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Extensive Biography
Marcia Gay Harden is an acclaimed actress on stage, screen and television, praised by critics
and awarded with the industry's most prestigious accolades. With over fourty productions to
her credit, she has logged more than enough screen time to prove her talent and versatility to
a wide audience. The biography is extended into nine chapters.
001 - Childhood & Education Marcia Gay Harden was born in La Jolla, California, on August 14, 1959. Her place of birth may cause some confusion assome sources say she was born in Tokyo Japan, where her father, a U.S. Naval Captain, Thaddeus Harden, spent his time with his wife Beverly Bushfield Harden and two older children shortly after Marcia's birth in 1959. Her families' roots run six generations deep into Texas history. Thanks to her father's profession, Marcia spends her childhood in such locations as Japan, Germany and Greece. And although she's able to see a lot of different places, traveling this much never helped Marcia to really settle anywhere. "I had a uni-brow. My sisters and I wore out-of-date clothing, matching dresses. It was a very strict family, and we were very mindful of our parents' wishes. So what happens is, you go away to college and then all hell breaks loose." Her high school years would be spent in Washington D.C. while her father served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. She graduates from Surrattsville Senior High School in Maryland a year early, and when her father is appointed Commanding Officer of a communications station in Greece, she enrolls her first year of college at Deree Pierce, in Athens, Greece. The country and its culture develope an interest in theater. "I was barely in my teens, living in Greece where my dad, an officer in the US Navy, was stationed. He took me and my four brothers and sisters to this ancient theater at the foot of the Parthenon, and we saw this amazing Greek drama. He tried to make it a learning experience, explaining, 'Do you realize even in ancient plays we are much more alike than we are different?' I was always the child who wore her emotions on her sleeve. I began crying, and to his surprise announced, pointing to the stage, 'That's what I want to do - act!'" 
 From left to right: As a child in the early-mid-60's. A picture from her yearbook at the University of Texas in 1970. In two of her first stage productions at the Olney Theater - "Crimes of the Heart" and "Enter a Free Man". A publicity studio shot from her theater days in the late 80s. A year later, she attends the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany. While she never participated in any plays in her High School, because she "was too nervous" for that, she makes her first steps on stage in Munich, where she performes in a string of plays by Edward Albee and Chekhov. Marcia then returns to the States to earn a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Texas in Austin. Upon graduation Marcia returns again to the D.C. area and finds work in local theatres. 002 - Early Stage Years She earns first recognition for her work at the Olney Theatre in Maryland. Making her debut in 1985 in "Enter a Free Man", Marcia receives two nominations for the Helen Hayes Award in 1985 and 1986 for her performances in "Crimes of the Heart" and "The Miss Firecracker Contest". For the young theatre grad, New York City is the only real choice for a career in "the business". Once in N.Y., Harden does her share of wait-ing tables and other sundry jobs. She lands her first movie role in an unrecognizable part as "Stage Manager" in the thriller The Imagemaker (1986) and participates in an unsold pilot called "In the Lion's Den", presented on CBS Summer Playhouse. Another television job comes in 1988 with a small guest appearance on the hit show "Simon & Simon". Despite these small steps to stardom, Marcia eventually wins a full scholarship to NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate program. She studies under Ron Van Lieu, and earns her MFA in 1988. A year later, in 1989, Marcia is appearing as a character called Lucy the Fat Pig in a New York University production. "Basically, I followed the male lead around, making snorting noises," she said in an interview with the New York Times. Donna Isaacson, a casting director, was in the audience. "Now here," Ms. Isaacson recalled thinking, "is someone with nerve. She just went with it. There was no holding back." Ms. Isaacson set up the meeting with the Coen brothers that eventually led to the unknown Ms. Harden's beating out Julia Roberts, Demi Moore and Jennifer Jason Leigh for the female lead in "Miller's Crossing." At the time, Marcia was studying acting as a graduate student, even though she had already done so at the University of Texas, had done years of summer stock and was rapidly approaching 30. "I was old to be in grad school," Ms. Harden said. "But I wanted to have resonance. I felt like I could get a reaction from an audience, but it didn't feel like anything I did came from deep inside of me." 003 - Marcia's Crossing Claimed to faim with their independent thriller "Blood Simple" in 1985 and the box office hit "Raising Arizona" three years later, Joel and Ethan Coen kind of launched a new era when it comes to filmmaking. So it was no surprise that their dark gangster's tale "Millers Crossing" was long awaited by critics and moviegoers alike. And although it's known as a today's classic, the critics didn't welcome it as first. 
