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Elizabeth McGovern Biography

Elizabeth McGovern

A large-eyed, slightly baby-faced stage and screen performer McGovern first gained attention as Conrad Jarrett’s (Timothy Hutton) supportive and understanding girlfriend in the Oscar-winning “Ordinary People” (1980). The willowy actress followed with a stunning turn as Evelyn Nesbit in Milos Foreman’s adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow novel “Ragtime” (1981) netting a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. While subsequent projects found her working with a number of top film directors, she failed to find roles that utilized her unique beauty and challenged her range and talent. She appeared as the object of Robert De Niro’s obsession in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984) and as Kevin Bacon’s pregnant wife in John Hughes’ “She’s Having a Baby” (1988). In 1989, McGovern offered two diverse performances as Mickey Rourke’s sympathetic girlfriend in Walter Hill’s “Johnny Handsome” (1989) and as a rebellious lesbian in Volker Schlondorf’s nonsensical thriller “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1989). McGovern fared better in the little seen romantic comedy-drama “The Favor” (1994) and was featured in the groundbreaking “Wings of Courage” (1995), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s period adventure, the first dramatic film shot in the IMAX 3-D format.

McGovern has been better served in her stage and TV roles, appearing off-Broadway in several productions, notably in Tina Howe’s “Painting Churches” (1989), David Hare’s “A Map of the World” (1990) and Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Her TV debut was opposite Beau Bridges in the adaptation of “The Man in the Brooks Brothers Suit” on the HBO anthology “Women & Men: Stories of Seduction” (1990). She later played an FBI agent in “Broken Trust” (TNT, 1995). McGovern made the jump to series TV headlining the short-lived sitcom “If Not For You” (CBS, 1995). Portraying a woman engaged to a boring yuppie but fighting a growing attraction to a co-worker, she gave a deft and sweetly comic turn. Using her expressive face and throaty voice, she revealed a previously untapped comic sensibility. McGovern married English producer-director Simon Curtis in 1992.

Kelly McGillis Biography

Kelly McGills

This leading lady’s first two film appearances, as the love interest to a drunken writer in “Reuben, Reuben” (1982) and the soft-spoken Amish widow in “Witness” (1985), displayed a promising mix of talent and earthy beauty. Kelly McGillis’ career, however, stumbled a bit after playing Tom Cruise’s love interest in “Top Gun” (1986) as her forays into straightforwardly glamorous roles have earned relatively lukewarm critical responses.

McGillis dropped out of high school to pursue a career as an actor and eventually attended Juilliard in Manhattan. She understudied the role of Dona Elvire in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Don Juan” but had little other professional experience when director Robert Ellis Miller “discovered” her and cast her opposite Tom Conti in “Reuben, Reuben”. Notices were good, and McGillis then moved to “Witness” and “Top Gun.” (In the latter, her 5’10″ height was quite evident as she stood next to the shorter Tom Cruise.) Attempts to put her in the position to carry a picture resulted in “Made in Heaven” (1986), in which McGillis was matched with Timothy Hutton as the as-yet-unborn beauty he meets in heaven, who is yet unborn, and “The House on Carroll Street” (1988), in which McGillis was a blacklisting victim who stumbles on an espionage plot. Both films were box office disappointments. “The Accused” (1988) had McGillis as the assistant district attorney who is moved to put three rapists behind bars by the pathos of Jodie Foster, but it was Foster who got the reviews–and the Oscar. McGillis then did “Winter People” (1989), an Ozark-based Sturm und Drang, which also flopped. In 1991, she produced the film “The Awakening”, which did not receive wide-spread release, and the following year played the woman who marries and tries to tame John Goodman’s “The Babe”. McGillis joined “Witness” co-star Alexander Godunov in reprising their characters in a brief, amusing cameo for “North” (1994).

McGillis appeared in her first TV-movie in 1984, playing a sister who seeks to punish her sister’s tormentor in “Sweet Revenge” (CBS). She followed with “Private Sessions” (NBC, 1985), a busted pilot. In 1993, McGillis played a woman in love with a retarded man in “Bonds of Love” (CBS) and in the 1994 CBS miniseries “In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride and Madness”, she was a woman obsessed with destroying her ex-husband.

McGillis’ theater career was interrupted by “Reuben, Reuben”, but she returned to the stage in 1988 playing Portia in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre production of “The Merchant of Venice.” She has since continued an association with that company, appearing in “Twelfth Night”, “Mary Stuart” and “Measure for Measure”, among others. In 1994, McGillis made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of “Hedda Gabler”.

