Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959)
is an American actress. She is the recipient of
accolades including an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
and a
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
, in addition to nominations for a
Critics' Choice Movie Award
The Critics' Choice Movie Awards (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award) is an awards show presented annually by the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association (CCA) to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Writ ...
and three
Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
.
Born in
La Jolla, California, Harden began her acting career appearing in television programs throughout the 1980s. In 1986, she appeared in her first film role, with her breakthrough coming in the 1990
Coen brothers
Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
-directed ''
Miller's Crossing''. For her portrayal of artist
Lee Krasner in the 2000 biographical film ''
Pollock'', she won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in the drama film ''
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to ...
'' (2003). Her other notable film credits include ''
The First Wives Club'' (1996), ''
Flubber'' (1997), ''
Space Cowboys
''Space Cowboys'' is a 2000 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older "ex-test pilots" who are sent into space to repair an ol ...
'' (2000), ''
Mona Lisa Smile
''Mona Lisa Smile'' is a 2003 American drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia R ...
'' (2003), and the ''
Fifty Shades
''Fifty Shades'' is an adult erotic BDSM romance franchise created by British writer E. L. James. It originated as a ''fanfic'' for the young-adult teen romance novel series ''Twilight'' by American author Stephenie Meyer. That story was turne ...
'' film trilogy.
Harden made her
Broadway debut in 1993, starring in
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Lauded for his work on stage he's most known for his seminal work ''Angels in America'' which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. At the turn ...
's epic play ''
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches'' / ''
Angels in America: Perestroika'' for which she was nominated for a
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in 2009 as Veronica in
Yazmina Reza's comedic play ''
God of Carnage
''God of Carnage'' (originally in French ''Le Dieu du carnage'') is a play by Yasmina Reza that was first published in 2008. It is about two sets of parents; the son of one couple has hurt the son of the other couple at a public park. The pare ...
'', with her performance earning her the
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Harden's television credits include the
HBO series ''
The Newsroom'', the
CBS series ''
Code Black'', the
ABC series ''
How to Get Away with Murder'', and the
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription streaming service owned and operated by Apple Inc. Launched on November 1, 2019, it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service was announced ...
series ''
The Morning Show''. She received her first
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
nomination for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis in the crime drama series ''
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', and earned a second
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
nomination for her performance as Janina Krzyżanowska in the television film ''
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
''The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler'' is a 2009 television film directed by John Kent Harrison. The teleplay by Harrison and Lawrence John Spagnola, based on the 2007 biography ''Die Mutter der Holocaust-Kinder: Irena Sendler und die geretteten ...
'' (2009).
Early life
Harden was born in
La Jolla, California, the daughter of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
natives Beverly Harden (née Bushfield), a
housewife, and Thad Harold Harden (1932–2002), who was an officer in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. She has three sisters and one brother.
Harden's brother is named Thaddeus, as are her father and her former husband. Harden's family frequently moved because of her father's job, living in Japan, Germany,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
, California, and
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
.
Harden graduated from
Surrattsville High School in
Clinton, Maryland in 1976. She received a Bachelor of Arts in theater from the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1980. Harden received a
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...
from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's
Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.
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
''CBS Summer Playhouse'' is an American anthology series that ran from June 12, 1987 to August 22, 1989 on CBS. It aired unsold television pilots during the summer season.
Overview
Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid acted as hosts during the firs ...
''. 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".
Harden debuted on Broadway in the role of Harper Pitt (and others) in
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Lauded for his work on stage he's most known for his seminal work ''Angels in America'' which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. At the turn ...
's ''
Angels in America
''Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'' is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award f ...
'' in 1993. The role earned her critical acclaim and she received a Tony Award nomination (
Best Featured Actress in a Play).
Harden played actress
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...
alongside
Philip Casnoff
Philip Casnoff (born August 3, 1949) is an American actor, known for his roles in TV series and on Broadway. He has also been a director.
Early life and education
Philip L. Casnoff was born on August 3, 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. H ...
as
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
in the 1992 made-for-TV miniseries ''
Sinatra''. Throughout the 1990s, she continued to appear in films and television. Her notable film roles include the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
sci-fi comedy ''Flubber'' (1997), a popular hit in which she co-starred with
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
; the
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
drama ''
Meet Joe Black'' (1998), playing the under-appreciated daughter of a tycoon (
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
, co-starring
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
); ''
Labor of Love'' (1998), a
Lifetime television movie in which she starred with
David Marshall Grant; and ''
Space Cowboys
''Space Cowboys'' is a 2000 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older "ex-test pilots" who are sent into space to repair an ol ...
'' (2000), an all-star adventure-drama about aging astronauts.
In 2000, Harden won the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for
Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of painter
Lee Krasner in the biographical film ''
Pollock''. In 2004, she received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the mystery crime drama ''
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to ...
''.
