Frances McDormand

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Birthday:

23 June 1957, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Birth Name:

Frances Louise McDormand

Height:

165 cm

Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Vernon Weir McDormand, a minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She earned her B.A. in Theater from Bethany College in 1979 and her MFA from Yale in 1982. Her career after graduation began onstage, and she has retained her association with the theater throughout her career. She soon obtained prominent roles in movies as well, first starring in Blood Simple. (1984), in which she worked with filmmaker Joel Coen, whom she married that year. She frequently collaborated with Coen and his brother Ethan Coen in their films.McDormand's skilled and versatile acting has been recognized by both the critics and the Academy and, in addition to many critics' awards, she has been nominated for an Academy Award four times - for Mississippi Burning (1988), Fargo (1996) (for which she won the Best Actress Award), Almost Famous (2000) and North Country (2005). Keenly intelligent and possessed of a sharp wit, McDormand is the antithesis of the Hollywood starlet - rather than making every role about Frances McDormand, Frances McDormand dissolves into the characters she plays. Accordingly, she has expressed some reservations about the iconic recognition she has gained from her touching and amusing portrayal of Police Chief Marge Gunderson, the quintessential Minnesota Scandinavian, in Fargo (1996).McDormand and Coen adopted a son, Pedro, who was born in Paraguay, in 1994. They live in Manhattan, New York. Show less «

[on how she got the part in Fargo (1996)] "The fact that I'm sleeping with the director may have something to do with it."

On playing 'mothers': "Those roles weren't just mothers in a story about a male protagonist. First they were specific, three-dimensional peo...Show more »

On playing 'mothers': "Those roles weren't just mothers in a story about a male protagonist. First they were specific, three-dimensional people." Show less «

On "women's pictures": "Most women's pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men's pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, w...Show more »

On "women's pictures": "Most women's pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men's pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, what you get is an extreme closeup of a woman breaking down. I cry too, maybe three times a week, but it's not in closeup. It's a wide shot. It's in the context of a very large and very mean world." Show less «

I'm a character actress, plain and simple...Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they...Show more »

I'm a character actress, plain and simple...Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they don't work, and then they work again. Show less «

With most people when there's a pain in their life there's mental scar tissue that forms over the pain and helps you go on living. An actor'...Show more »

With most people when there's a pain in their life there's mental scar tissue that forms over the pain and helps you go on living. An actor's scar tissue really never covers over things the same way, not if you're going to be sensitive. With good technique, an actor can do that and walk through life without going insane. Show less «

You have to get away from the theater or from the set and live life. If you work constantly from job to job, you're living in a fantasy worl...Show more »

You have to get away from the theater or from the set and live life. If you work constantly from job to job, you're living in a fantasy world and you have nothing else to offer than fantasy. Show less «

I don't like award shows. At our house we call this time of year 'the convention'. It's too bad we haven't figured out how to stop it. But I...Show more »

I don't like award shows. At our house we call this time of year 'the convention'. It's too bad we haven't figured out how to stop it. But I think it will come around because of the Internet - I think it will naturally go away. We'll have other ways to gather; it's not going to be this stuff. The shoes hurt too much. Show less «

I've got a rubber face. It has always served me very well and really helps, especially as I get older, because I still have all my road map ...Show more »

I've got a rubber face. It has always served me very well and really helps, especially as I get older, because I still have all my road map intact, and I can use it at will. Show less «

[on plastic surgery] I have not mutated myself in any way. Joel (Coen, her director husband) and I have this conversation a lot. He literall...Show more »

[on plastic surgery] I have not mutated myself in any way. Joel (Coen, her director husband) and I have this conversation a lot. He literally has to stop me physically from saying something to people - to friends who've had work. I'm so full of fear and rage about what they've done. Show less «