Reba McEntire Biography

Reba McEntire

Country music superstar Reba McEntire has enjoyed huge commercial and critical success in 1980s and 90s. She proved to be a key figure in the successful crossover of country music into the pop mainstream, and later showed herself a capable character player in features and on TV. The product of a small-town upbringing in Oklahoma, McEntire competed on the rodeo circuit with her family and sang with her brother and sister as part of the teenaged Singing McEntires until she was signed by Mercury Records in the mid-70s. Achieving success by the end of the decade, she brought her rich, throbbing alto, with its distinctive Midwestern twang, to such country pop tunes as “I Can’t Even Get the Blues”. In the mid-80s McEntire sang several very traditional country songs like “How Blue” and plush ballads about broken romance including “Whoever’s in New England” and “He Broke Your Memory Last Night”. She continued her success into the 90s with her hard-hitting duet with Linda Davis, “Does He Love You” and other he-done-me-wrong songs like “For My Broken Heart.â€

With her attractively forthright manner and her trademark voluminous, teased brunette hair, McEntire not only won many music industry awards and produced an impressive string of best-selling albums, but also made music videos and a great many TV variety and award show appearances. As with other country music stars, media visibility and the experience of putting over storytelling songs suggested the possibility of straight acting, and McEntire made her feature debut in the highly enjoyable revamp of 50s monster films, “Tremors” (1990). She has subsequently performed smoothly as the extravagant Texan mother candidate in “North” (1994) and in TV-movies such as “The Man from Left Field” (1993), opposite Burt Reynolds and as Annie Oakley in “Buffalo Girls” (CBS, 1995). The latter proved a nice warm-up for her 2001 Broadway debut as Annie Oakley in the hit revival of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun.â€ McEntire received glowing notices not only for her beautifully singing but also for her deft comic timing and chemistry with leading man Brent Barrett.

McEntire began concentrating more television than film in the late-1990s, starring in several made-for-TV movies, including â€œForever Loveâ€ (CBS, 1998) in which she played a loving wife and mother who slips into a stroke-induced coma only to awake twenty years later and try to assimilate herself back into the lives of her loves ones. In â€œSecrets of Givingâ€ (CBS, 1999), she was a widow in 1905 struggling to keep her farm and few head of cattle while caring for her ailing 5-year-old son (Devon Alan). But a lone stranger (Thomas Ian Griffith) arrives out of the blue to help, making a deal with the townâ€™s banker that puts his own future in jeopardy, but brightens the Christmas season for everyone else. McEntire then got her own sitcom, â€œRebaâ€ (WB, 2001- ), playing a Texas soccer mom whose idyllic suburban life is rapidly falling apart around her after her husband leaves her for another woman and her teenaged daughter gets pregnant. Despite a previously crazed schedule of recording, touring and hosting â€œThe Country Music Awards,â€ McEntire found it a blessing to have a regular schedule in which to live a normal family life. The show itself became a rare hit for the perpetually struggling WB, taking in a consistent 3 million viewers a week, as McEntire earned kudos with a nomination for a 2003 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series â€“ Musical or Comedy.

Natascha McElhone Biography

Natascha McElhone

A tall, cool beauty, Natascha McElhone (pronounced MAC-el-hone) became a star overnight with her portrayal of Francoise Gilot opposite Anthony Hopkins’ artist in the Merchant-Ivory production “Surviving Picasso” (1996).

Born near London and raised in Brighton, McElhone honed her craft in various stage productions throughout Britain. The elegant brunette with expressive eyes and high cheekbones studied at LAMBDA and landed her first stage role in “The Count of Monte Cristo” in the early 1990s. After amassing other credits (including a stint performing Shakespeare at an open-air theater in London), McElhone was cast as the mistress of the famous Spanish painter in “Surviving Picasso”. She subsequently appeared in the British TV production of “Karaoke” (1996), written by Dennis Potter and landed feature roles as Brad Pitt’s love interest in Alan J. Pakula’s “The Devil’s Own” (1997) and the young version of the title character in “Mrs. Dalloway” (1998). A co-starring role opposite Robert De Niro in the actioner “Ronin” followed by a primary supporting role in Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” (both 1998) exposed McElhone to a larger audience. She was next featured in Kenneth Branagh’s musical adaptation of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (2000).

