Marcia Gay Harden Biography

Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an Academy Award"winning and Tony Award-winning American film and theatre actress.

Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing (1990) and then The First Wives Club (1996) which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the comedy Flubber (1997) and Meet Joe Black (1998). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lee Krasner in Pollock (2000). She has starred in a string of successful mainstream and independent movies, such as Space Cowboys (2000), Into the Wild (2007), and The Mist (2007), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Harden's recent credits include Lasse Hallström's film The Hoax, opposite Richard Gere, and Hollywood Pictures' The Invisible, directed by David S Goyer. She was also recently seen in Lakeshore Entertainment's The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff and starring Toni Colette, Kerry Washington, Mary Steenburgen, and Brittany Murphy. In 2009, Harden received a Tony Award for the Broadway play God of Carnage. She has also twice been nominated for an Emmy Award.

Early life

Harden, one of five children, was born in La Jolla, California, the daughter of Texas natives Beverly (née Bushfield), a housewife, and Thad Harold Harden, who was an officer in the United States Navy. One of Harden's brothers 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. She graduated from Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Maryland in 1976, the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in theatre, and the Graduate Acting Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts.

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 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".

In 1992, she 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 Imagemaker (1986), her first screen role, in which she played a stage manager; the Disney sci-fi comedy Flubber (1997), a popular hit in which she co-starred with Robin Williams; the supernatural drama Meet Joe Black (1998); 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.

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.

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 critically acclaimed Into the Wild, and 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, she appeared in Home playing a woman who has 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 (2008), a story of the early artistic beginnings of the Painter of Light, Thomas Kinkade. In 2009, she appeared as a regular on the critically acclaimed FX series Damages as a shrewd corporate attorney, opposite Glenn Close and William Hurt. Harden also played in the comedy The Maiden Heist (2009) with Christopher Walken and Morgan Freeman. 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. It was also in this year that Harden returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, where she co-starred with James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels. All three actors were nominated for the Tony Award, and on June 8, Harden won Best Actress in a Play.

Together, Harden's films have grossed $724,487,920 domestically and $1,128,784,661 worldwide.

In 2013, Harden reunited with her former Broadway co-star Jeff Daniels as a new cast member on HBO's series The Newsroom.

Personal life

Harden married Thaddaeus Scheel, a prop master whom she worked with on The Spitfire Grill (1996), in 1996. Harden and Scheel have three children: a daughter, Eulala Grace Scheel (September 1998), and twins Julitta Dee Scheel and Hudson Scheel Harden (April 22, 2004). In February 2012, Harden filed for divorce from Scheel.

On December 14, 2003, her nephew Sander Waring Harden and niece Audrey Gay Harden died along with their mother Rebecca Harden, as a result of a fire in their Queens, New York, apartment. Rebecca Harden was, at the time, divorced from Marcia Gay's brother, the children's father, Thaddeus Harden.

On May 22, 2010, Harden delivered the 127th Spring Commencement Address at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.

Harden and her children reside in New York City's Harlem.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1979	Not Only Strangers		Short
1986	The Imagemaker	Stage Manager
1990	Miller's Crossing	Verna Bernbaum
1991	Late for Dinner	Joy Husband
1992	Crush	Lane
1992	Used People	Norma	Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
1993	Geoffrey Beene 30	Woman	Short
1994	Safe Passage	Cynthia
1996	The Spitfire Grill	Shelby Goddard
1996	The Daytrippers	Libby
1996	The First Wives Club	Dr. Leslie Rosen	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1996	Far Harbor	Arabella
1996	Spy Hard	Miss Cheevus
1997	Flubber	Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds
1998	Desperate Measures	Dr. Samantha Hawkins
1998	Meet Joe Black	Allison
1998	It All Came True	Michelle Tippet
1999	Curtain Call	Michelle Tippet
2000	Space Cowboys	Sara Holland
2000	Pollock	Lee Krasner	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (3rd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
2001	Gaudi Afternoon	Frankie Stevens
2003	Mystic River	Celeste Boyle	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (3rd place) Seattle Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress " Motion Picture Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003	Just Like Mona
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	American Gun	Janet Huttenson	Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
2006	American Dreamz	First Lady
2006	The Dead Girl	Melora
2006	The Hoax	Edith Irving
2006	Canvas	Mary Marino
2007	The Invisible	Diane Powell
2007	The Mist	Mrs. Carmody	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2007	Into the Wild	Billie McCandless	Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2007	Rails & Ties	Megan Stark
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)
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)
2012	If I Were You	Madelyn	Completed
2012	The Wine of Summer	Shelley	Post-production
2013	Get a Job	Katherine Dunn	Post-production
2013	The Librarian		Filming
2013	Supreme Ruler	Nancy	Pre-production
2013	You're Not You		Post-production
2014	Untitled Woody Allen project		Filming

