Music.
Some months later, Mooney drives Loretta at breakneck speed out to what we discover is a proposed site for a new house. They argue about where to put the bedrooms, and finally, Mooney somewhat jokingly says if they can't settle the issue about where to put the bedrooms, he's going to go live in a treehouse up at the top of a hill. The film ends with Loretta performing the title track as well as her signature song to a sold out crowd, and we hear a medley of Loretta Lynn hits performed live over the credits which does not appear on any album.
Cast
- Sissy SpacekSissy SpacekSissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
as Loretta LynnLoretta LynnLoretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he... - Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
as Doolittle 'Mooney' or 'Doo' LynnOliver LynnOliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. , better known as Doolittle Lynn was an American talent manager and country music figure, best-known as the husband of country music legend Loretta Lynn... - Beverly D'AngeloBeverly D'AngeloBeverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
as Patsy ClinePatsy ClinePatsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s... - Levon HelmLevon HelmMark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
as Ted Webb - Phyllis Boyens as 'Clary' Webb
- Bob HannahBob HannahRobert "Hurricane" Hannah was one of the most successful motocross racers in American history. He won a total of seven AMA national championships....
as Charlie Dick - William SandersonWilliam SandersonWilliam Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as Lee Dollarhide - Ernest TubbErnest TubbErnest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...
as Himself
Participants
Lynn personally chose Spacek to portray her, making the decision based on a photograph of the actress despite being unfamiliar with her films, a story Spacek recounts in a DVD commentary for the Collector's Edition of the film. Initially, Spacek was reluctant to participate, and asked to do her own singing in the film in hopes of scaring off the studio from pursuing her for the role. At the time that Lynn prematurely announced on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
that "Sissy Spacek is going to play me," the actress was torn between friends who advised her to do Lynn's film and those who advised her to choose instead a Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
project due to start filming at the same time. Talking it over with her mother-in-law that evening, Spacek was advised to pray for a sign, which she did. She and her husband subsequently went for a drive in his mother's car, where the radio was tuned to a classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
station that changed formats at sunset every evening. As the couple pulled out of the parking garage, the title line of the song "Coal Miner's Daughter" sallied forth from the radio.
For her performance, Spacek won an Academy Award, as well as "Best Actress" awards from the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January...
, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle
Kansas City Film Critics Circle
The Kansas City Film Critics Circle is a group of media film critics in the Kansas City metropolitan area. James Loutzenhiser, a local psychiatrist and film buff, who died in November 2001, founded the group in 1967...
. Her co-star Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
, who played Loretta's mentor, Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
, also chose to do her own singing rather than lip-synching; she was nominated for a Golden Globe, as was Tommy Lee Jones. Levon Helm (drummer for the rock group The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
) made his screen debut as Loretta's father, Ted Webb. Ernest Tubb
Ernest Tubb
Ernest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...
, Roy Acuff
Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
, and Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
all make cameo appearances as themselves.
Awards
This film won the Academy Award for Best ActressAcademy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Sissy Spacek), and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(John W. Corso
John W. Corso
John W. Corso was an American art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Coal Miner's Daughter.-External links:...
, John M. Dwyer
John M. Dwyer
John M. Dwyer is an American set decorator. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Coal Miner's Daughter.-External links:...
), Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
, Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, Best Sound (Richard Portman
Richard Portman
Richard Portman is an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and has been nominated for ten more in the same category...
, Roger Heman
Roger Heman
Roger Heman was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for another one in the same category.-Selected filmography:Won* Jaws Nominated...
and James R. Alexander
James R. Alexander
James R. Alexander is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-External links:...
) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
.
Home media
- This movie was released on LaserDiscLaserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
on two separate releases. The first release was in May 1980, and the extended play version was released in July 1981. These releases were both made by MCA DiscoVision. - The movie was released in the VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format on March 1, 1992 by MCA/Universal Home Video - On September 13, 2005, Universal Pictures released a 25th Anniversary Edition of this film on DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, in widescreen (1.85:1) format and featuring the music tracks remixed to 5.1 Dolby Digital stereo, leaving the dialogue and effects tracks as they were on the original mono soundtrack from 1980.
Soundtrack
The original motion picture soundtrack for Coal Miner's Daughter was released in 1980, under the MCA RecordsMCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
label. It included music by Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, and Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
except for the "End Credits Medley" and material by other artists which were not under contract to MCA.
Track listing
Chart performance
| Chart (1980) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada Country Albums (RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... ) |
1 |
| Canada Top Albums (RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... ) |
23 |
| US Top Country Albums (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... ) |
2 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
40 |