Mary-Louise Parker
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Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964 in Fort Jackson, South Carolina) is an American actress whose work in theatre and film has won her international acclaim. She has been the recipient of the prestigious Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Her best-known works include Fried Green Tomatoes, Boys on the Side, Proof, The West Wing, Angels in America, and her current role on Showtime's Weeds.
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[edit] Early Work
Acting was always her passion and she graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with acting as her major. She then got her start in a bit part on the soap opera Ryan's Hope.
In the late '80s, Parker moved to New York where she got a job measuring feet at ECCO. After a few minor roles, she made her Broadway debut in a 1990 production of Craig Lucas's Prelude to a Kiss, playing the lead role of Rita. For her performance she won the Clarence Derwent Award and was nominated for a Tony award. Parker also briefly dated her co-star Timothy Hutton. However, when the play was made into a film, Meg Ryan took over Parker's role.
That same year, Parker was noticed by critics worldwide when she appeared in the movie adaptation of another Craig Lucas play, the poignant Longtime Companion, one of the first movies to truly deal with AIDS.
This role was followed by her appearance in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), alongside Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates and Cicely Tyson; and - that same year - in Grand Canyon alongside Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard and Kevin Kline.
[edit] 1990s
Parker maintained a strong theater presence in the early 1990s, but also maintained her reputation on the big screen, starring with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in The Client (1994); with John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and then playing an AIDS sufferer in Boys on the Side (1995), with Drew Barrymore and Whoopi Goldberg. She followed this up with a movie adaptation of yet another Craig Lucas play, Reckless (1995), alongside Mia Farrow and then in Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) which also starred Nicole Kidman, Viggo Mortensen, Christian Bale, John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey. She appeared alongside Matthew Modine in Tim Hunter's The Maker (1997).
Parker did not become an instant household name, but rather a darling of the critics. Her theater career continued to flourish when she appeared in Paula Vogel's 1997 critical smash How I Learned To Drive, with David Morse. After several independent film releases, she appeared in Let The Devil Wear Black and then a much-lauded role in The Five Senses (1999).
[edit] 2001–2003
In 2001, Parker appeared alongside Larry Bryggman in David Auburn's Proof on Broadway, and among the praise showered on her was the much-coveted Tony award. However, Parker again lost out when the play was made into a film and the role was given to Gwyneth Paltrow. But whatever her theatrical aspirations, she would leave the stage for three years as her profile soared and she found roles wherever she looked: among them, the Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon and Pipe Dream (2002).
Next up was a guest role on the NBC drama, The West Wing, as women's rights activist Amelia "Amy" Gardner, which soon became a recurring role. Beginning in 2001, her character became Chief of Staff to the First Lady, became a love interest for neurotic Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman, and provided another female voice in a show publicly criticised for its lack of high-level political women. For this role, Parker was nominated for an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild award. During the fifth season, Parker became pregnant and her character was written out of the series after appearing in four episodes of the fifth season. She returned to the role in 2005 and 2006.
In 1996, Parker met and became romantically involved with actor Billy Crudup when they co-starred in a stage version of the Marilyn Monroe film Bus Stop. Seven years later, while she was seven months pregnant with their child, he left her for the much younger Claire Danes. On January 7, 2004, Parker gave birth to William Atticus Parker.
On December 7, 2003, HBO aired an epic six-and-a-half hour adaptation of Tony Kushner's acclaimed Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. The miniseries—about a group of lost souls in New York during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s—was internationally acclaimed by many critics. Parker played Harper Pitt, the Valium-addicted wife of an in-the-closet gay lawyer. For her performance, Parker received the Golden Globe and Emmy awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries.
[edit] 2004–present
In 2004, Parker appeared in the comedy Saved!, and a TV movie called Miracle Run based on the true story of a mother with two autistic sons, as well as appearing in Craig Lucas' Reckless on Broadway. Parker took the lead role that had been Mia Farrow's on screen. The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, was critically acclaimed during its run and earned Parker a nomination for another Tony award for Best Actress at the 2005 ceremony.
