Kathy Bates Biography (2)

Kathy Bates is an Academy Award-winning actress who first earned her considerable reputation in the theatre. An Obie Award winner for her performance as Frankie in the original Off-Broadway production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Bates also received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Actress in the Mark Taper Forum production of the play. On Broadway, she received a Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of the suicidal daughter in Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘night Mother, and the Dramalogue Award. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Bates graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and worked in regional theatre in Washington, D.C. and at The Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her first major play in New York was Vanities; she subsequently appeared in an impressive lineup of productions, including Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (a role she reprised in Robert Altman's film adaptation), Fifth of July and Curse of the Starving Class (another role she reprised for film). She also starred as South African schoolteacher Elsa Barlow in the Off-Broadway production of The Road to Mecca, playing opposite the author, Athol Fugard, (and starred in the film version as well).

Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for her unforgettable Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990). She was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe (and won a Screen Actors Guild Award) for her Libby Holden in Mike Nichol's Primary Colors (1998). Some of her many other films include The Water Boy (1998), the Academy Award-winning Titanic (1997), Diabolique (1996), The War at Home (1996), Dolores Claiborne (1994), A Home of OurOwn (1993), Used People (1992), Fried Green Tomatoes (Golden Globe nomination, 1991), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991), White Palace (1991), Men Don't Leave (1990), Straight Time (1978) and Taking Off (1971) (her film debut).

Her work on television includes the Emmy winning Roe v. Wade (1986), Johnny Bull (1986) and for HBO The Late Shift (1996) (winning a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and an American Comedy Award). She also starred in Hallmark Hall of Fame's My Sister's Keeper (airing January 2002). In 2000, Bates directed her first film, Dash and Lilly for A & E, starring Sam Shepard and Judy Davis (which received 9 Emmy nominations). She has also directed episodes of Homicide, NYPD Blue, Oz and multiple episodes of HBO's Six Feet Under.

Ms. Bates can also be seen in About Schmidt opposite Jack Nicholson, which will be released in November, 2002. Entertainment Weekly voted her one of The 25 Greatest Actresses of the 90's.

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