In 2002, McElhorne co-starred with Stephen Dorff in the feature thriller “Feardotcom”. McElhorne played an ambitious researcher who join forces with a detective (Dorff) to find the answers behind the mysterious death of four people who died after logging on to a popular website. She was also seen in the thriller “Killing me Softly” (2002) starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes as well as the space thriller “Solaris.” (2002)

Frances McDormand Biography

Frances McDormand

An intelligent, versatile character actress who virtually disappears into each role, Frances McDormand earned a Best Actress Academy Award as Marge Gunderson, the pregnant deputy sheriff of the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” (1996), her third film with husband Joel and brother-in-law Ethan. After graduating from Yale Drama School, McDormand hit NYC, appearing in several plays, notably “Painting Churches” and “Awake and Sing!” (both 1984). She also entered features as the dim, violent tart whose cuckold husband hires a hit man to kill her and her lover in “Blood Simple” (1984), the debut film of the Coen brothers. She then appeared as a nun in Sam Raimi’s “Crimewave” (1985), a slapstick crime comedy co-written by the Coens and Raimi, and reunited with the former pair to play a shrill, swinging Southern wife who offers Holly Hunter child-rearing advice in their broad-as-a-barn kidnapping comedy “Raising Arizona” (1987).

McDormand was still virtually an unknown when she won an Oscar nomination playing a meek Southern woman abused by her Klansman husband in Alan Parker’s “Mississippi Burning” (1988). Her character’s unconsummated relationship with Gene Hackman’s FBI agent produced scenes that were a stunning tutorial on how to express emotion without words. She played one of her few up-market characters–a lawyer–to Liam Neeson’s comic-book vigilante in Raimi’s “Dark Man” and won the admiration of Ken Loach for her turn as an American human rights activist in his political thriller set against the battleground of Northern Ireland, “Hidden Agenda” (both 1990), prompting the august British director to tell her as she was leaving, “Not only have you changed my opinion of actors, you’ve changed my opinion of Americans.” She also offered tense comic relief as the ex-wife of Peter Gallagher and lover of Tim Robbins in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993).

McDormand admits now that she took roles in the failed Hollywood comedies “The Butcher’s Wife” (1991) and “Passed Away” (1992) “to prove that I could be funny” and her lackluster part as Patricia Arquette’s sister in “Beyond Rangoon” (1995) so that she could travel to Malaysia. After “Fargo”, Hollywood needs no further proof that she can be funny. McDormand’s likable, reality-based performance as the deputy investigating a series of killings made the Coens’ chilling bit of madness safe for decent folk to laugh at and brought her much-deserved stardom along with practically every acting prize. She also delivered acclaimed turns that year as the alcoholic hooker June in the heist comedy “Palookaville,â€ a football-crazed divorcee in friend John Sayles’ underrated Western “Lone Star” and a psychiatrist interviewing a potential killer in the courtroom thriller “Primal Fear”.

McDormand flirted briefly with television in the 80s, acting in the 1985 TV-movie “Scandal Sheet” (ABC) and as a regular in the short-lived detective drama “Leg Work” (CBS, 1987), but her work for the small screen in the 90s has been more inspiring. She rejoined fellow Yale grad and NYC roommate Holly Hunter for Martha Coolidge’s “Crazy in Love” (TNT, 1992) and joined first-time directors Kathy Bates for the monologue drama “Talking With” (PBS) and Tommy Lee Jones for TNT’s “The Good Old Boys” (both 1995). She also turned up as Gus, a tough-talking mechanic, in HBO’s acclaimed look at the working poor, “Hidden in America” (1996), starring Beau Bridges. Her return to the stage as Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire” netted her a Tony nomination in 1988, and after performing at Yale Repertory in “A Moon for the Misbegotten” (1990-91), she was back on the Great White Way in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig” in 1992, followed by a turn in “The Swan” (1993) at NYC’s Public Theatre.

Since portraying a German Jewish doctor incarcerated by the Japanese during World War II in “Paradise Road” (1997), which she filmed prior to receiving her Oscar, McDormand has been very selective in her projects. In Dublin she courageously essayed the role of Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1998), and though the famous neurotic was a reach for her, one had to applaud her risk-taking. On film that year, she donned the habit as Miss Clavell, the headmistress of the boarding school girls of “Madeline”, based on the books of Ludwig Bemelmans, and she also returned to the New York stage in a modern adaptation of “Oedipus”. Teaming with director Curtis Hanson for his first foray into comedy, “Wonder Boys” (2000), McDormand excelled in the quiet, understated part as a college chancellor, revealing new facets of her screen persona. She next surfaced amidst the huge ensemble of Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” comedy-drama (2000), playing the overprotective, unintentionally funny mother of the young journalist (Patrick Fugit) drawn from Crowe’s experiences as a teenager writing for Rolling Stone. In 2002, McDormand stood by her man as husband Robert DeNiro realizes that the killer he has been searching for is his son in the crime drama “City By The Sea.”

