Born in Caldwell, ID; educated at Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Blakley, a country-and-western singer, was indelible as Barbara Jean in NASHVILLE (1975). In this role, her acting debut, she played an adored and infantilized singer, victimized by both her own childlike fragility and by stardom itself. After this brilliantly attuned performance, Blakley appeared in Nicholas Ray's last screen effort, LIGHTNING OVER WATER (1980), and in numerous less-than-memorable roles. Her later credits tended toward low budget genre and independent fare, including an early Walter Hill effort, THE DRIVER (1978), Wes Craven's original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984), playing a campy alcoholic mother, and Henry Jaglom's SOMEONE TO LOVE (1987). She wrote, produced, directed, composed the music and starred in I PLAYED IT FOR YOU (1985). She appeared in STUDENT CONFIDENTIAL (1987), SOMEONE TO LOVE (1987), A RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT (1987) and her most recent film, MURDER BY NUMBERS (a.k.a. MURDER 1, MURDER 2) (1990).  Nominated for Supporting Actress 1975: NASHVILLE 1 nomination