Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960), also known as
Margaret May II or
Margaret May, is an American actress best known for playing the tough-minded shift-
Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the TV series
Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993–1997. She has also been a regular on
All My Children and
The Young Riders. Feature films she has appeared in include
A Time of Destiny,
Last Summer in the Hamptons,
21 Grams,
Confess, and
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. In 2009, she received an
Oscar nomination for
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the
81st Academy Awards for her role in
Frozen River.
Lawrence Toppman of
The Charlotte Observer hailed her as "one of America's most underrated character actresses"
[www.charlotteobserver.com/312/story/169510.html].
Personal life
Leo was born in
Manhattan,
[Veteran Actors, First Time Nominees] New York City,
New York, the daughter of Peggy, a teacher, and Arnold Leo, an editor at
Grove Press, fisherman, and spokesman for the
East Hampton Baymen's Association.
[Actress up for Oscar has longtime ties to Hamptons][Melissa Leo Biography (1960-)] She has a son with actor and former boyfriend
John Heard named John Matthew Heard (born 1987).
