Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell is a two-time Oscar(r)-nominated actress, she is well-known for her character portrayals in both contemporary and period screen roles, and the long list of acting in stage and film. Mary Eileen McDonnell was the daughter of John McDonnell (a computer consultant) and Eileen (Mundy), a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania native. She was raised in Ithaca, New York, she graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) in Fredonia. She later attended drama school and was accepted into the famous Long Wharf Theatre Company on the East Coast. Her breakthrough film role was in Dances with Wolves (1990) by Kevin Costner. She played the role of "Stands with a Fist" who was a Sioux Indian raised white woman. Her first Academy Award nomination was for the role. McDonnell's film credits include Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon (1991) & Mumford (1999) as well as opposite veteran actors such as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier and Ben Kingsley; Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); the highly acclaimed art house hit Donnie Darko (192001); and Margin Call (2011). This earned her the Robert Altman Awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. On the small screen, McDonnell starred in four seasons of Syfy Network's award-winning television series Battlestar Galactica (2004) in her critically acclaimed performance as President Laura Roslin. McDonnell was nominated for an Emmy for her regular guest appearance on the television show ER (1994). She is the Captain Sharon Raydor on the TNT's hit drama series Major Crimes (2012), the follow-up to The Closer (2005), in which McDonnell played the lead role and for which she earned an primetime Emmy(r) nomination. She was awarded an Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination as well as a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as the paraplegic soap-opera star in John Sayles's critically-acclaimed film, Passion Fish (1992).