- Frances McDormand
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Frances McDormand 
On the set of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day in May 2007Born Frances Louise McDormand
June 23, 1957
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.Occupation Actress Years active 1984–present Spouse Joel Coen
(1984–present)Frances Louise McDormand[1] (born June 23, 1957) is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 2011 for her performance in Good People as Margie Walsh, having been nominated for the same category in 1988 for the revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.
McDormand was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress three times for her performances in Mississippi Burning, Almost Famous, and North Country, and has also been nominated for four Golden Globes, three BAFTA Awards,[2] and an Emmy Award.
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Early life
McDormand was born in Chicago and was adopted by the McDormands, a Canadian couple – Noreen, a registered nurse and receptionist, and Vernon, a Disciples of Christ pastor. She has said that her biological mother may have been one of the parishioners at Vernon's church.[3] She has a sister, Dorothy A. McDormand, who is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and chaplain,[4] as well as another sibling, both of whom were adopted by the McDormands, who had no biological children. As her father specialized in restoring congregations,[3] he frequently moved their family, and they lived in several small towns in Illinois, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee,[5] before settling in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area town of Monessen, where she graduated from high school in 1975. She attended Bethany College, West Virginia, and earned a B.A. in Theater in 1979.
In 1982, McDormand earned an M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Drama. She was a roommate of Holly Hunter at the time. Her first professional acting job was in Trinidad and Tobago, performing in a play written by poet (and Nobel laureate) Derek Walcott and funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
Career
McDormand's film debut was in Joel and Ethan Coen's first film, 1984's Blood Simple. In 1985, McDormand, the Coen brothers, Holly Hunter, and director Sam Raimi shared a house in The Bronx.[citation needed] In 1987 she appeared as the wacky neighbor Dot in the hit film Raising Arizona, starring Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage.
In addition to her early film roles, McDormand played Connie Chapman in the fifth season of the television police drama Hill Street Blues. In 1988, she played Stella Kowalski in a stage production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. McDormand is an associate member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group.
McDormand appeared in several theatrical and television roles during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. She has gained renown and critical acclaim for her dramatic work,[6] and is a respected actress, having been nominated for Academy Awards four times. In 1988, she was nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mississippi Burning; in 1996, she won the Academy award for Best Actress for her performance as police chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo; in 2000, she earned her second nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of an overbearing mother in Almost Famous. Also for Almost Famous, she won the Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, San Diego Film Critics Society, Southeastern Film Critics Association, and the Florida Film Critics Circle. For her role in Wonder Boys (2000), she won Best Supporting Actress from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
In 2006, McDormand received her third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 2005's North Country, although she lost to Rachel Weisz. She also had a role in the film Friends with Money, a dark comedy co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, and Joan Cusack, and directed by Nicole Holofcener. She received an Independent Spirit Award for her role in Friends with Money. She also voiced the role of the lady principal Melanie Upfoot in the Simpsons episode Girls Just Want to Have Sums, which aired on April 30, 2006. McDormand has recently starred in the films Burn After Reading and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
McDormand starred in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the sequel to the hit film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. She played the US government's National Intelligence Director, alongside Burn After Reading co-star John Malkovich.
She has returned to the stage in the David Lindsay-Abaire play Good People, in a limited engagement on Broadway from February 8, 2011 to May 29, 2011.[7][8] Her performance garnered her a Tony Award win for Best Leading Actress in a Play.[9]
Personal life
McDormand has been married to director Joel Coen since 1984, and the two adopted a son from Paraguay, Pedro McDormand Coen, in 1994. They live in New York City. McDormand has starred in six of the Coen Brothers films, including a minor appearance in Miller's Crossing, a secondary role in Raising Arizona and lead roles in Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, Fargo, for which she won an Academy Award, and more recently Burn After Reading. Additionally, she contributed an uncredited offscreen (voice only) appearance to the opening scene in the Coens' Barton Fink.
