Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell, a two-time Oscar(r),-nominated actress, is most well known for her performances on screen in both contemporary and historical roles. She also has a long history of acting roles on stage and screen. Mary Eileen McDonnell is a Pennsylvania-born actress. She was the child of Eileen (Mundy) and an Irish-American computer expert, and John McDonnell. She was born in Ithaca, New York and graduated from Fredonia State University of New York. Later, she attended drama school and was admitted to the Long Wharf Theatre Company in East Coast. In the following two decades she scored her first major film role in Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990), playing "Stands with a Fist" who is a white woman that is raised by Sioux Indians. The first time she received an Academy Award nomination was for the role. McDonnell's film credits include Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon (1991) & Mumford (1999), opposite veteran actors such as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier and Ben Kingsley; Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); the popular art house cult hit Donnie Darko (192001); and Margin Call (2011). This won her the Robert Altman Awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. McDonnell was a regular in the Syfy Network's award winning series Battlestar Galactica (2004), where she was recognized for her performance as the President Laura Roslin. The role she played as a frequent guest host on the tv series ER (1994) brought her an Emmy nomination. TNT's hit drama show Major Crimes (2012) stars her as Captain Sharon Raydor. It is McDonnell's second show and she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy(r). As the soap opera star who is paraplegic in John Sayles’s critically acclaimed film Passion Fish (1992), she was awarded the Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.