Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell, a two-time Oscar(r),-nominated actress, is best known for her portrayals on screen in modern and historical roles. She also has a long list of roles on stage and screen. Mary Eileen McDonnell is a Pennsylvania-born actress. She was the child of Eileen (Mundy), an Irish-American computer consultant, and John McDonnell. She was born in Ithaca, New York and graduated from Fredonia State University of New York. She attended the drama school and then was accepted into Long Wharf Theatre Company (East Coast). Her most memorable film role was in Dances with Wolves (1990) by Kevin Costner. She played the character "Stands with a Fist" as a Sioux Indian-born white woman. Her first Academy Award nomination was for the role. McDonnell's film credits include the Lawrence Kasdan films Grand Canyon (1991) and Mumford (1999) (opposite other experienced actors as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier and Ben Kingsley); Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); acclaimed art house cult hit Donnie Darko (2001) as well as Margin Call (2011) (opposite Kevin Spacey), which was awarded the Robert Altman Award at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. On the small screen, McDonnell starred in four seasons of the Syfy Network's award-winning show Battlestar Galactica (2004) in her critically acclaimed performance as President Laura Roslin. McDonnell was awarded an Emmy nomination for her recurring guest role on the television series ER (1994). She is the Captain Sharon Raydor on the TNT's successful drama series Major Crimes (2012), the sequel to The Closer (2005), where McDonnell took on the role for the first time and for which she earned an Primetime Emmy(r) nomination. She was awarded an Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as an actor with paraplegia on soap opera in John Sayles's critically-acclaimed film, Passion Fish (1992).