Biography
Diana Elizabeth Scarwid is a retired American actress, best known for her portrayal of adult Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1980). She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Inside Moves (1980), and for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Truman (1995). She has over 70 film and television credits to her name. Her films include Pretty Baby (1978), Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Rumble Fish, Silkwood (bo...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Another Happy Day
2011
as Donna
A wedding at her parents' Annapolis estate hurls high-strung Lynn into the center of touchy family dynamics.

The Psycho Legacy
2010
as Self
The cast and crew of all four Psycho films recall their time working on the influential horror series, and modern masters of horror reminisce on what ...

Backyard Wedding
2010
as Susan Slauson
Kim Tyler grew up loving her next-door neighbor, Evan Slauson. Now she's all set to have the wedding of her dreams to stable Jeffrey in her parents' b...

Nora Roberts' Tribute
2009
as Cathy Morrow
A former child star buys her grandmother's house to rescue it from ruin but her hope for serenity is soon eclipsed by haunting dreams of her famous gr...

Dream Boy
2008
as Vivian Davies
The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the bru...

Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
2006
Documentary which focuses more on the impact of the film upon its release and how it has seeped into the culture since that time. It is always fun to ...

Mommie Dearest: The Revival of Joan
2006
A documentary in which the creative team discuss the process of adapting the material, the challenge of bringing an icon to life, bringing Frank Perry...

Mommie Dearest: Life with Joan
2006
Documentary which delves a bit deeper into the story of the film in which the cast and crew discuss some of the narrative beats, the performances in s...

Valley of the Heart's Delight
2006
as Natalie Walsh
When a fatal kidnapping ignites a firestorm of suspicion and rage in idyllic 1933 San Jose, California, a hard-nosed young reporter takes on the power...

The Clearing
2004
as Eva Finch
When affluent executive Wayne Hayes is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee and held for ransom in a forest, Wayne’s wife is forced to reckon with the ...

Path to War
2003
as Marny Clifford
A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside t...

Party Monster
2003
as Elke
The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe ...

A Guy Thing
2003
as Sandra Cooper
Paul Morse is a good guy. When his friends throw him a wild bachelor party, he just wants to keep his conscience clean -- which is why he's shocked wh...

The Angel Doll
2002
as Fronia Black
The story of two small town boys from different sides of the tracks: 1950's childhood and self-redemption. Young "Whitey" Black (so called because of ...

What Lies Beneath
2000
as Jody
When Claire Spencer starts hearing ghostly voices and seeing spooky images, she wonders if an otherworldly spirit is trying to contact her. All the wh...

Dirty Pictures
2000
as Dianne Barrie
A Cincinnati museum director goes on trial in 1990 for exhibiting sadomasochistic photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe.

Down Will Come Baby
1999
as Dorothy McIntyre
Leah Garr wants to move from Phoenix to take a new job in Denver to help her family (Husband Marcus and Daughter Robin). When Robin goes to camp to gi...

Before He Wakes
1998
as Joanne Michaels
Initially cleared of "accidentally" killing her husband, an idyllic wife and mother comes under suspicion when police learn that her first husband als...

Ruby Bridges
1998
as Miss Woodmere
When six-year-old Ruby Bridges is chosen to be the first African-American to integrate her local elementary school, she is subjected to the true uglin...

The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue
1996
as Mrs. Annie Feagan
When an unemployed Detroit man is arrested for a crime he didn't commit, his three children are determined to get him out of jail in time for Christma...

Bastard Out of Carolina
1996
as Aunt Raylene
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her ti...

Critical Choices
1996
as Diana Johnson
A Milwaukee Women's Health Clinic becomes the battleground between pro-choice activists and right-to-life demonstrators over and Easter Sunday weekend...

If These Walls Could Talk
1996
as Marcia Schulman
A powerful, intimate portrait of three women living in the same house during different eras who all face unplanned pregnancies. The vignettes follow a...

Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain
1995
as Lynette Salerno
Two teen girls, one from the city, one from the country, try to find the hidden gold of Bear Mountain learning about friendship, loyalty and courage o...

Truman
1995
as Bess Truman
Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision...

The Neon Bible
1995
as Sarah
During a train ride, a teenager recalls his upbringing in 1940s small-town Georgia and the events that have led to this point.

The Cure
1995
as Gail
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an even...

Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story
1993
as Darlene
When a woman learns she cannot bear children, her mother decides to be a surrogate for her.

Night of the Hunter
1991
as Willa Harper
A false preacher ingratiates himself with a dead man's family to find where he hid the money from a robbery.

Brenda Starr
1989
as Libby 'Lips' Lipscomb
Fearless reporter Brenda Starr needs a big scoop if she wishes to retain her lofty status within the world of journalism, so she ventures deep into th...

After the Promise
1987
as Anna Jackson
Elmer Jackson is a carpenter in a small Californian town in the 1930s. Struggling to bring up 4 young boys after the death of his wife, he is horrifie...

Heat
1986
as Cassie
Reynolds plays an ex-soldier-of-fortunish character in Vegas, taking "Chaperone" jobs, fighting with the mob, and trying to get enough money together ...

Extremities
1986
as Terry
A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the pol...

Psycho III
1986
as Maureen Coyle
When Maureen Coyle, a suicidal nun who resembles Norman's former victim, Marion Crane, arrives at the motel, all bets are off and "Mother" is less tha...

The Ladies Club
1986
as Lucy Bricker
A policewoman who was raped forms a vigilante group of various rape victims. They abduct and castrate men who have committed repeated violations of wo...

A Bunny's Tale
1985
as Toby
A dramatization of Gloria Steinem's undercover investigation of the working conditions Bunnies faced at the Playboy Clubs.

Silkwood
1983
as Angela
The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possi...

Rumble Fish
1983
as Cassandra
Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug, struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation and longs for the days when gang warfare w...

Strange Invaders
1983
as Margaret Bigelow
Alien beings, who settle in a small midwestern town, are disturbed by a young professor determined to rescue his daughter from their clutches.

Thou Shalt Not Kill
1982
as Susan Masters
A man is wrongly convicted for murder and sent to prison, where he is accused of murdering a brutal guard he killed in self-defense.

Desperate Lives
1982
as Eileen Phillips
A brother and sister get caught up in the drug scene in their local high school, with tragic results.

Mommie Dearest
1981
as Christina Crawford
Renowned film star Joan Crawford's abuse towards Christina, her adopted daughter, intensifies as her professional and romantic relationships turn sour...

Inside Moves
1980
as Louise
After a failed suicide attempt leaves him partially crippled, Rory begins spending a lot of time at a neighborhood bar full of interesting misfits. Wh...

Honeysuckle Rose
1980
as Jeanne
Buck Bonham is a country singer on the road caught in a romantic triangle with Dyan Cannon and Amy Irving, the daughter of one of his longtime musical...

Battered
1978
as Doris Thompson
Gritty drama of three interweaving stories of three women of various backgrounds and ages whose marriages are complicated by spouse-abuse by their hus...

Pretty Baby
1978
as Frieda
Hattie, a New Orleans prostitute, meets a photographer named Bellocq at her brothel one night and, after he photographs her, he befriends her 12-year-...

Forever
1978
as Sybil Davidson
Romantic drama about a teenage girl's first love and the perennial adolescent dilemma of whether to give herself to him in order to hang on to him. Ba...

The Possessed
1977
as Lane
A former priest, now an exorcist, battles the satanic forces that are threatening the students at a girls school.

In the Glitter Palace
1977
as Casey Walker
The ex-girlfriend of a lawyer, who left him for a lesbian lover, asks him to defend her lover in a murder case.