Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson | |
|---|---|
 Clarkson at the opening night of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera season | |
| Born | Patricia Davies Clarkson |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1985–present |
Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. After having a dramatic education on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under twice, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Pieces of April (2003).
Early life
Clarkson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Jacquelyn (née Brechtel), a prominent local New Orleans politician and councilwoman, and Arthur, a school administrator who worked at the Department of Medicine of Louisiana State University.[1][2] Clarkson's great-grandfather was from Barcelona, Spain.[3] Clarkson studied drama at Fordham University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and earned her MFA at the Yale School of Drama[4] before making her film debut in The Untouchables in 1987.
Career
Clarkson's Broadway theatre credits include The House of Blue Leaves and Eastern Standard.
Clarkson had supporting roles in a series of high-profile films in her early career. Her first movie role, at age 27, was as Elliot Ness's (played by Kevin Costner) wife in The Untouchables. She was also featured in The Dead Pool, Rocket Gibraltar and Everybody's All-American. She starred in the short-run television series Davis Rules, and in the miniseries Alex Haley's Queen. More often a character actor than a leading woman, she has also appeared in such major films as The Green Mile (1999), Far from Heaven (2002) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). Her breakout role which put her on the indie film map, was High Art (1998) where her role as Greta, a German drug addicted lesbian former model, got rave reviews.
In 2002, she originated her role as Sarah O'Connor (a.k.a. "Aunt Sarah") in HBO's Six Feet Under. She went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress that year for her performance, a feat she repeated for the same role in 2006.
In 2003, she gained critical acclaim and a Special Jury Prize for her work in four films that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival : All the Real Girls, The Baroness and the Pig, The Station Agent and Pieces of April.[5][6] Later that year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Pieces of April, in which she plays an acerbic mother dying of cancer.
In 2006, she portrayed Sadie Burke, in All the King's Men, set in her native New Orleans. In 2008, she had supporting roles in Elegy, as a womanizer's put-upon girlfriend, and Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona as an unhappily-married housewife.
Clarkson returned to New Orleans for 2009 January 17 reopening of the Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts. She served as Master of Ceremonies for a gala celebration featuring Plácido Domingo in concert with the New Orleans Opera, conducted by Robert Lyall.[7] She also made a cameo appearance in the Saturday Night Live Digital Short "Motherlover" on May 9, 2009. The video featured Andy Samberg, Justin Timberlake, and Susan Sarandon.
In 2010, she starred in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.[8] Patricia was honored by the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival when she received one of the 2010 Volta awards for achievements in her career.[9]
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Spenser: For Hire | Elizabeth Haller | 1 episode |
| 1986 | The Equalizer | Deborah Wade | 1 episode |
| 1990 | The Old Man and the Sea | Mary Pruitt | |
| Tales from the Crypt | Suzy | 1 episode | |
| Law & Order | Laura Winthrop | 1 episode | |
| 1991 | Davis Rules | Cosmo Yeargin | 8 episodes |
| 1992 | Blind Man's Bluff | Dr. Virginia Hertz | |
| An American Story | Barbara Meade | ||
| Legacy of Lies | Pat Rafael | ||
| Four Eyes and Six Guns | Lucy Laughton | ||
| 1993 | Queen | Elizabeth "Lizzie" Perkins | mini-series |
| Caught in the Act | Meg | ||
| 1994 | She Led Two Lives | Desiree Parnell | |
| 1995–1996 | Murder One | Annie Hoffman | 20 episodes |
| 1996 | London Suite | Diana Nichols | |
| The Wedding | Della McNeil | ||
| 2000 | Wonderland | Mrs. Tammy Banger | 2 episodes |
| 2001 | Frasier | Claire French | 5 episodes |
| 2002 | Carrie | Margaret White | |
| 2002–2005 | Six Feet Under | Sarah O'Connor | 7 episodes Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series (2002, 2006) |
| 2007 | American Masters | Narrator | 1 episode |
| 2009 | Saturday Night Live | Mother of Justin Timberlake's character | May 9, 2009 SNL Digital Short |
References
- ^ Patricia Clarkson Biography (1959-)
- ^ Patricia Clarkson Biography - Yahoo! Movies
- ^ http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/7202/tcid/1/pg/2
- ^ "Clarkson Shifts Her Weight" in the Washington Times, 2008, March 28, pp. D1
- ^ Devin Gordon, "A Woman on the Verge of a Breakthrough" in Newsweek, 2003 October 20, pp. 11.
- ^ "Move Over Sundance Kids, There's a New...Star of Indies" in the New York Post, 2003 January 23, pp. 39.
- ^ Theodore P. Mahne, "Star Emcee Patricia Clarkson Shares in the Excitement over Tonight's Opera Gala" in The Times-Picayune, 2009 January 17, pp. C1, C3.
- ^ Video Interviews: Shutter Island - Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Lehane
- ^ JDIFF announce recipients of this year’s Volta Awards, Filmbase; retrieved 2010-02-24
External links
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Patricia Clarkson at AllMovie
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- Template:Tv.com person