Personal Info
Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
August 14, 1959
Place of Birth:
La Jolla, California, USA
Social Media
Marcia Gay Harden
Biography
Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American film and stage actress. She is the recipient of many accolades including an Academy Award and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards.
She began her acting career appearing in television programs throughout the 1980s. In 1986, she appeared in her first film role, with her breakthrough coming in the 1990 Coen brothers-directed Miller's Crossing.
Her next notable film credits include The First Wives Club (1996), Flubber (1997), and Space Cowboys (2000). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lee Krasner in Pollock (2000). She had a supporting role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in the drama film Mystic River (2003).
She appeared in several 2007 films, including Sean Penn's Into the Wild and Frank Darabont's The Mist, based on the novella by Stephen King. Also in 2007, she shared top billing with Kevin Bacon in Rails & Ties, the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood. Harden played a woman who has a mastectomy in Home (2008). (Her character in Rails & Ties also had a mastectomy.) One scene required her to bare her breasts, with the missing breast removed using computer-generated imagery. In Home, her co-stars include her daughter, Eulala Scheel.
In 2009, she had quite a busy year. She appeared as a regular on the FX series Damages as a shrewd corporate attorney opposite Glenn Close and William Hurt. She co-starred in the films Whip It, and The Maiden Heist. She returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, co-starring with James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels. All three actors were nominated for a Tony Award; Harden won Best Actress in a Play. She received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis in the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and earned a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Janina Krzyżanowska in the television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009).
She reunited with her former Broadway co-star Jeff Daniels as a new cast member on HBO's series The Newsroom in 2013. In 2015, she had a starring role in the medical drama Code Black. Her other notable television credits include ABC's How to Get Away with Murder and the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.
She played Christian Grey's mother, Grace Trevelyan Grey, in the Fifty Shades film series from 2015 to 2018. She stars in the 2022 CBS drama So Help Me Todd.
Known For
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Renner | Salenus (voice) |
| 2024 | Knox Goes Away | Ruby Knox |
| 2023 | Daughter of the Bride | Diane |
| 2022 | Confess, Fletch | Countess Sylvia de Grassi |
| 2022 | Tell It Like a Woman | Dr. Partovi |
| 2022 | Gigi & Nate | Claire Gibson |
| 2021 | Moxie | Principal Shelly |
| 2020 | Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone | Self |
| 2020 | Pink Skies Ahead | Pamela |
| 2019 | The Cold Open | |
| 2019 | Point Blank | Lieutenant Lewis |
| 2019 | Love You to Death | Camile |
| 2018 | Fifty Shades Freed | Grace Grey |
| 2017 | Fifty Shades Darker | Grace Trevelyan Grey |
| 2016 | Get a Job | Katherine Dunn |
| 2015 | Fifty Shades of Grey | Dr. Grey |
| 2015 | Grandma | Judy |
| 2015 | Unity | Narrator (voice) |
| 2015 | After Words | Jane Taylor |
| 2015 | Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant | President of the FAFAFA |
| 2014 | Magic in the Moonlight | Mrs. Baker |
| 2014 | Elsa & Fred | Lydia |
| 2014 | You're Not You | Elizabeth |
| 2013 | If I Were You | Madelyn |
| 2013 | Parkland | Doris Nelson |
| 2013 | Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story | Self |
| 2013 | The Wine of Summer | Shelley |
| 2012 | Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You | Marjorie Dunfour |
| 2011 | Innocent | Barbara Sabich |
| 2011 | Detachment | Principal Carol Dearden |
| 2011 | Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy | Edda Mellas |
| 2009 | Whip It | Brooke Cavendar |
| 2009 | The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler | Janina Krzyżanowska |
| 2009 | The Maiden Heist | Rose Barlow |
| 2009 | Home | Inga |
| 2008 | Christmas Cottage | Maryanne Kinkade |
| 2008 | Sex and Lies in Sin City | Becky Binion |
| 2008 | When Darkness Came: The Making of 'The Mist' | Self |
