Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959)[1] is an American actress. Her film breakthrough was in the 1990 Coen brothers-directed Miller's Crossing. She followed this with roles in films including Used People (1992), The First Wives Club (1996), and Flubber (1997). For her performance as artist Lee Krasner in the 2000 film Pollock, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She earned another Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in Mystic River (2003). Other notable film roles include American Gun(2005), and 2007's The Mist and Into the Wild.
Harden made her Broadway debut in 1993, starring in Angels in America, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. She returned to Broadway in 2009 as Veronica in God of Carnage. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Harden was nominated for her second Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the 2009 television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. Harden's other notable television roles include Dr Leanne Rorish in the CBSmedical drama Code Black and attorney Rebecca Halliday in the HBO Aaron Sorkin series The Newsroom.
== Early life and education ==
Harden was born in La Jolla, California, the daughter of Texas natives Beverly Harden (née Bushfield), a housewife, and Thad Harold Harden (1932–2002), who was an officer in the United States Navy.[2] She is one of five children, three sisters and a brother. Harden's brother is named Thaddeus, as is her former husband. Harden's family frequently moved because of her father's job, living in Japan, Germany, Greece, California, and Maryland.[3]
In 1976, Harden graduated from Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Maryland. In 1980, she received a BA in theatre from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, Harden received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[4]
== Career ==
Harden's first film role was in a 1979 student-produced movie at the University of Texas. Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in several television programs, including Simon & Simon, Kojak, and CBS Summer Playhouse. She appeared in The Imagemaker (1986), her first movie screen role, in which she played a stage manager. She appeared in the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing (1990), a 1930s mobster drama in which she first gained wide exposure. Even so, at the time, living in New York City, she had to go back to doing catering jobs "because I didn't have any money".[5]
In 1992, Harden played actress Ava Gardner alongside Philip Casnoff as Frank Sinatra in the made for TV miniseries Sinatra. Throughout the 1990s, she continued to appear in films and television. Notable film roles include the Disneysci-fi comedy Flubber (1997), a popular hit in which she co-starred with Robin Williams; the supernatural drama Meet Joe Black (1998), playing the under-appreciated daughter of a tycoon (Anthony Hopkins, co-starring Brad Pitt); Labor of Love (1998), a Lifetime television movie in which she starred with David Marshall Grant; and Space Cowboys (2000), an all-star adventure-drama about aging astronauts.
Harden was awarded the 2000 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of painter Lee Krasner in Pollock (2000). In 2003, she was again nominated in the same category for Mystic River.
Harden guest-starred as FBI undercover agent Dana Lewis posing as a white-supremacist in "Raw", an episode of the popular crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2007, this role earned Harden her first Emmy Award nomination for best guest actress in a drama series. She reprised the role in the series' eighth-season premiere and again in the twelfth-season episode "Penetration" as a rape victim (aired November 10, 2010).
In 2007, Harden appeared in several films, including Sean Penn's Into the Wildand Frank Darabont's The Mist (opposite Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden), based on the novella by Stephen King. Also in 2007, she shared top billing with Kevin Bacon in Rails & Ties, the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood. In 2008, Harden appeared in Home playing a woman who has had a mastectomy. (Her character in Rails & Ties also had a mastectomy.) One central scene called for her to bare her breasts, with the missing breast "removed" using computer-generated imagery. In Home, her co-stars include her daughter, Eulala Scheel. Harden starred in the Christmas Cottage, a story of the early artistic beginnings of the Painter of Light, Thomas Kinkade.
In 2009, she appeared as a regular on the FX series Damages as a shrewd corporate attorney opposite Glenn Close and William Hurt. Harden received a 2009 Emmy nomination for her role in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a TV film also starring Oscar-winner Anna Paquin. She was a Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie/Miniseries nominee and lost to Shohreh Aghdashloo. If she had won this Emmy, Harden would have entered the elite group of "triple-crown" actors; those who have won the profession's three highest honors: the Academy Award (film), the Tony Award (stage), and the Emmy Award (television).
In 2009, Harden co-starred with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore in Whip It, which proved a critical success.[6] Harden also played in the comedy The Maiden Heist(2009) with Christopher Walken and Morgan Freeman.
In 2013, Harden reunited with her former Broadway co-star Jeff Daniels as a new cast member on HBO's series The Newsroom.[5] From 2015 to 2018, she played Christian Grey's mother, Grace Trevelyan Grey, in the Fifty Shades film series. Also in 2015, she began a starring role in the TV series Code Black.
=== Theater ===
In 1993, Harden debuted on Broadway in the role of Harper Pitt (and others) in Tony Kushner's Angels in America. The role earned her critical acclaim, and she received a Tony Award nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Play). The winner in that category was Debra Monk in Redwood Curtain.