 From left to right: Marcia as a gangster's moll in her motion picture debut "Miller's Crossing". In the critically lauded "Crush" (1992). Suffering a personality disorder in "Used People", co-starring Kathy Bates. In the Emmy-winning mini-series "Sinatra" In her breakthrough role as Harper Pitt in the Broadway hit "Angels in America". As the New York Times wrote, Miller's Crossing is a movie of random effects and little accumulative impact. As Mr Byrne is not Humphrey Bogart , and Miss Harden is not Lauren Bacall, 'Miller's Crossing' is not ''The Big Sleep.'' Nevertheless, "Miller's Crossing" introduced Marcia Gay Harden to a large group of movie-goers (the movie grossed over $ 4 million), she was chosen as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1990" in John Willis' Screen World, a promising launch for her screen career. While landing jobs in the television thrillers "In Broad Daylight", opposite Brian Dennehey and "Fever", co-starring Armand Assante and Sam Neill (both 1991), she returns to the big screen the same year, playing a woman whose husband and his best friend are cryogenically frozen in the early 1960s, in the comedy "Late for Dinner". She next travels to New Zealand to play the lead role in Alison MacLean's independent film Crush, the disturbing story of two women on their way to an inter-view when their car crashes and leaves one of the women brain dam-aged. The other, played by Marcia, takes over her id-entity to get her interview, a move that leads into stormy emotions and tragical events. "Crush" is first released at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, where director MacLean is promptly nominated for the prestigious Golden Palm. The film further wins four New Zealand Film Awards and is released in the USA a year later. Also in 1992, Marcia joins Academy Award winners Kathy Bates, Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Tandy, as well as Marcello Mastroianni, in the comedy "Used People", in which she plays a pop culture freak, who, in search of her own identity, dresses like Marylin Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, among others. She delivers another recognizable performance in the CBS telepic "Sinatra" (1992), playing one of Frank Sinatra's loves, actress Ava Gardner. The film wins a Golden Globe in 1993 as Best Mini-Series / Motion Picture Made for TV as well as two Emmy Awards. 004 - Taking Broadway by Storm As the offers wouldn't stop, Marcia kept busy during the early 90s on both the screen and the stage. Besides her filming work, she lands her career's biggest highlight to this date with her Broadway debut in "Angels in America: Millenium Approaches", in which she plays the Valium-addicted Harper, a woman who has to deal with her husbands homosexuality and her own hallucin-ations. With a total of 367 performan-ces from May to December 1993, "Angels", as well as the epic's second half "Perestroika", which is running from October to December 1993, is a huge success - and a favorite when it comes to awards. Marcia is honored with the World Theatre Award and receives nominations for the Tony- and the Drama Desk Award. Her other stage work in the early 90s includes "The Skin of Our Teeth" ('92) at the Goodman Theatre, "The Years" ('92-'93) at the Manhattan Theatre Club and "Simpatico" (1994), co-starring Ed Harris and Beverly D'Angelo, at NY's Public Theatre. 005 - Making her Mark Marcia takes a break from the stage in the mid 90s and concentrates on screen and television again. She can be seen as the older fiancee of Susan Sarandon's screen son in the drama "Safe Passage" (1994) and has a supporting role in the television film "Convict Cowboy" (1995), a prison drama in which she plays a horse doctor - and John Voigt's love interest. Marcia also guest stars on the American shows "Chicago Hope" and "Homicide: Life on the Street" (both 1995). Another memorable turn comes with "Path to Paradise" (1997), the "untold story of the World Trade Center Bombing", a terrorist attack that occurred in 1993 and may not be confounded with the tragical events from 2001. 
