Mary Nell Steenburgen[1] (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's 1980 film Melvin and Howard.
Contents[]
[hide] *1 Early life
Early life[edit][]
Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, the daughter of Nellie Mae (née Wall), a school-board secretary, and Maurice Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor who worked at the Missouri Pacific Railroad.[2][3][4]
Steenburgen grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas]].[citation needed]
Career[edit][]
Early career[edit][]
Steenburgen moved to Manhattan in 1972, waitressing at Magic Pan and later working at Doubleday while studying acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse under Will Esper.[5]
Film career[edit][]
Steenburgen's big break came when she was discovered by Jack Nicholson in the reception room of Paramount's New York office and was cast as the female lead in his second directorial effort, the 1978 Western Goin' South.[5]
Steenburgen had a leading role in the 1979 film Time After Time as a modern woman who falls in love with author H. G. Wells, played by her first husband-to-be Malcolm McDowell.
In only her third film, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1980 film Melvin and Howard, playing Lynda Dummar, the wife of Melvin Dummar, then a trucker and aspiring singer, who claimed to have befriended reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes. Another notable film appearance came in the well-received 1983 film Cross Creek, in which she playedMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling.
In Back to the Future Part III (1990), Steenburgen played Clara Clayton, a school teacher who falls in love with Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. She was persuaded to play the role by her children, as well as by fans of the Back to the Future films, and reprised the role by providing the character's voice in Back to the Future: The Animated Series.
Other performances have been: in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), as a woman who is having an affair with the title character (played by Johnny Depp); the role of Hannah Nixon in the Oliver Stone biopic, Nixon (1995); and in the Will Ferrell 2003 comedy Elf, as a woman who discovers that her husband is the father of one of Santa's elves.
[1][2]Steenburgen in December 2000
In recent years, she has been in the comedy films, Step Brothers (2008), starring Will Ferrell, playing the mother of Ferrell's character; Four Christmases (2008) opposite Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon; and The Proposal (2009) opposite Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.
Dirty Girl, which features Steenburgen along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich and William H. Macy, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12, 2010. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed film The Help (2011), starring alongside Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard. And she had a featured role as a lounge singer who is the romantic interest in a love triangle in the 2013 comedy Last Vegas.
Television career[edit][]
In television, Steenburgen starred in the sitcom Ink (1996) with her husband, Ted Danson, and co-starred in the television miniseries Gulliver's Travels (1996) with Danson. She appeared as herself, alongside Danson, in the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. She played the mother of the title character in the CBS drama series Joan of Arcadia. In 2011, she made guest appearances in Bored to Death, again alongside Danson. She starred in the 2011 FX pilot, Outlaw Country,[6] but FX decided against making a series.[7]
Personal life[edit][]
Steenburgen married actor Malcolm McDowell in 1980 and they had two children together: Lilly Amanda (now Lilly McDowell Walton), born January 31, 1981, and Charles Malcolm, born July 10, 1983. Steenburgen and McDowell divorced in 1990.[citation needed]
On October 7, 1995, Steenburgen married actor Ted Danson. In September 2005, she and Danson gave a guest lecture for students at the Clinton School of Public Service where they discussed their roles in public service as well as the foundations and causes in which they are involved.[8] An alumna of Hendrix College, Steenburgen received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 1989.[9] In 2006, Steenburgen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas.[10]
She is a close friend of former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and supported Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign along with Danson.[11]
