Early Life
Spacek was born on Christmas Day (December 25), 1949, in Quitman, Texas. She is the daughter of Virginia Frances (née Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Spacek's paternal grandparents, Mary Červenka and Arnold A. Špaček (who served as Mayor of Granger, Texas in Williamson County), were of Czech (Moravian) and German ancestry. Note that Sissy pronounces her surname "SPACE'k", while her family retains the original Czech pronunciation, "SHPAH-chek". Sissy has a male cousin who is a Blues musician in Texas, Jimmy Spacek. Jimmy has chosen to use the traditional/ethnic pronunciation of his surname. Her mother, of English and Irish descent, was from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Spacek was greatly affected by the death of her eighteen-year old brother, Robbie, in 1967, which she has called "the defining event of my whole life." After she graduated from high school she moved to New York City, hoping to become a singer. There, she lived with her first cousin, actor Rip Torn, and his wife, actress Geraldine Page.
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