Frances Conroy

Frances Conroy
Frances Conroy in 2012
Born	(1953-11-13) November 13, 1953 Monroe, Georgia, U.S.
Education	Juilliard School (1977)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present

Frances Conroy (born November 13, 1953) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series Six Feet Under. Her work on the show won her acclaim and several awards, including a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is also known for playing Template:AHSCharacter on the television anthology series American Horror Story, which garnered Conroy her first Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination, and as well an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Conroy subsequently portrayed Template:AHSCharacter and Template:AHSCharacter on the next two seasons of the show, Asylum and Coven, respectively.

Early life

Conroy was born in Monroe, Georgia to a business executive father and a mother who also worked in business. During the 1971–72 school year she was a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the Mermaid Players and appeared in college theatrical productions. She moved to New York City to study drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Juilliard School. She was a member of Juilliard's Drama Division Group 6 (1973–1977) which also included Kevin Conroy, Kelsey Grammer, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Robin Williams.

Career

During the 1970s, she performed regularly with regional and touring theatrical companies (most notably The Acting Company), and appeared as Desdemona at the Delacorte Theatre in a production of Othello with Richard Dreyfuss and Raul Julia. One of her first film appearances was as a Shakespearean actress in Woody Allen's 1979 classic, Manhattan. In 1980, she made a very well received Broadway debut in Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque. She focused primarily on her stage career for the next two decades, appearing in such productions as Our Town, The Little Foxes, and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, receiving one Tony and four Drama Desk Award nominations (including a Drama Desk win for The Secret Rapture). Conroy had a small role in the 1984 movie Falling in Love, as a waitress in a swanky restaurant. In 1988 she appeared as the elder daughter of Burt Lancaster's dying patriarch in Rocket Gibraltar.

In 1992, Conroy became friends with playwright Arthur Miller, which led to her involvement in many of his productions on both stage and screen. During this period, she also appeared on television shows, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies, and met and married fellow actor Jan Munroe.

Six Feet Under (2001-2005)

She is best known for her critically acclaimed work on HBO's original drama series Six Feet Under, which she starred in from 2001 and the series' end in 2005, playing the emotional family matriarch Ruth Fisher. During the series' run, Conroy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2004. She was also nominated for four Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series awards, without ever winning. Along with the cast of the show, they were awarded two times in 2003 and 2004 the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, as well as Conroy winning the individual 2004 award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. The series ended in 2005, having aired 63 original episodes.

Beyond Six Feet Under (2007-2010)

In 2008, she landed a guest role in ABC's Desperate Housewives as Virginia Hildebrand, a rich woman who tries to buy the Solis family's love. But Eva Longoria's character, Gabrielle Solis, declines Virginia's motives, despite being open to receiving her entire fortune.

Along with many guest appearances on television in the mid-2000s, she was cast in a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother, as Barney Stinson's mother Loretta Stinson. And in 2010, Conroy portrayed the character Angie Dinkley in the animated show Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

In 2010, Conroy played Madylyn, the wife of Robert De Niro's character Jack Mabrey, in the John Curran thriller Stone. In the same year, Conroy played the recurring role of Peggy Haplin in the short-lived ABC drama series Happy Town created by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg.

Return to mainstream television (2011-present)

In 2011, she was cast in a new drama series for FX entitled American Horror Story: Murder House. Conroy was one of two actress, the other being Alexandra Breckenridge, playing a woman named Template:AHSCharacter. When the season came to an end in 2011, it was announced that the show was intended to be an anthology series, in which each season would be completely different with new characters each season. During this time, Conroy was nominated for a fifth Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie category.