In 2009, Harden returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, where she co-starred with James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels.[7] All three actors were nominated for the Tony Award, and on June 8, Harden won Best Actress in a Play.[8]
== Personal life ==
Harden married Thaddaeus Scheel, a prop master,[5] with whom she worked on The Spitfire Grill in 1996. Harden and Scheel have three children: a daughter, Eulala Grace Scheel (born September 1998), and twins Julitta Dee Scheel and Hudson Scheel Harden (born April 22, 2004).[9] In February 2012, Harden filed for divorce from Scheel.[10]
Harden has owned a property in the Catskills and a townhouse in Harlem.[11][12][13] She sold the Harlem townhouse in 2012.[14]
Harden is an avid potter, which she learned in high school, and then took up again while acting in Angels in America.[15][11]
Harden is a practitioner of ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement, which her mother learned while they lived in Japan.[16] She gave a brief demonstration in 2007 at The Martha Stewart Show and presented some works of her family as well.[17] In May 2018, a memoir called The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers was published. The book details the story and bond of mother and daughter throughout time and how they are dealing with the largest struggle yet, her mother's Alzheimer's disease. Harden created works of ikebana specifically for this book to illustrate the different seasons of her mother's life.[18][15]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1990	Miller's Crossing 	Verna Bernbaum 	
1991	Late for Dinner[19] 	Joy Husband 	
1992	Crush 	Lane 	
1992	Used People 	Norma 	
1994	Safe Passage 	Cynthia 	
1996	The Spitfire Grill 	Shelby Goddard 	
1996	The Daytrippers 	Libby 	
1996	The First Wives Club 	Dr. Leslie Rosen 	
1996	Spy Hard 	Miss Cheevus 	
1997	Flubber 	Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds 	
1998	Desperate Measures 	Dr. Samantha Hawkins 	
1998	Meet Joe Black 	Allison Parrish 	
1998	Curtain Call 	Michelle Tippet 	
2000	Space Cowboys 	Sara Holland 	
2000	Pollock 	Lee Krasner 	
2001	Gaudi Afternoon 	Frankie Stevens 	
2003	Mystic River 	Celeste Boyle 	
2003	Casa de los Babys 	Nan 	
2003	Mona Lisa Smile 	Nancy Abbey 	
2004	Welcome to Mooseport 	Grace Sutherland 	
2004	P.S. 	Missy Goldberg 	
2005	Bad News Bears 	Liz Whitewood 	
2005	Willa Cather: The Road Is All 	Willa Cather 	Voice role
2005	American Gun 	Janet Huttenson 	
2006	American Dreamz 	First Lady 	
2006	The Dead Girl[20] 	Melora 	
2006	The Hoax 	Edith Irving 	
2006	Canvas 	Mary Marino 	
2007	The Invisible 	Diane Powell 	
2007	Into the Wild 	Billie McCandless 	
2007	Rails & Ties 	Megan Stark 	
2007	The Mist 	Mrs. Carmody 	
2008	Home 	Inga 	
2008	Thomas Kinkade's Home for Christmas 	Maryanne Kinkade 	
2009	The Maiden Heist 	Rose 	
2009	Whip It 	Brooke Cavendar 	
2010	A Cat in Paris 	Jeanne 	Voice role
2010	True Grit 	Mattie Ross 	Voice Role
2011	Detachment 	Principal Carol Dearden	
2011	Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You 	Marjorie Dunfour 	
2012	Noah's Ark: The New Beginning 	Aamah 	Voice role
2012	If I Were You 	Madelyn 	
2013	The Wine of Summer 	Shelley 	
2013	Parkland 	Head Nurse Doris Nelson	
2014	Magic in the Moonlight 	Mrs. Baker 	
2014	You're Not You 	Elizabeth 	
2014	Elsa & Fred 	Lydia Barcroft 	
2014	Unity 	Narrator 	Documentary
2015	Grandma 	Judy 	
2015	Fifty Shades of Grey 	Grace Trevelyan Grey 	
2015	Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant	President of the FAFAFA	
2015	After Words 	Jane Taylor 	
2016	Get a Job 	Katherine Dunn 	
2017	Fifty Shades Darker 	Grace Trevelyan Grey 	
2018	Fifty Shades Freed 	Grace Trevelyan Grey 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1987 	CBS Summer Playhouse 	Kim 	"In the Lion's Den"
1988 	Simon & Simon 	Librarian, Joan 	Episode: "Ties That Bind"
1989 	Gideon Oliver 	Lila 	Episode: "Sleep Well, Professor Oliver"
1991 	In Broad Daylight 	Adina Rowan 	TV movie
1991 	Fever 	Lacy 	Movie
1992 	Sinatra 	Ava Gardner 	Movie
1995 	Fallen Angels 	Marie 	Episode: "Good Housekeeping"
1995 	Chicago Hope 	Barbara Tomilson 	Episode: "Internal Affairs"
1995 	Great Performances 	 	Episode: "Talking With"
