Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell is an actress who has been nominated for two Oscars(r). She is known for her portrayals in characters from the past and present screen roles. Mary Eileen McDonnell was the daughter of John McDonnell (a computer consultant) and Eileen (Mundy) who was a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania native. She was raised in Ithaca and then graduated from Fredonia State University of New York. She attended theatre school, and then was accepted into Long Wharf Theatre Company (East Coast). Her breakthrough film role was in Dances with Wolves (1990) by Kevin Costner. She played the character "Stands with a Fist" as a Sioux Indian-born white woman. McDonnell received her first Academy Award nomination for the part. McDonnell was a part of the Lawrence Kasdan films Grand Canyon (1991), and Mumford (1999) in the role of experienced actors as Robert Redford as well as Sidney Poitier. She also played in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996), featuring Will Smith. Margin Call (2011) which was a duet with Kevin Spacey, earned McDonnell the Robert Altman award at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. On the smaller screen, McDonnell starred in four seasons of Syfy Network's award-winning show Battlestar Galactica (2004) in her highly acclaimed role as President Laura Roslin. Her regular guest role as host on the tv series ER (1994) brought her an Emmy nomination. She plays Captain Sharon Raydor on the TNT's successful drama series Major Crimes (2012), the follow-up to The Closer (2005), in which McDonnell took on the role for the first time and for which she earned an Emmy(r) nomination for Primetime. Emmy(r) nomination. She garnered an Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination as well as an Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of an actress with paraplegia in soap opera in John Sayles's critically-acclaimed film, Passion Fish (1992).