Mary Steenburgen is an award-winning American actress and singer known for her roles as Lynda Dummar in Melvin and Howard, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek , and Karen Buckman in Parenthood among many others. She has won many awards including an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the character of Lynda Dummar in the 1980 film Melvin and Howard.
9 nominations were made for her excellence in various works, some of which are two Golden Globe nominations for the films Goin’ South and Ragtime, a Primetime Emmy nomination for The Attic: Anne Frank’s Hiding Place and a BAFTA TV Award nomination for the miniseries Tender is the night.
Born Mary Nell Steenburgen on February 8, 1953, in Newport, Arkansas, the actress is the daughter of Nellie Mae and Maurice Hoffman Steenburgen, both late. Her mother was a school board clerk while her father, a freight train conductor, worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Mary was raised by her parents along with her sister Nancy (Steenburgen) Kelly, a governess.
As a young girl, Mary Steenburgen took a special interest in art and literature. Growing up she was a tap dancer and her natural talent allowed her to perform in various talent shows and school events. She was also a member of her school’s drama group, where she appeared in several high school plays.
After graduating from high school, Mary moved to Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas in 1971 to study drama. However, at the encouragement of her drama teacher, she dropped out of college in 1972 and traveled to Dallas to study acting at a professional level. She auditioned for a place at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater and was successful. To support herself while studying with Will Esper, Mary Steenburgen worked as a server at The Magic Pan and for the publisher Doubleday.
acting career
In 1978, she landed her breakthrough role as Julie Tate in Jack Nicholson’s second directorial effort, the western comedy film Goin’ South. This was after the director spotted her in the reception room of Paramount’s New York office. The following year, she was cast again in a leading role in the film Over and Over again, alongside her future first husband, Malcolm McDowell.
In 1980, Mary Steenburgen played the role of Lynda Dummar in her third film, Melvin and Howard Dies, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also made a notable appearance in the 1983 film Cross Creek, early portraying the character of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of the novel The Yearling.
The actress had a starring role in the 1985 film, A Magical Christmas, playing the role of Ginny Grainger, a wife and mother of two who falls through hard times at Christmas and relies only on a Christmas miracle to save her family . From 1987 to 1989, Mary Steenburgen appeared in five films, including Dead in Winter, The Whales in August, End of the Line, Miss Firecracker, and Parenthood.
The next year, she gave in to the belief of her children and fans of the Back to the Future films, starring as Clara Clayton in the third installment. She also voiced the character in Back to the Future: The Animated Series . The talented actress has also starred in many other films such as What Is Gilbert Grape Eating? (1993), Nixon (1995), Eleven (2003), Step Brothers (2008), Four Christmases (2008), The Proposal (2009) Dirty Girl (2010), The Help (2011), Last Vegas (2013), A Walk in the forest (2015) andBook Club (2018).
music career
On April 17, 2007, Mary Steenburgen underwent minor surgery on her arm that required general anesthesia. After the operation, she became passionate about singing and writing songs, and consequently began to write everything down. By 2017 she had already composed more than 40 songs. Mary has worked in collaborations with various Nashville musicians and has also been signed to Universal Music as a songwriter.
husband and children
Mary Steenburgen met her co-actor Malcolm McDowell while both starred in Again and Again in 1978. They were two years old and eventually married in 1980. The couple union produced two children, a son and daughter named Charlie McDowell and Lilly respectively. Nine years later, the duo separated and divorced in 1990.
In 1993, the actress met another actor, Ted Danson, on the set of the movie Pontiac Moon and they started dating. On October 7, 1995, Mary Steenburgen became the stepmother to Ted’s daughters Kate and Alexis, whom he had with his former wife, producer Cassandra Coates.
It has been more than two decades since they married and to this day, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen live very close with their family in the Los Angeles area.
More facts about Ted Danson’s wife
1. She is the third consecutive Oscar winner to bear the initials “MS” and the 84th actress to receive an Oscar.
2. On December 16, 2009, Mary Steenburgen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
3. The actress had her first child, Lilly Amanda McDowell, at the age of 27 and was 30 when she gave birth to Charles Malcolm McDowell.
4. She became a grandmother for the first time at the age of 58. Back then, their daughter Lilly gave birth to a baby girl named Clementine Mae in 2012.
5. Mary Steenburgen is actively involved in humanitarian activities and works with a number of groups.
6. Former Hendrix College student Mary Steenburgen was honored with a PhD from the institution in 1989. She received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas in 2006.
7. Mary personally knew former President Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas when she lived in Little Rock. This explains why the ex-president and his wife attended their wedding to Ted Danson, why Clinton celebrated his 51st birthday at Mary’s home in Martha’s Vineyard on an island in Massachusetts, and why the actress and her husband hosted the 2008 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton endorsed.