1995 	Homicide: Life on the Street 	Joan Garbarek 	Episode: "A Doll's Eyes"
1997 	Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing	Nancy Floyd 	Movie
1998 	Labor of Love 	Annie Pines 	Movie
1999 	Spenser: Small Vices 	Susan Silverman 	Movie
2000 	Thin Air 	Susan Silverman 	Movie
2001 	Walking Shadow 	Susan Silverman 	Movie
2002 	Guilty Hearts 	Jenny Moran 	Movie
2001 	The Education of Max Bickford 	Andrea Haskell 	22 episodes
2002 	King of Texas 	Mrs. Susannah Lear Tumlinson	Movie
2004 	She's Too Young 	Trish Vogul 	Movie
2005 	Felicity: An American Girl Adventure 	Mrs. Martha Merriman 	Movie
2005–13 	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 	FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis	4 episodes
2006 	In from the Night 	Vicki Miller 	Movie
2008 	The Tower 	Zoe Cafritz 	Movie
2008 	Sex and Lies in Sin City 	Becky Binion 	Movie
2009 	Damages 	Claire Maddox 	7 episodes
2009 	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler 	Janina Kyzyzanowska 	Movie
2010 	Royal Pains 	Dr. Elizabeth Blair 	3 episodes
2011 	Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy 	Edda Mellas 	Movie
2011 	Innocent 	Barbara Sabich 	Movie
2012 	Body of Proof 	Sheila Temple 	Episode: "Sympathy for the Devil"
2012 	Bent 	Vanessa Carter 	Episode: "Mom"
2012 	Tron: Uprising 	Keller (voice) 	2 episodes
2012 	Isabel 	Frances Lorenz 	Movie
2013–14 	The Newsroom 	Rebecca Halliday 	10 episodes
2013–14 	Trophy Wife 	Diane 	22 episodes
2015, 2017	How to Get Away with Murder 	Hannah Keating 	4 episodes; voice role in S3, E10.
2015–18 	Code Black 	Dr. Leanne Rorish 	Main role
== Awards and nominations ==
=== Theatre ===
Year	Association 	Category 	Nominated work 	Result
1993	Drama Desk Awards 	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play 	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Nominated
1993	Theatre World Awards	Distinguished Performance[citation needed]	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Won
1993	Tony Awards 	Best Featured Actress in a Play 	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Nominated
1994	Drama Desk Awards 	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play 	Angels in America: Perestroika 	Nominated
2009	Drama Desk Awards 	Outstanding Actress in a Play 	God of Carnage 	Nominated
2009	Tony Awards 	Best Actress in a Play 	God of Carnage 	Won
=== Film and television ===
Year	Association 	Category 	Nominated work 	Result
1996	National Board of Review of Motion Pictures	Best Acting by an Ensemble 	The First Wives Club 	Won
2000	New York Film Critics Circle 	Best Supporting Actress 	Pollock 	Won
2001	Academy Awards 	Best Actress in a Supporting Role 	Pollock 	Won
2001	Independent Spirit Awards 	Best Supporting Female 	Pollock 	Nominated
2001	National Society of Film Critics 	Best Supporting Actress 	Pollock 	Nominated
2003	Satellite Awards 	Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	King of Texas 	Nominated
2003	Boston Society of Film Critics 	Best Ensemble Cast 	Mystic River 	Won
2003	Chicago Film Critics Association 	Best Supporting Actress 	Mystic River 	Nominated
2004	Academy Awards 	Best Actress in a Supporting Role 	Mystic River 	Nominated
2004	Broadcast Film Critics Association 	Best Supporting Actress 	Mystic River 	Nominated
2004	Screen Actors Guild 	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 	Mystic River 	Nominated
2004	Satellite Awards 	Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama 	Mystic River 	Nominated
2007	Primetime Emmy Awards 	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series 	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 	Nominated
2007	Independent Spirit Awards 	Best Supporting Female 	American Gun 	Nominated
2007	Saturn Awards 	Best Supporting Actress 	The Mist 	Won
2008	Screen Actors Guild 	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 	Into the Wild 	Nominated
2009	Primetime Emmy Awards 	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie 	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler	Nominated
2016	Golden Nymph Award 	Best Actress in a TV Series[22] 	Code Black 	Won
2016	People's Choice Awards 	Favorite Actress in a New TV Series[23] 	Code Black 	Nominated