Harden guest-starred as
FBI undercover agent Dana Lewis posing as a
white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
in "Raw", an episode of the popular crime drama ''
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''. This role earned Harden her first Emmy Award nomination for best guest actress in a drama series in 2007. She reprised the role in the series' eighth-season premiere and again in the 12th-season episode "Penetration" as a rape victim.
Harden appeared in several 2007 films, including
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
's ''Into the Wild'' and Frank Darabont's ''The Mist'' (opposite
Thomas Jane and
Laurie Holden), based on the novella by
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
. Also in 2007, she shared top billing with
Kevin Bacon in ''
Rails & Ties'', the directorial debut of
Alison Eastwood. Harden played a woman who has a mastectomy in ''Home'' (2008). (Her character in ''Rails & Ties'' also had a mastectomy.) One scene required her to bare her breasts, with the missing breast removed using
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The image ...
. In ''Home'', her co-stars include her daughter, Eulala Scheel. Harden starred in the ''
Christmas Cottage
''Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage'' is a 2008 Christmas biopic directed by Michael Campus, the first film he had directed in more than 30 years. It stars Jared Padalecki as painter Thomas Kinkade and features Peter O'Toole, Marcia Gay Harden and ...
'', a story of the early artistic beginnings of the Painter of Light
Thomas Kinkade
William Thomas Kinkade III (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for achieving success during his lifetime with the mass marketing of his work as ...
.
Harden appeared as a regular on the
FX series ''
Damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
'' as a shrewd corporate attorney opposite
Glenn Close and
William Hurt
William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
H ...
in 2009. She received a
2009 Emmy nomination for her role in ''
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
''The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler'' is a 2009 television film directed by John Kent Harrison. The teleplay by Harrison and Lawrence John Spagnola, based on the 2007 biography ''Die Mutter der Holocaust-Kinder: Irena Sendler und die geretteten ...
'', 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
Shohreh Aghdashloo ( fa, شهره آغداشلو, ; née Vaziri-Tabar (); 11 May 1952) is an Iranian and American actress. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in '' Chess of the Wind'' (1976). Her next two fil ...
. 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).
Harden co-starred with
Elliot Page
Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award nomination, two BAFTA Awards and Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and a Satellite Award. Page publi ...
and
Drew Barrymore in 2009's ''
Whip It'', which proved a critical success. She also appeared in the comedy ''
The Maiden Heist
''The Maiden Heist'' is a 2009 American crime comedy film directed by Peter Hewitt and starring Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy and Marcia Gay Harden. The film was released as ''The Heist'' in the United Kingdom.
Plot
Roge ...
'' (2009) with
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...
and
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
.
Harden returned to Broadway in
Yasmina Reza's ''God of Carnage'', co-starring with
James Gandolfini,
Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels, in 2009.
All three actors were nominated for a Tony Award; Harden won Best Actress in a Play.
Harden reunited with her former Broadway co-star
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and playwright, known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accol ...
as a new cast member on
HBO's series ''The Newsroom'' in 2013.
She played Christian Grey's mother, Grace Trevelyan Grey, in the
''Fifty Shades'' film series from 2015 to 2018. Also in 2015, she began a starring role in the TV series ''Code Black''. She stars in the 2022 CBS drama ''
So Help Me Todd''.
Personal life
In 1996 Harden married Thaddaeus Scheel, a
prop master, with whom she worked on ''
The Spitfire Grill
''The Spitfire Grill'' (also known as ''Care of the Spitfire Grill'') is a 1996 American film written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff and starring Alison Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Kieran Mulroney and Gailard Sa ...
''.
They have three children: a daughter, Eulala Grace Scheel (born September 1998), and twins Julitta Dee Scheel and Hudson Harden Scheel (born April 22, 2004). In February 2012, Harden filed for divorce from Scheel.
Harden has owned a property in
the Catskills
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...
and a townhouse in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
.
She sold the Harlem townhouse in 2012.
Harden is an avid potter, which she learned in high school, and then took up again while acting in ''Angels in America''.
Harden is a practitioner of ''
ikebana
is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It is also known as . The tradition dates back to Heian period, when floral offerings were made at altars. Later, flower arrangements were instead used to adorn the (alcove) of a traditional Japan ...
'', the art of Japanese flower arrangement, which her mother learned while they lived in Japan. She gave a brief demonstration in 2007 on ''
The Martha Stewart Show'' and presented some works of her family, as well.
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
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
. Harden created works of ''ikebana'' specifically for this book to illustrate the different seasons of her mother's life.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Theater
Awards and nominations
Bibliography
*
References
External links
*
*
*
Marcia Gay Hardenat
Internet Off-Broadway Database
*
Marcia Gay Harden 2006 Interviewon ''
Sidewalks Entertainment''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harden, Marcia Gay
1959 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from San Diego
American expatriates in Germany
American expatriates in Greece
American expatriates in Japan
American film actresses
American Shakespearean actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Audiobook narrators
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Kadōka
Living people
People from La Jolla, San Diego
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Tony Award winners
University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts alumni