Mary McDonnell
Mary McDonnell made her impressive debut on the New York stage in
Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-winning
Buried Child. Subsequent stage work includes appearances in
A Doll's House,
Savage in Limbo,
O Pioneers!,
A Weekend Near Madison and
The Heidi Chronicles. She received an Obie for her performance in
Still Life. Her breakthrough film role came as the boardinghouse owner in
John Sayles' acclaimed
Matewan (1987). McDonnell received much critical praise in
Dances with Wolves (1991) as Stands with a Fist, a white woman raised by a tribe of Sioux Indians who becomes charmed by a disgruntled Civil War veteran (played by
Kevin Costner). She received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for that role and earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for another John Sayles film,
Passion Fish (1992). Other memorable screen credits include playing
Kevin Kline's unhappy wife in
Lawrence Kasdan's
Grand Canyon, as the First Lady in the blockbuster hit
Independence Day and, most recently, as
Jake Gyllenhaal's mother in the psycho-thriller,
Donnie Darko.
Her illustrious small-screen career had humble beginnings as four-year-old Claudia Colfax on CBS's long-running soap, AS THE WORLD TURNS. While she has appeared in many made-for-television movies, including Woman Undone and a remake of 12 Angry Men, she's probably best known for her recurring role as Dr. Chris Carter's absentee mother on ER; the performance earned her a 2002 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress.
Note: This profile was written in or before
2003.
Read earlier biographies on
this page.
Mary McDonnell Facts
Selected Filmography
| Donnie Darko |
| Sneakers |
| Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series |
| You Can Thank Me Later |
| Dances with Wolves |
| Major Crimes: Season 4 |
| Battlestar Galactica:The Mini-Series |
| Born Free |
|
