Mary McDonnell
Mary McDonnell, a two-time
Oscar(r),-nominated actress, is most well famous for her performance on screen
in both contemporary and historical roles. She has also had a long line of
roles on stage as well as screen. Mary Eileen McDonnell was the daughter of
John McDonnell (a computer consultant) and Eileen (Mundy), the daughter of a
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania native. Raised in Ithaca, New York, she graduated
from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. Later, she attended
drama school , and was accepted into the prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company
on the East Coast. A decade later she was offered her first film role, in Kevin
Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990), playing "Stands with a Fist" who
is a white woman raised by the Sioux Indians. The role was so well-loved that
she earned her first Academy Award nomination. McDonnell's film credits include
Lawrence Kasdan films Grand Canyon (1991) and Mumford (1999) (opposite such
experienced actors as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier as well as Ben Kingsley);
Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); acclaimed art
house cult hit Donnie Darko (2001); and Margin Call (2011) (opposite Kevin
Spacey), which won her the Robert Altman Award at the 2012 Independent Spirit
Awards. On the small screen, McDonnell starred in four seasons on the Syfy
Network's award-winning series Battlestar Galactica (2004) in her critically
praised performance as President Laura Roslin. Her regular guest role as host
on the TV show ER (1994) was rewarded with an Emmy nomination. The wildly
popular TNT drama Major Crimes (2012) stars her as Captain Sharon Raydor. It is
McDonnell's second season and she received a nomination for a Primetime
Emmy(r). As a paraplegic soap-opera actress in John Sayles’s critically
acclaimed film Passion Fish (1992), she won a Best Actress Academy Award(r),
nomination, and a Golden Globe nomination.
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