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1987	CBS Summer Playhouse	Kim	TV series (1 episode: "In the Lion's Den")
1988	Simon & Simon	Librarian, Joan	TV series (1 episode: "Ties That Bind")
1989	Gideon Oliver	Lila	TV series (1 episode: "Sleep Well, Professor Oliver")
1990	Kojak: None So Blind	Angelina	TV movie
1991	In Broad Daylight	Adina Rowan	TV movie
1991	Fever	Lacy	TV movie
1992	Sinatra	Ava Gardner	TV movie
1995	Fallen Angels	Marie	TV series (1 episode: "Good Housekeeping")
1995	Chicago Hope	Barbara Tomilson	TV series (1 episode: "Internal Affairs")
1995	Great Performances		TV series (1 episode: "Talking With")
1995	Convict Cowboy	Maggie	TV movie
1995	Homicide: Life on the Street	Joan Garbarek	TV series (1 episode: "A Doll's Eyes")
1997	Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing	Nancy Floyd	TV movie
1998	Labor of Love	Annie Pines	TV movie
1999	Spenser: Small Vices	Susan Silverman	TV movie
2000	From Where I Sit	Sharon	TV movie
2000	Thin Air	Susan Silverman	TV movie
2001	Walking Shadow	Susan Silverman	TV movie
2002	In the Echo		TV movie
2002	Guilty Hearts	Jenny Moran	TV movie
2001	The Education of Max Bickford	Andrea Haskell	TV series (22 episodes)
2002	King of Texas	Mrs. Susannah Lear Tumlinson	TV movie Nominated " Satellite Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
2004	She's Too Young	Trish Vogul	TV movie
2005	Hate	Chief Jackie Mantello	TV movie
2005	Felicity: An American Girl Adventure	Mrs. Martha Merriman	TV movie
2005"2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis	TV series (4 episodes) Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
2006	Drift	Cheryl	TV movie
2006	In from the Night	Vicki Miller	TV movie
2008	The Tower	Zoe Cafritz	TV movie
2008	Sex and Lies in Sin City	Becky Binion	TV movie
2009	Damages	Claire Maddox	TV series (13 episodes)
2009	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler	Janina Kyzyzanowska	TV movie Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
2010	Royal Pains	Dr. Elizabeth Blair	TV series (3 episodes)
2011	Smothered	Fran	TV movie
2011	Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy	Edda Mellas	TV movie
2011	Innocent	Barbara Sabich	TV movie
2012	Body of Proof	Sheila Temple	TV series (1 episode: "Sympathy for the Devil")
2012	Bent	Vanessa Carter	TV series (1 episode: "Mom")
2012	Tron: Uprising	Keller	TV series (2 episodes)
2012	Isabel	Frances Lorenz	TV movie; completed
2013–present	The Newsroom	Rebecca Halliday	TV Series
2013	Trophy Wife	Diane	Upcoming TV Series

Awards and nominations

Film and television

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1996	National Board of Review of Motion Pictures	Best Acting by an Ensemble	The First Wives Club
2000	New York Film Critics Circle Award	Best Supporting Actress	Pollock
2001	Academy Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Pollock
2001	Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Female	Pollock
2001	National Society of Film Critics	Best Supporting Actress	Pollock
2003	Satellite Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	King of Texas
2003	Western Heritage Award	Television Feature Film	King of Texas
2003	Boston Society of Film Critics Award	Best Ensemble Cast	Mystic River
2003	Seattle Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Mystic River
2004	Academy Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Mystic River
2004	Critics Choice Award	Best Supporting Actress	Mystic River
2004	Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actress	Mystic River
2004	Chicago Film Critics Association Award	Best Supporting Actress	Mystic River
2004	Satellite Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama	Mystic River
2004	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Mystic River
2007	Emmy Award	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
2007	Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Female	American Gun
2008	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Supporting Actress	The Mist
2008	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Into the Wild
2009	Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler

Theatre

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1993	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1993	Theatre World Award	Distinguished Performance	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1993	Tony Award	Best Featured Actress in a Play	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1994	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	Angels in America: Perestroika
2009	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actress in a Play	God of Carnage
2009	Tony Award	Best Actress in a Play	God of Carnage

Other

In 2002, she received the Excellence in acting award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.