For the second season, dubbed Asylum, Conroy re-joined the cast playing the Template:AHSCharacter in a multi-episode arc. And in 2013, Conroy once again was cast in the third season, Coven, this time part of the main cast, playing Template:AHSCharacter, a member of the Witches Council in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Conroy will return for the fourth season of the series, entitled Freak Show, in a yet to be specified role.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Falling in Love	Waitress
1988	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	Lady from Palm Beach
1988	Rocket Gibraltar	Ruby Hanson
1988	Another Woman	Lynn
1989	Crimes and Misdemeanors	House Owner
1991	Billy Bathgate	Mary Behan
1992	Scent of a Woman	Christine Downes
1993	Sleepless in Seattle	Irene Reed
1993	The Adventures of Huck Finn	Scrawny Shanty Lady
1995	The Neon Bible	Miss Scover
1995	Angela	Anne's mother	credited as Francis Conroy
1996	The Crucible	Ann Putnam
2002	Maid in Manhattan	Paula Burns
2003	Die, Mommie, Die!	Bootsie Carp
2004	Catwoman	Ophelia
2004	The Aviator	Mrs. Hepburn
2005	Shopgirl	Catherine Buttersfield
2005	Broken Flowers	Dora
2006	Ira and Abby	Lynn Willoughby
2006	The Wicker Man	Dr. T.H. Moss
2006	A Perfect Day	Camille Bailey
2007	The Seeker: The Dark is Rising	Miss Greythorne
2008	Humboldt County	Rosie
2008	The Tale of Despereaux	Antoinette	Voice role
2009	Love Happens	Eloise's mom
2009	Waking Madison	Dolly
2009	New in Town	Trudy Van Uuden
2009	Stay Cool	Mrs. Leuchtenberger
2009	Shelter	Mrs. Bernberg
2010	Bloodworth	Julia Bloodworth
2010	Stone	Madylyn Mabry
2011	Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz	Aunt Em/Glinda	Voice role
2011	All-Star Superman	Martha Kent	Voice role
2012	Beautiful People	Lydia	Television movie
2013	Superman: Unbound	Martha Kent	Voice role
2013	Ring of Fire	Maybelle Carter	Television movie
2014	Making the Rules	Mother
2014	Chasing Ghosts	Dara	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	American Playhouse	Mother	Episode: "Echoes and Silences"
1984	3-2-1 Contact	Kate	Episode: "Earth: Building Models"
1987	Remington Steele	Gladys Lynch	Episode: "Steele Hanging in There: Part 1"
1987	Crime Story	Mrs. Jankowski	Episode: "The Battle of Las Vegas"
1989	Great Performances	Mrs. Gibbs	Episode: "Our Town"
1990	Law and Order	Elizabeth Hendrick	Episode: "Prisoner of Love"
1998	Cosby	Elizabeth	Episode: "Judgement Day"
1999	Law & Order	Rosa Halasy	Episode: "Disciple"
2001–05	Six Feet Under	Ruth Fisher	63 episodes
2007–08	ER	Becky Riley	2 episodes
2008	Desperate Housewives	Virginia Hildebrand	3 episodes
2009–14	How I Met Your Mother	Loretta Stinson	9 episodes
2010	Nip/Tuck	Jane Fields	Episode: "Sheila Carlton"
2010	Happy Town	Peggy Haplin	7 episodes
2010	Grey's Anatomy	Eleanor	Episode: "Can't Fight Biology"
2010–13	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Angie Dinkley	15 episodes
2011	United States of Tara	Sandy Gregson	2 episodes
2011	Love Bites	Faye Strathmore	Episode: "How To..."
2011	The Mentalist	Elspeth	Episode: "The Red Mile"
2011	American Horror Story: Murder House	Template:AHSCharacter	11 episodes
2012–13	American Horror Story: Asylum	Template:AHSCharacter	5 episodes
2013	Royal Pains	Blythe Ballard	6 episodes
2013–14	American Horror Story: Coven	Template:AHSCharacter	10 episodes
2014	American Horror Story: Freak Show	TBD

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Othello	Desdemona
1980	The Lady from Dubuque	Jo
1988-89	Our Town	Mrs. Gibbs
1989	The Secret Rapture	Marion French
1990	Some Americans Abroad	Frankie Lewis
1992	Two Shakespearean Actors	Catherine Forrest
1993	In the Summer House	Mrs. Constable
1994	Broken Glass	Margaret Hyman
1996-97	The Rehearsal	The Countess
1997	The Little Foxes	Birdie Hubbard
1999	Ring Round the Moon	Capulat
2000	The Ride Down Mt. Morgan	Theo
2010	The Subject Was Roses	Nettie Cleary

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Frances Conroy

External links

• Frances Conroy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Frances Conroy at IMDb
• Frances Conroy at AllMovie