In 2005, Parker reprised her West Wing role for one episode. She also starred with Tom Skerritt in the CBS television film Vinegar Hill as a down-on-her-luck schoolteacher who, with her family, moves in with her in-laws only to discover their bitter, loveless relationship.
In 2005, Parker took on the lead role in the television series, Weeds, a comedy-drama which airs on Showtime. Parker plays a suburban mother who, following the death of her husband, decides to sell marijuana to make money, while also attempting to maintain her profile in the community. Her Angels in America co-star Justin Kirk, as well as Kevin Nealon and Elizabeth Perkins also star. The first season finished in October 2005, with a second that begun airing August 14, 2006.
In November 2005, Parker was honored with an exhibition of her career at Boston University, where memorabilia from her career were donated to the University's Library. Parker received the 2006 Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for her lead role in Weeds. In that category, she defeated all the four leads of Desperate Housewives. She dedicated the award to the late John Spencer, best known for his work as Leo McGarry on The West Wing. After receiving the award, Parker stated: "I'm really in favor of legalizing marijuana. I don't think it's that controversial" (see [1]).
Parker has finished filming The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, an Andrew Dominik film starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Robert Duvall and Garret Dillahunt. She plays Zerelda Mimms (Jesse James' wife).
She also returned to the role of Amy Gardner on The West Wing in several episodes during the show's final season, portraying the Director of Legislative Affairs under President Santos.
She is also filming Small Tragedy, directed by her long-time Broadway director Craig Lucas and starring Patricia Clarkson, Tony Goldwyn, Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Small Tragedy (in production) (2007) -
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2006) – Zerelda Mimms
- Weeds (2005) (TV series) – Nancy Botwin
- Romance & Cigarettes (2005) – Constance
- Saved! (2004) – Lillian
- Angels in America (2003) – Harper Amaty Pitt
- Red Dragon (2002) – Molly Graham
- The Portrait of a Lady (1996) – Henrietta Stackpole
- Boys on the Side (1995) – Robin
- Bullets Over Broadway (1994) – Ellen
- The Client (1994) – Dianne Sway
- Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) – Ruth Jamison
- Grand Canyon (1991) – Dee
- Longtime Companion (1990) – Lisa
- Ryan's Hope (1975) (TV series)
[edit] Awards And Nominations
[edit] Awards Won
- 2006 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
for: "Weeds"
- 2004 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
for: "Angels in America"
- 2005 - Outstanding Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical
for: "Weeds"
- 2004 - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
for: "Angels in America"
- 2004 - Artistic Achievement Award
- 2001 - Best Actress in a Play for "Proof"
[edit] Awards Nominated
- 2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
for: "Weeds"
- 2004 - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
for: "Angels in America"
*2003 - Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for: "The West Wing"
- 2004 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television
for: "Angels in America"
*2002 - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for: "The West Wing"
Genie award
- 2000 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
for: The Five Senses
- 1990 - Tony award nomination, for Prelude to a Kiss
- 2004 The Unexpected Journey
[edit] Trivia
- Appeared in a Bonnie Raitt music video entitled You Got It.
- A song entitled Butterfly in Reverse by the band Counting Crows and singer Ryan Adams was written for her.
- Received 'Special Thanks' credits for Wet Hot American Summer and Pieces of April.
- At the 2004 Golden Globes, Parker was dared by fellow West Wing cast member Janel Moloney to thank her newborn son for the enhancement of her breasts and profile, if she won the award for Angels in America. Parker did win, and did indeed thank her son, saying on stage, "Janel Moloney just told me she would pay me $1,000 if I thanked my newborn son for making my boobs look so good in this dress."
- Beat out the four lead actresses of Desperate Housewives for the Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series-Comedy Golden Globe Award in 2006.
- Marc Cherry offered her the role of Susan on Desperate Housewives, but she turned him down and the role eventually went to Teri Hatcher.
