Mary Steenburgen

Mary Nell Steenburgen was born on February 8, 1953 in Newport, Arkansas, United States. Of Dutch ancestry, her mother worked in a school and her father was a freight train driver. Since she liked to participate in theatrical performances at school, she concluded that this could be her future professional dedication, and indeed she moved to New York to study at Will Esper’s Neighborhood Playhouse.

Her discovery for the cinema can be attributed to Jack Nicholson , who signed her for Camino del Sur (1978), a comedy western that he himself directed and starred in, and where Mary Steenburgen was the second name in the acting credits. The thing for this actress was to enter through the front door, because the following year she made Los pasajeros del tiempo ( Nicholas Meyer , 1979), a curious science fiction proposal where who would be her husband of ten years and father of her two children, Malcolm McDowell gave life to the popular anticipation story writer HG Wells . The following year she received the Oscar for best supporting actress for Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme ), where Mary Steenburgen was one of the Dummar family members who claimed to be worthy of the inheritance of enigmatic billionaire Howard Hughes . At the rate of one film per year, it seemed that Steenburgen was never wrong, since in 1981 he made Ragtime with Milos Forman and James Cagney , in 1982 A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy under the orders of Woody Allen and in 1983 The Best Years of My Life Directed by Martin Ritt .

Brown hair, a round face, a giggly smile, Mary Steenburgen arouses immediate sympathy in the viewer, even when her characters have some rogue points. The truth is that her career is solid, she has never stopped working, and in general the productions in which she has been involved always had some interest, although as time went by they would call on her mainly for secondary roles. From her extensive filmography, many titles can be highlighted. In The Whales of August ( Lindsay Anderson , 1987) she is the young version of the old woman played by the mythical Lillian Gish . In Back to the Future III ( Robert Zemeckis, 1990) was a new and important character in the saga, Doc’s love interest, whom he would later voice in an animated television series. Lasse Hallström counted on her for Who does Gilbert Grape love? (1993) and Demme reprized her in a small role in Philadelphia that same year.

1995 is an important year for Mary Steenburgen. She marries actor Ted Danson , with whom she would do the sitcom Kate and Mike . Along with Jennifer Lopez , she was in My Family ( Gregory Nava ) and was the mother of the president in Nixon ( Oliver Stone ). She also joined the cast of The Grass Harp ( Charles Matthau ), an adaptation of the lyrical work by Truman Capote .

From then on, Mary Steenburgen slowed down her work rate somewhat, although there are still things to highlight, such as I am Sam (2001) and three works with John Sayles , The Promised Land (2001), Casa de los babys (2003) and Honeydripper (2007). She is also in the family and Christmas comedy Elf (2003). On television, she stands out in the series that updates the character of Joan of Arc, Joan de Arcadia (2003-2005), and intervenes in its 45 episodes. Neil Jordan has her in The Stranger in You (2007) and Bertrand Tavernier in At the Center of the Storm(2009). After being in the comedies The Proposal (2009) and What happened to the Morgans? (2009) Mary Steenburgen has landed a bit role in the 2011 surprise hit The Help , where she is a major book editor.