The following year, she portrayed a entirely different kind of mother from her “Fargo” and “Almost Famous” roles in the indie feature “Laurel Canyon,” a drama that also co-starred Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale. Although the film was lackluster, it was invigorated by McDormand’s fresh and fearless performance as a sexually confident record producer in her 40s who sketchy personal choices and innate desire to stay youthful, hip and edgy has alienated from her son (Bale) and intrigued her future daughter-in-law (Beckinsale). McDormand was equally appealing in her too-brief turn as Diane Keaton’s tell-it-like-is sister in the romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003).

After a supporting role in the blockbuster bomb, â€œAeon Fluxâ€ (2005), McDormand again appeared with her â€œFluxâ€ co-star Charlize Theron in the far more competent and emotionally involving â€œNorth Countryâ€ (2005). She played a smiling, but tart-tongued truck driver at an iron mine who helps her friend Josey (Theron) speak out against the poor treatment of female employees by their male counterparts. McDormand earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by An Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. She also got a nod from the Academy Awards, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Mindy McCready Biography

Mindy McCready

Mindy McCready’s debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, elevated her into Nashville’s music spotlight and established her as a promising singer.

Born and raised in southern Florida, McCready (born Malinda Gayle McCready) graduated from high school at the age of 16 with the intention of beginning her musical career early. Following her graduation, she took a part-time job in her mother’s ambulance company and began concentrating on performing her music. When she was 18 years old, she moved to Nashville. She had made her mother a promise that she would go to college if she failed to break into the music industry within the space of a year. After a few months in Nashville, she met producer/songwriter Norro Wilson, who directed her demo tapes to producer David Malloy. Impressed with her tapes, Malloy agreed to work with McCready. For the next year, McCready and Malloy refined the singer’s style and crafted a high-class demo tape. Eventually, Malloy took the tape to RLG Records, who signed McCready after seeing her perform a live concert; she completed the deal exactly 51 weeks after she moved to Nashville.

McCready released her debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, in April of 1996 to positive reviews. Within six months of its release, it had gone gold. If I Don’t Stay the Night followed in 1997, trailed two years later by I’m Not So Tough.

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Catherine McCormack Biography

Catherine McCormack

A flawless English beauty with flashing blue eyes, Catherine McCormack quickly rose to prominence after her portrayal of Murron, the doomed sweetheart of William Wallace, in Mel Gibson’s Oscar-winning epic “Braveheart” (1995). This native of Alton trained at the Oxford School of Drama where she began to hone her craft in stage productions of classical and contemporary work. She segued to the small screen where she was featured in Anna Campion’s “In the Woods”. The director chose McCormack for the pivotal role of a neurotic student in the ensemble of “Loaded/Bloody Weekend” (1994; released in the USA in 1996). While her role in “Braveheart” was ornamental at best, McCormack lent charm and charisma to the part. Audiences were impressed by her flowing hair and preternatural attractiveness rather than her acting ability. Similarly, “North Star” (1996), a little-seen adventure in which she played the kidnapped mistress of an Alaskan gold prospector, wasted her talents in an underwritten role where she was required to look good and act feisty.

Her first leading role in “Dangerous Beauty” (1998), as a 16th Century woman who, when spurned by her true love, becomes a courtesan seemed on paper to further typecast the actress for her appearance. It certainly didn’t hurt that she looked at home in the sumptuous period costumes, but McCormack crafted more than just a surface portrayal, mining the character for its wit, passion and power. Completely believable as a desired object of beauty (despite her protests of “I’m quite a gangly, awkward person”), she successfully carried the picture, although audiences and critics offered a rather cool reception. McCormack was once again better than her material playing a WWII-era girl attempting to stay true to her fiance in “Land Girls” (1998). Finally, in “Dancing at Lughnasa” (also 1998), she had a role worthy of her. As the unwed mother Christina, the youngest in a family of five sisters in 1930s Ireland, McCormack delivered a beautifully nuanced portrait of a romantic torn between her love for a dashing Welshman and her duty to her family. Returning to more contemporary times, she appeared alongside Kathy Burke, Jennifer Ehle, Dougray Scott and Douglas Henshall in the relationship comedy-drama “This Year’s Love” (1999).