| 2008 | The Tower | Zoe Cafritz |
| 2007 | The Mist | Mrs. Carmody |
| 2007 | Into the Wild | Billie McCandless |
| 2007 | The Invisible | Diane Powell |
| 2007 | Rails & Ties | Megan Stark |
| 2007 | Fog City Mavericks | Self |
| 2006 | In from the Night | Vicki Miller |
| 2006 | American Dreamz | First Lady |
| 2006 | The Hoax | Edith Irving |
| 2006 | The Dead Girl | Melora |
| 2006 | Canvas | Mary Marino |
| 2006 | Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner | Self |
| 2006 | Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater | Narrator |
| 2005 | Felicity: An American Girl Adventure | Mrs. Martha Merriman |
| 2005 | Bad News Bears | Liz Whitewood |
| 2005 | American Gun | Janet Huttenson |
| 2005 | A Concert for Hurricane Relief | Self - Presenter |
| 2005 | Willa Cather: The Road Is All | Voice of Willa Cather |
| 2004 | Welcome to Mooseport | Grace Sutherland |
| 2004 | See You in My Dreams | Angela Brown |
| 2004 | She's Too Young | Trish Vogul |
| 2004 | P.S. | Missy Goldberg |
| 2003 | Mystic River | Celeste Boyle |
| 2003 | Mona Lisa Smile | Nancy Abbey |
| 2003 | Casa de los Babys | Nan |
| 2002 | King of Texas | Mrs. Susannah Lear Tumlinson |
| 2002 | Guilty Hearts | Jenny Moran |
| 2001 | Walking Shadow | Susan Silverman |
| 2001 | Gaudi Afternoon | Frankie |
| 2000 | Space Cowboys | Sara Holland |
| 2000 | Pollock | Lee Krasner |
| 2000 | Thin Air | Susan Silverman |
| 2000 | From Where I Sit | Sharon |
| 1999 | Small Vices | Susan Silverman |
| 1998 | Meet Joe Black | Allison |
| 1998 | Desperate Measures | Dr. Samantha Hawkins |
| 1998 | Curtain Call | Michelle Tippet |
| 1998 | Labor of Love | Annie Pines |
| 1997 | Flubber | Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds |
| 1997 | Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing | Nancy Floyd |
| 1997 | The Daytrippers | Libby |
| 1996 | Spy Hard | Miss Cheevus |
| 1996 | The First Wives Club | Dr. Leslie Rosen |
| 1996 | The Spitfire Grill | Shelby Goddard |
| 1996 | Far Harbor | Arabella |
| 1995 | Convict Cowboy | Maggie Sinclair |
| 1995 | Talking With | Laurie (segment "Clear Glass Marbles") |
| 1994 | Safe Passage | Cynthia |
| 1993 | In the Wings: Angels in America On Broadway | |
| 1993 | Geoffrey Beene 30 | |
| 1992 | Crush | Lane |
| 1992 | Used People | Norma |
| 1991 | Late for Dinner | Joy Husband |
| 1991 | In Broad Daylight | Adina Rowan |
| 1991 | Fever | Lacy |
| 1990 | Miller's Crossing | Verna |
| 1990 | Kojak: None So Blind | Angelina |
| 1988 | Superman's 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel | Marcia Connelly |
| 1979 | Not Only Strangers | Jennie |
| The Dreadful | Morwen | |
| Street Smart |
| Year | TV Show | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | So Help Me Todd | Margaret |
| 2022 | Sherri | Self - Guest |
| 2022 | Uncoupled | Claire Lewis |
| 2022 | The Cuphead Show! | Sally Stageplay (voice) |
| 2021 | Money, Explained | Self - Narrator |
| 2020 | Barkskins | Mathilde Geffard |
| 2019 | Tamron Hall | Self - Guest |
| 2019 | The Kelly Clarkson Show | |
| 2019 | RuPaul | Self |
| 2019 | The Kelly Clarkson Show | Self |
| 2019 | The Morning Show | Maggie Brener |
| 2019 | Reef Break | Betty Ann Miller |
| 2018 | A Million Little Things | Alice Mendez |
| 2018 | The Oil Fund | USA Ambassadør |
| 2015 | Code Black | Dr. Leanne Rorish |
| 2015 | The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | |
| 2014 | How to Get Away with Murder | Hannah Keating |
| 2014 | BoJack Horseman | Denise (voice) |
| 2014 | BoJack Horseman | Denise / McCaitlyn (voice) |
| 2013 | Trophy Wife | Dr. Diane Buckley |
| 2012 | Bent | Vanessa Carter |
| 2012 | The Newsroom | Rebecca Halliday |
| 2011 | Body of Proof | Sheila Temple |
| 2009 | Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen | Self - Guest |
| 2009 | Royal Pains | Dr. Elizabeth Blair |
| 2007 | Damages | Claire Maddox |
| 2001 | The Education of Max Bickford | Andrea Haskell |
| 1999 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Dana Lewis |
| 1997 | The View | Self |
| 1997 | The View | |
| 1994 | Chicago Hope | |
| 1993 | Homicide: Life on the Street | |
| 1993 | Fallen Angels | Marie |
| 1992 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | |
| 1992 | Sinatra | Ava Gardner |
| 1989 | Gideon Oliver | Lila |
| 1981 | Simon & Simon | |
| 1971 | Great Performances | Self |
| 1953 | The Oscars | Self |
| 1951 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Vicki Miller |
| Drift |