Mary McDonnell

Mary Eileen McDonnell
at Comicon 2007
Born	Mary Eileen McDonnell April 28, 1952 (1952-04-28) (age 57) Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Randle Mell (1984?–present)

Mary McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica.

Personal life

McDonnell was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and raised in Ithaca, New York. After graduating from the State University of New York at Fredonia, she attended drama school and joined the East Coast's prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company, with whom she worked for over 20 years. McDonnell is married to Randle Mell, who is also an actor. They have two children, Olivia and Michael. In a question and answer session for the SyFy Channel regarding her role as Laura Roslin, she was asked if any of her characters political views caused her any discomfort because of her own views. She stated that several of the things her character did in Season Three of Battlestar Galactica "(ran) deeply against being a liberal progressive" and that portraying those views sometimes caused her "a bit of angst in having to commit to them."^[1]

Career

She won an Obie in 1980 for her work in the play Still Life. On Broadway, she has performed in productions of Execution of Justice, The Heidi Chronicles, and Summer and Smoke.

After more than 21 years of theater and television work, McDonnell made her film breakthrough in 1990 as Stands With A Fist, a European American raised by Sioux Indians, in Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves. Portraying the adopted daughter of Graham Greene's character Kicking Bird, McDonnell, then 37, was actually two months older than Greene and less than two years younger than Tantoo Cardinal, who played Black Shawl, her adoptive mother. McDonnell was extremely nervous about shooting her sex scene with Kevin Costner, requesting it to be toned down from what was scripted.^[2]

She received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. McDonnell's role in Passion Fish (1992) brought her another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Her other notable films include Grand Canyon (1991), Sneakers (1992), Independence Day (1996), and Donnie Darko (2001). McDonnell also starred with Patrick Swayze in the 1988 movie, Tiger Warsaw. In 1997 she played the judge in the film 12 Angry Men. The film also featured future Battlestar Galactica cast mate Edward James Olmos.

On television, McDonnell had her first regular role in 1980 on the soap opera As the World Turns. She starred in 1984 on the short-lived medical sitcom E/R, alongside Elliott Gould and George Clooney. Coincidentally, she guest-starred in 2001 on the NBC medical series of the same name, ER, which also featured Clooney. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role on the show as Eleanor Carter, the mother of Dr. John Carter played by Noah Wyle, who also had a role in Donnie Darko. She plays Dr. Virginia Dixon, a surgeon with Asperger syndrome for three episodes of Grey's Anatomy in 2008 and 2009.^[3]

In 2003, McDonnell starred in the mini-series Battlestar Galactica as Laura Roslin. The mini-series led to the subsequent weekly series, with McDonnell reprising her role as Laura Roslin. The series ended in March 2009.

McDonnell guest-stars as Capt. Sharon Raydor, a police captain in the Force Investigation Division, who butts heads with Kyra Sedgwick's character, in the fifth season of TNT's The Closer.^[4]

McDonnell took part in a special session entitled Battlestar Galactica at the 2009 World Science Festival.^[5] The session also included Michael Hogan, as well as scientists Nick Bostrom and Kevin Warwick.

Filmography

References

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2008) (Find sources: Mary McDonnell – news, books, scholar)

External links

• Mary McDonnell at the Internet Movie Database
• Mary McDonnell at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mary McDonnell at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Mary McDonnell at TV Guide
• Mary McDonnell at Battlestar Wiki
• "The OBIES". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20071114020348/http://www.villagevoice.com/cgi-bin/obies/winner.cgi?selection=person&winner=mary+mcdonnell.