In January 2012, Steenburgen became a grandmother when her daughter Lilly gave birth to a daughter Clementine Mae.[citation needed]
Filmography[edit][]
Film[edit][]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Goin' South | Julia Tate Moon | |
| 1979 | Time After Time | Amy | |
| 1980 | Melvin and Howard | Lynda Dummar | |
| 1981 | Ragtime | Mother | |
| 1982 | A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy | Adrian | |
| 1983 | Cross Creek | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | |
| 1983 | Romantic Comedy | Phoebe Craddock | |
| 1985 | One Magic Christmas | Ginny Grainger | |
| 1987 | Dead of Winter | Julie Rose / Katie McGovern / Evelyn | |
| 1987 | The Whales of August | Young Sarah | |
| 1987 | End of the Line | Rose Pickett | |
| 1989 | Miss Firecracker | Elain Rutledge | |
| 1989 | Parenthood | Karen Buckman | |
| 1990 | Back to the Future Part III | Clara Clayton | |
| 1990 | The Long Walk Home | Narrator (voice) | |
| 1991 | The Butcher's Wife | Stella Keefover | |
| 1993 | What's Eating Gilbert Grape | Betty Carver | |
| 1993 | Philadelphia | Belinda Conine | |
| 1994 | Clifford | Sarah Davis | |
| 1994 | Pontiac Moon | Katherine Bellamy | |
| 1995 | My Family | Gloria | |
| 1995 | The Grass Harp | Sister Ida | |
| 1995 | Powder | Jessie Caldwell | |
| 1995 | Nixon | Hannah Milhous Nixon | |
| 2001 | Nobody's Baby | Estelle | |
| 2001 | The Trumpet of the Swan | Mother (voice) | |
| 2001 | Life as a House | Colleen Beck | |
| 2001 | I Am Sam | Dr. Blake | |
| 2002 | Sunshine State | Francine Pinkney | |
| 2002 | Wish You Were Dead | Sally Rider | |
| 2003 | Hope Springs | Joanie Fisher | |
| 2003 | Casa de los Babys | Gayle | |
| 2003 | Elf | Emily | |
| 2005 | Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School | Marienne Hotchkiss | |
| 2006 | The Dead Girl | Leah's Mother | |
| 2007 | Elvis and Annabelle | Geneva | |
| 2007 | Nobel Son | Sarah Michaelson | |
| 2007 | Numb | Dr. Blaine | |
| 2007 | The Brave One | Carol | |
| 2007 | Honeydripper | Amanda Winship | |
| 2008 | Step Brothers | Nancy Huff | |
| 2008 | Four Christmases | Marilyn | |
| 2009 | In the Electric Mist | Bootsie Robicheaux | |
| 2009 | The Proposal | Grace Paxton | |
| 2009 | The Open Road | Katherine | |
| 2009 | Did You Hear About the Morgans? | Emma Wheeler | |
| 2010 | Dirty Girl | Peggy | |
| 2011 | Keepin' It Real Estate | Claire | Video short |
| 2011 | The Help | Elain Stein | |
| 2012 | Mrs. Pilgrim Goes to Hollywood | Mary | |
| 2013 | Last Vegas | Diana | |
| 2013 | Brahmin Bulls | Helen West | |
| 2014 | Song One | In post-production |
Television[edit][]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Mary / Little Red Riding Hood | Episode: "Little Red Riding Hood" |
| 1985 | Tender Is the Night | Nicole Warren Diver | Miniseries |
| 1988 | The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank | Miep Gies | Movie |
| 1991–92 | Back to the Future | Clara Clayton (voice) | Main role (26 episodes) |
| 1994 | The Gift | Catherine | TV short |
| 1995 | Frasier | Marjorie (voice) | Episode: "Retirement Is Murder" |
| 1996 | Gulliver's Travels | Mary Gulliver | Miniseries |
| 1996–97 | Ink | Kate Montgomery | Main role (22 episodes) |
| 1998 | About Sarah | Sarah Elizabeth McCaffrey | Movie |
| 1999 | Noah's Ark | Naamah | Movie |
| 2000 | Picnic | Rosemary Sydney | Movie |
| 2000/07/09 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Mary Steenburgen | 5 episodes |
| 2002 | Living with the Dead | Det. Karen Condrin | Movie |
| 2002 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Grace Rinato | Episode: "Denial" |
| 2003–05 | Joan of Arcadia | Helen Girardi | Main role (45 episodes) |
| 2004 | Becker | Patient | Episode: "DNR" |
| 2004 | It Must Be Love | Clem Gazelle | Movie |
| 2004 | Capital City | Elaine Summer | Movie |
| 2007 | Reinventing the Wheelers | Claire Wheeler | Movie |
| 2009 | Happiness Isn't Everything | Audrey Veill | Movie |
| 2010 | Southern Discomfort | Movie | |
| 2011–13 | Wilfred | Catherine Newman | 4 episodes |
| 2011 | Robot Chicken | Athena (voice) | Episode: "The Core, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" |
| 2011 | Bored to Death | Josephine | Recurring role; 4 episodes |
| 2012 | 30 Rock | Diana Jessup | Recurring role; 5 episodes |
| 2012 | Outlaw Country | Anastasia Lee | Movie |
Awards and nominations[edit][]
In addition to these recognitions, Steenburgen received the 1,337th star on Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 16, 2009.