 From left to right: In the Public Theater production of "Simpatico" opposite Ed Harris. As the silent wife in the Independent pearl "The Spitfire Grill". With Robin Williams in the more crowdpleasing "Flubber". With husband Thaddeus Scheel at the premiere of another box office hit, "Meet Joe Black". Working for Clint Eastwood in 2000's "Space Cowboys". And once again, Marcia receives praises from both the critics and award juries for her role as an abused wife in the '96 independent film "The Spitfire Grill", for which she receives the Spirit Sundance Award by the Sundance Film Festival in 1996. What might also keep this film in Marcia's mind is its Art Department assistant, Thaddeus Scheel, whom she meets on the set and marries in 1996. While performing in high profile projects in the decades' first half, the late 90s don't offer many quality roles for Marcia Gay Harden, at least not in the comedy genre. She has a small part as Diane Keaton's shrink in the box office hit "The First Wives Club", a funny cameo in the independent "The Daytrippers", a forgettable turn in the goofy "Spy Hard", opposite Leslie Nielsen, as well as the female lead in the Robin Williams comedy "Flubber". She lands another supporting turn opposite Andy Garcia and Michael Keaton in the chilling (but critically panned) "Desperate Measures" (1998) and as Anthony Hopkins' unloved daughter in the year's tear jerker "Meet Joe Black" (1998), starring Brad Pitt. The same year, Marcia films the first of three television "Spenser" movies, a remake of the long running American show starring Robert Urich, although the "remake", starring Joe Mantegna as Spenser and Harden as his girlfriend Susan has little in common with the original series. Also in 1998, in September to be exact, Marcia's and Thaddeus' first child is born, daughter Eulala Grace. 006 - Paintings that lead to Gold The new millenium couldn't have a better start for Marcia Gay Harden. First, she is cast by Clint Eastwood alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Ganer and Eastwood himself in the well received "Space Cowboys" (2000). Another film she has made in 2000 didn't catch much attention at first - but it should affect her career as no other project has done before. Ed Harris, her co-star of the 1995 play "Simpatico", wants her to play Lee Krasner in "Pollock", his biopic on the American painter Jackson Pollock. On a funny sidenote, Marcia filmed "Space Cowboys" and "Pollock" at the same time. "We were down for two months while Ed was going to gain weight," she explains. "During that time I was shooting 'Space Cowboys,' there was one week where I could be done with 'Space Cowboys' and go to New York to finish 'Pollock.' I was back for a week and filmed that, then was back on a plane that evening, and that morning was shooting 'Space Cowboys' in Houston. That was my jet-setty 'Wait a minute! Who am I? What am I?' moment in the filming. But it's easier than it sounds." Back to Pollock, Marcia used her time for preparation to take courses in painting and trained on Krasner's thick New York, jewish accent. The film chronicles the ups and downs of Pollock's career, but also his relationship to Lee, who puts her career on hold to be his companion, lover, champion, wife, and, in essence, caretaker. Beside Harden, Harris casts a great bunch of talented and well known actors for the supporting roles, including Val Kilmer, John Heard and his wife, Amy Madigan. "Pollock" has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 and is later shown on various American film festivals. To qualify the film for the upcoming award season, "Pollock" also releases selected cinemas in New York and Los Angeles. Obvisiously, their plan works, as Marcia is honored with the New York Film Critics Circle Award in December 2000. The film receives overall rave reviews, Rolling Stone Magazine calls Marcia's role a "a fireball performance" while Movieline Magazine praises her as plain "brilliant". And with the announcement of the Oscar nominations in February 2001, both Harris and Harden are on the list as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. When the Academy Awards were broadcast in March 2001, there were little expectations to see Marcia Gay Harden winning an Oscar. 
 From left to right: As painter Lee Krasner in Ed Harris' biopic "Pollock". Winning the 2001 Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for "Pollock". Starring opposite Julia Roberts in the critically panned "Mona Lisa Smile". Opposite Sean Penn in Clint Eastwood's masterpiece "Mystic River". With "Mystic" co-star Laura Linney at the film's premiere at the New York Film Festival in October 2003. "Pollock", though its limited release, wasn't familiar to moviegoers and the frontrunners for the Best Supporting Actress category seemed to be a lock with either Kate Hudson or Frances McDormand, both nominated for "Almost Famous, who won every available critics award for their roles before. Even bookmarkers had Harden's winning expecations 12-to-1 odds, as Marcia noted in an interview with a laugh. While talent can be expressed in numbers, it can be clearly called the surprise of the night when Marcia Gay Harden was announced Best Supporting Actress for "Pollock" and took the stage to welcome her Oscar. Beside this praise, 2001 is also a memorable year for Marcia because she returnes to the stage, after seven years, to join Mike Nichols' unbelieveable cast, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Kevin Kline, John Goodman and Natalie Portman, in his Public Theatre production of "The Seagull" in the Central Park in New York. The dawning years of the new millennium is undeniably kind to the tireless actress as she films a second and third part of the "Spenser" series ("Walking Shadow" and "Thin Air" are broadcast in 2000 and 2001), lands a supporting role in the short lived series "The Education of Max Bickford" and gets leading parts in the television movies "Guilty Hearts" and "King of Texas" ( both 2002). Another independent feature, co-starring