Frances McDormand also participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, a local New York City Film Festival dedicated to screening films for children between the ages of 3 and 18.[10]
Filmography
References
- ^ Crowe, Cameron. Frances McDormand interview. Interview. October 2000. FindArticles.com. 25 December 2007[dead link]
- ^ "Frances McDormand listing" Internet BroadwayDatabase, accessed May 4, 2011
- ^ a b "''Naked ambition''. theage.com.au. 25 October 2003". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. October 25, 2003. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/22/1066631495804.html. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ^ "''Disciples "PK" wins best actress' award''. Disciples News Service Release. 31 March 2007". Disciples.org. http://www.disciples.org/dns/releases97/97b21.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ^ "''I'd love to play a psycho killer''. film.guardian.co.uk. 26 January 2001". London: Film.guardian.co.uk. 2001-02-14. http://film.guardian.co.uk/oscars2001/storynav/0,7677,437576,00.html. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ^ "Story Medium". http://www.imaginefashion.com/ladies-gentlemen/story-medium-frances-mcdormand. Imagine Fashion. Interview with Frances McDormand (2011).
- ^ Jones, Kenneth." 'Good People', Play of Aspiration and Escape, With Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan, Begins on Broadway" playbill.com, February 8, 2011
- ^ Jones, Kenneth."Broadway's 'Good People' Gets Final Extension, Shifting Dates of 'Master Class' " playbill.com, March 22, 2011
- ^ Jones, Kenneth and Gans, Andrew."2011 Tony Nominations Announced; 'Book of Mormon' Earns 14 Nominations" playbill.com, May 3, 2011
- ^ "NYICFF Jury". Gkids.com. http://gkids.com/?section=jury. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
External links
- Frances McDormand at the Internet Movie Database
- Frances McDormand at the Internet Broadway Database
- Frances McDormand at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
Awards for Frances McDormand Academy Award for Best Actress (1981–2000) Katharine Hepburn (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Geraldine Page (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Cher (1987) · Jodie Foster (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000)
Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–2020) Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (2001–2025) Mary-Louise Parker (2001) · Lindsay Duncan (2002) · Vanessa Redgrave (2003) · Viola Davis / Phylicia Rashād (2004) · Cherry Jones (2005) · Lois Smith (2006) · Eve Best (2007) · Deanna Dunagan (2008) · Janet McTeer (2009) · Jan Maxwell (2010) · Frances McDormand (2011)
Complete list · (1975–2000) · (2001–2025) Empire Award for Best Actress Nicole Kidman (1996) · Frances McDormand (1997) · Joan Allen (1998) · Cate Blanchett (1999) · Gwyneth Paltrow (2000) · Connie Nielsen (2001) · Nicole Kidman (2002) · Kirsten Dunst (2003) · Uma Thurman (2004) · Julie Delpy (2005) · Thandie Newton (2006) · Penélope Cruz (2007) · Keira Knightley (2008) · Helena Bonham Carter (2009) · Zoe Saldana (2010) · Noomi Rapace (2011)Screen Actors Guild Award – Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role (1994–2000) Jodie Foster (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Annette Bening (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000)
Complete list · (1994–2000) · (2001–2020)Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (2001–2025) Mary-Louise Parker (2001) · Lindsay Duncan (2002) · Vanessa Redgrave (2003) · Phylicia Rashād (2004) · Cherry Jones (2005) · Cynthia Nixon (2006) · Julie White (2007) · Deanna Dunagan (2008) · Marcia Gay Harden (2009) · Viola Davis (2010) · Frances McDormand (2011)
Complete list · (1947–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1957 births
- Living people
- Actors from Chicago, Illinois
- Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- American Disciples of Christ
- American film actors
- American people of Canadian descent
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Best Actress Academy Award winners
- Best Actress Empire Award winners
- Bethany College (West Virginia) alumni
- Drama Desk Award winners
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
- Yale School of Drama alumni
- American adoptees
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Tony Award winners
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