Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates (born 28 June 1948) is an
Academy Award-, two-time
Golden Globe-, and two-time
Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American
theatrical,
film and television actress, and a
stage and
television director.
Biography
Early life
Bates was born in
Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Bertye Kathleen (
née Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer.
[Film Reference.com.] Her great-great-grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland to
New Orleans and served as President
Andrew Jackson's doctor.
[Public Interview with Kathy Bates. Scott's Movie Comments. 16 July 2006.] She has two older sisters, Mary and Patricia. Bates graduated from
White Station High School in Memphis. She attended
Southern Methodist University, majoring in theatre and was a member of
Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and graduated in 1969. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career.
[Kathy Bates Biography. Yahoo Movies.]
Career
One of her first films was the
Milos Forman comedy
Taking Off (credited as "Bobo Bates"), wherein she sings an original song "Even Horses Had Wings". In 1990, she would appear again with Hoffman in
Warren Beatty's
Dick Tracy as a stenographer who couldn't understand the mumbling of Hoffman's character, Mumbles. Bates appeared
off-Broadway in
Terrence McNally's 1987 play
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, performed in little-seen films such as
Summer Heat and
The Morning After, and guest-starred in
television shows such as
L.A. Law before landing the role of obsessed fan
Annie Wilkes, who holds her favorite author (played by
James Caan) captive, in the 1990 thriller
Misery, which was based on the novel of the same name by
Stephen King. She received her first Academy Award nomination for that role, winning Best Actress. Soon after, she starred with
Jessica Tandy in the acclaimed 1991 movie
Fried Green Tomatoes. In 1995, she turned in another applauded portrayal as the title character in
Dolores Claiborne, although she was not nominated for an Oscar. She also excelled in her role as the acid-tongued "dustbuster" political advisor
Libby Holden in the 1998
Primary Colors, which was adapted from the book in which political journalist
Joe Klein recounted his experiences on the Presidential campaign trail in 1991-1992. For this performance, she received the her second Academy Award nomination, for
Best Supporting Actress, though she did not win. She was nominated again, in 2002, for
About Schmidt, and did not win. Bates did her first
nude scene at the age of 43 in the 1991 film,
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) and again for a scene in
About Schmidt. More recently, she and
Terry Bradshaw played the parents of
Matthew McConaughey's character in the
2006 film
Failure to Launch Bates featured in an uncredited cameo in the miniseries of Stephen Kings The Stand.
Bates was nominated
Emmy Award seven times: Outstanding actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, for her performance as
Jay Leno's manager
Helen Kushnick in
HBO's
The Late Shift (1996), and, twice again in the same category; as Miss Hannigan in Disney's remake of
Annie (1999) and for the HBO
Franklin Roosevelt biopic
Warm Springs (2005). She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for
Lifetime Television's "
Ambulance Girl" (2006), which she also directed. She appeared in ten episodes of the HBO
cable television series
Six Feet Under for which she received an
Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, as Bettina, in 2003. She also was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for
3rd Rock from the Sun in 1999, the same year that she was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries or Movie for the
Dashiell Hammett-
Lillian Hellman biopic
Dash & Lilly.
Her
Broadway appearances include
Lanford Wilson's
Fifth of July and the
Robert Altman-directed
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean opposite
Karen Black and
Cher. She received a
Tony Award nomination in 1983 for her stage role in the
Pulitzer Prize-winning play
'night, Mother opposite
Anne Pitoniak. The production of
night, Mother ran over a year. One of her other successful New York stage productions was, Off-Broadway, in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune which ran 533 performances. McNally specifically wrote the play for Bates and F. Murray Abraham, who had to drop out and was replaced by Kenneth Welsh. The play was later filmed as Frankie and Johnny, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Starting in the 1990s, Bates forged a formidable career as a director. She has directed episodes of
Homicide: Life on the Street,
NYPD Blue,
Oz,
Six Feet Under, and
Everwood. Bates has also directed the TV movies
Dash and Lilly and the self-starring
Ambulance Girl. In 2007, Bates will direct and also star in
Have Mercy opposite
Melanie Griffith.That same year, she re-teamed with her
Titanic co-stars
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Kate Winslet in
Revolutionary Road, based on
Richard Yates's critically acclaimed novel. It is scheduled for a 2008 release.
Television:
In 1983, unknown Bates superbly played prison inmate "Belle" on the soap opera "All My Children". She tormented and belittled a young Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) who shared a jail cell with her. Erica had been in jail for an alleged murder. Bell Told Erica she would be leaving the jail cell in a body bag if she narked on her bullish behaviour. This is the first time Kathy Bates can be seen playing a villian. The series of the 1983 episodes can be seen on Youtube.
Personal life
In 1991, Bates married actor Tony Campisi, with whom she had lived for 12 years previously. They divorced in 1997. She is the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors. Lives in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. Sold her english style Hollywood hills mansion to actor Jon Cryer. She was diagnosed with Ovarian
Cancer in 2003, but has since made a full recovery. She shared her story with the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance in September 2008 in a PSA and interview.
[www.youtube.com/user/ovariancancerorg][www.ovariancancer.org/]
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
| Year
| Film
| Role
| Other notes
|
| 1999 | Baby Steps | |
|
| 2004 | The Ingrate | |
|