Lili Taylor and Judy Davis, "Gaudi Afternoon" (2001), in which Marcia plays a transsexual in search of her lost child, premieres at the Cannes Film Festival and makes it way through many film festivals over the year. 007 - Between Mona and Mystic Marcia returns to the big screen in 2003 with not one, but three movies. The first, "Casa De Los Babys", a drama about a couple of women trying to adopt babies in South America, causes little attention as it's only shown on various film festivals and in selected New York and Los Angeles theatres. The second film, the Julia Roberts starrer "Mona Lisa Smile", features a fine performance by Marcia as a naïve 50's teacher in a school for women-only, where the students are torn between the repressive mores of the time and their longing for intellectual freedom. Although the romantic comedy has America's darling Roberts in the lead, as well as Hollywood's upcoming stars Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Julia Stiles by her side, "Mona Lisa Smile" is dismissed by critics and audiences alike. Her third project on the other hand is a sure thing, nothing else could be expected when Clint Eastwood directs and the kinds of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon and Laura Linney star. Marcia knew before that Clint Eastwood was going to adapt Dennis Lehane's novel "Mystic River", took the chance and phoned Eastwood to ask if there might be a part for her (which eventually worked out perfectly). Knowing how Eastwood likes to work, she did her own research. "I went to the areas of Boston where the film was shot. I interviewed people on the street. I worked with my own voice and speech coach... so I could arrive ready. Harden came on set in character saying, "Hi, Clint, this is me, Celeste," to hear him respond, "That's definitely it." Without the opportunity for any prep time together, co-star Tim Robbins says he's grateful how easy it was to work with Harden to create "the reality of two people, who have been married for quite a while, known each other for a long time." The film's release in October 2003 is accompanied by europhic critics, claiming the film as Eastwood's best since "Unforgiven". In 2004, no award list is complete wihtout "Mystic River". It wins highest accolades by the Cannes Film Festival, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both win a Golden Globe for their performances. Marcia's stunning performance wins her a Seatlle Film Critics Award and a nomination for the Broadcast Film Critics Award. When the nominations for the 2004 Academy Awards are announced, "Mystic River" is among the top nominated films with a total of six - including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Marcia Gay Harden. 
 From left to right: 8 months pregnant at the 2004 Academy Awards as a nominee for "Mystic River". Starring with Billy Bob Thornton in "Bad News Bears". At the premiere of the 2007 drama "Rails and Ties", directed by Alison Eastwood. In a pivotal role as the mother of Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn's "Into the Wild". As the bible belting zealot in Stephen King's "The Mist". While it wins two of five, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards, for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, Marcia loses out to Renée Zellweger, but is nevertheless eye-catching at the event- she takes the red carpet heavily and foremost visibly pregnant as she and her husband aren't expecting one, but two children. Shortly after the Academy Awards, on April 22, 2004, Marcia gives birth to a boy and a girl, Hudson and Julitta Dee. 008 - Into the Work With three children, an Oscar and more than 20 films to credit, Marcia still finds a balance for working on screen, television and stage, most notably the latter as she is a part of the "Midsummer Night's Dream" (2004), performed at the New York Philharmonic. Marcia is further reunited with Meryl Streep and John Goodman, her "Seagull" co-stars in the production "Theater of the New Ear" (2005), which is performed on stage and later broadcast on radio, a two act event which is directed by Charlie Kaufmann and the Coen Brothers. Her movie work features some interesting, albeit little scene projects. She takes the screen again with Laura Linney in the romantic drama "P.S." and has a supporting role in the goofy, but charming comedy "Welcome to Mooseport" (both 2004), the story of a retired U.S. president (Gene Hackman) who returns to his hometown of Mooseport, Maine and decides to run for Mayor against the local clerk (Ray Romano). Marcia can be seen as Hackman's secretary and love interest. She has another, yet thankless part in the remake of the Walter Matthau classic "The Bad News Bears" (2005), this time starring Billy Bob Thornton. Marcia continues with strong supporting performances in such diverse roles as the First Lady of the United States in the Paul Weitz comedy "American Dreamz", as the grieving mother of a High School assassinate in "American Gun" and the wife of the famous bogus author of the Howard Hughes biography, Clifford Irving, in Lasse Hallström's "The Hoax". 2007 might be one of the busiest years in Marcia's career - having six films released in theaters. Besides "The Hoax", she plays a mother searching for her missing daughter in Karen Moncrieff's lauded drama "The Dead Girl", again a mother whose child has been murdered in the remake of the Swedish thriller "The Invisible". She is further seen as a mentally ill mother, suffering of schizophrenia, in the little-seen drama "Canvas", as the mother of Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn's big screen adaptation of John Krakauer's novel "Into the Wild" and as the religious fundamentalist Mrs. Carmody in Stephen King's "The Mist". Last modified on March 01, 2008 All information is coming from articles, interviews or reviews of her films. It is correct to the best of my knowledge, but I make no guarantees, warranties or promises. If you found a mistake or something wrong, please contact me. |