Biography
Curly haired, sandy-voiced actress Mary Steenburgen is a natural when it comes to playing Southerners, probably because she hails from the region herself. Born in Arkansas on February 8, 1953, Steenburgen was the daughter of a railroad employee. Pursuing drama in college, she headed to New York in 1972, where she worked with an improvisational troupe. She was spotted by
Jack Nicholson, who cast her as his feisty "in name only" frontier wife in 1978's
Goin' South. Two years later, she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Melvin Dummar's inamorata in
Melvin and Howard (1980).
Able to convey a wide age and character range, Steenburgen was effectively cast as a free-spirited Frisco girl in
Time After Time (1979), the corseted matriarch of a turn-of-the-century household in
Ragtime (1981), prim authoress Marjorie Rawlins in
Cross Creek (1983), a long-suffering suburban housewife in
Parenthood (1989), and a Marcia Clark-like attorney in
Philadelphia (1993). She also portrayed the Jules Verne-loving Western schoolmarm Clara in Back to the Future 3 (1990), a role she perpetuated (via voice-over) on the
Back to the Future TV cartoon series. In 1988, she was executive producer of
End of the Line, in which she also appeared. Steenburgen's film appearances throughout the 1990s were erratic: some highlights, in addition to
Philadelphia, include
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993),
Nixon (1995), and
The Grass Harp (1995). In 1999, she starred as Noah's wife in the biblical epic
Noah's Ark, sharing the screen with the likes of
Jon Voight, F. Murray Abraham,
James Coburn, and
Carol Kane. Formerly married for several years to actor
Malcolm McDowell, Steenburgen married former
Cheers star
Ted Danson in 1995. The two have collaborated on a number of projects, including 1994's
Pontiac Moon and the made-for-TV
Gulliver's Travels in 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide