Spacek went on to earn the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn in the biographical musical Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).

Spacek is also known for her television roles, receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for The Good Old Boys (1995), Last Call (2002), and Big Love (2011).

She received international attention for her breakthrough role in Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973); she played Holly, the film's narrator and 15-year-old girlfriend of serial killer Kit (Martin Sheen).

[9] After rubbing Vaseline in her hair and donning an old sailor dress her mother had made for her as a child, she turned up at the audition with the odds against her, but won the part.

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote: "Though few actresses have distinguished themselves in gothics, Sissy Spacek, who is onscreen almost continuously, gives a classic chameleon performance.

She shifts back and forth and sideways: a nasal, whining child; a chaste young beauty at the prom; and then a second transformation when her destructive impulses burst out and age her.

Sissy Spacek uses her freckled pallor and whitish eyelashes to suggest a squashed, groggy girl who could go in any direction; at times, she seems unborn–a fetus.

"[16] After Carrie, Spacek played the small role of housekeeper Linda Murray in Alan Rudolph's ensemble piece Welcome to LA (1976) and cemented her reputation in independent cinema with her performance as Pinky Rose in Robert Altman's classic 3 Women (1977).

A review in The New York Times said, "In this film Miss Spacek adds a new dimension of eeriness to the waif she played so effectively in Carrie.

Spacek began the 1980s with an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), in which she played country music star Loretta Lynn, who selected her for the role.

With the same sort of magical chemistry she's shown before, when she played the high school kid in Carrie, Spacek at 29 has the ability to appear to be almost any age on screen.

[21] In the film Heart Beat (1980), Spacek played Carolyn Cassady, who—under the influence of John Heard's Jack Kerouac and Nick Nolte's Neal Cassady—slips into a combination of drudgery and debauchery.

"[26] Spacek starred with Jack Lemmon in Costa-Gavras's 1982 political thriller Missing (based on the book The Execution of Charles Horman).

She appeared with Mel Gibson in the rural drama The River (1984) and she starred alongside Diane Keaton and Jessica Lange in the grimly humorous comedy film Crimes Of The Heart (1986).

[9] Other performances of the decade included star turns in husband Jack Fisk's directorial debut Raggedy Man (1981) and the drama 'Night, Mother (1986) with Anne Bancroft.

[27] Spacek had a supporting role as the wife of Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) and made a number of comedies, TV movies, and the occasional film.

Spacek began the 2000s with critical acclaim for her performance as Ruth Fowler, a grieving mother consumed by revenge, in Todd Field's In the Bedroom, which was released in 2001.

With the slight tightening of her neck muscles and a downward twitch of her mouth, she conveys her character's relentlessness, then balances it with enough sweetness to make Ruth seem entirely human.

That same year she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role as Zelda Fitzgerald in the Showtime television film Last Call (2002).

Spacek played unfaithful wife Ruth in Rodrigo García's Nine Lives (2005) and a woman suffering from Alzheimer's in the television movie Pictures of Hollis Woods (2007).

[36][37] The Washington Post's Jen Chaney called it "refreshingly down-to-earth" and "beautifully written,"[38] adding that Spacek's description of her childhood is so "evocative that one can almost taste the sour stalks of goatweed she chewed on steamy summer afternoons."

Jay Stafford of Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote that, unlike other actors' autobiographies, Spacek's "benefits from good writing and remarkable frankness.

"[40] Biographile's Kirkus Reviews was less appreciative, calling it "an average memoir" and "overly detailed" while criticizing its lack of "narrative arc," but complimented Spacek for being "truly down-to-earth.

She also co-starred with Robert Redford in his next-to-last role before his retirement in the biographical crime film The Old Man & the Gun (2018), which received critical acclaim.