Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell, a two-time Oscar(r),-nominated actress, is best known for her performances on screen in traditional and contemporary roles. She also has a long history of roles both on stage and screen. Mary Eileen McDonnell was born on April 28, 1952 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Eileen (Mundy) and John McDonnell, a computer consultant, both from Irish heritage. She was raised in Ithaca, New York, she graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) in Fredonia. She then attended theatre school, after which she was accepted into Long Wharf Theatre Company (East Coast). Her first film role came in Dances with Wolves (1990) by Kevin Costner. She played the character of "Stands with a Fist" as a Sioux Indian-born white woman. In exchange for the role, she received her first Academy Award nomination. McDonnell's film credits also include Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon (1991) & Mumford (1999) in which she starred alongside veteran actors such as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier and Ben Kingsley; Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); the popular art house cult hit Donnie Darko (192001) as well as Margin Call (2011). This earned her the Robert Altman Awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. McDonnell was the president Laura Roslin in the critically loved show Battlestar Galactica (2004) on Syfy. She was the lead in four seasons. She garnered an Emmy nomination for her regular guest appearance on the tv show ER (1994). She stars as Captain Sharon Raydor on the TNT's successful drama series Major Crimes (2012), the follow-up to The Closer (2005), in which McDonnell took on the role for the first time and earned an Emmy(r) nomination for Primetime. Emmy(r) nomination. As a paraplegic soap-opera star in John Sayles's critically acclaimed film Passion Fish (1992), she was awarded the Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination and a Golden Globe nomination.