Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell is an actress who has been nominated for two Oscars(r). She is famous for her portrayals of characters from both contemporary and period screen roles. Mary Eileen McDonnell was the daughter of John McDonnell (a computer consultant) and Eileen (Mundy) is an Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania native. Born in Ithaca, New York, she graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. She later attended drama school , and was admitted to the well-known Long Wharf Theatre Company on the East Coast. She was only 22 when she scored her first movie part in Dances with Wolves (1990), where she played "Stands with a Fist", a Sioux Indian woman who is white. She earned her first Academy Award nomination for the role. McDonnell's film credits also 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 famous art house cult film Donnie Darko (192001); and Margin Call (2011). It earned her the Robert Altman Awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. McDonnell was president Laura Roslin in the critically loved series Battlestar Galactica (2004) on Syfy. McDonnell was a star in four seasons. Her frequent guest appearance as host on the popular television series ER (1994) was rewarded with an Emmy nomination. The popular drama series on TNT Major Crimes (2012) stars her as Captain Sharon Raydor. It is McDonnell's second season and she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy(r). In recognition of her performance as an actress with paraplegia in John Sayles' critically-acclaimed film Passion Fish (1992), she was awarded a Best Actress Academy Award(r), nomination, and a Golden Globe nomination.