Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell is a two-time Oscar(r)-nominated actress, who is well-known for her portrayals of characters in both period and present-day screen roles, and many films and stage roles. Mary Eileen McDonnell is a Pennsylvania-born actress. She was the child of Eileen (Mundy), an American computer consultant from Ireland, and John McDonnell. She was raised in Ithaca and then graduated from Fredonia State University of New York. Later, she attended drama school and was accepted into the prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company on the East Coast. Two decades later she got her first film role, in Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990) as "Stands with a Fist", a white woman raised by the Sioux Indians. McDonnell received her first Academy Award nomination for the part. McDonnell's film credits include Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon (1991) & Mumford (1999) in which she starred alongside veteran actors like Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier and Ben Kingsley; Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996) (starring Will Smith); the popular art house cult hit Donnie Darko (192001); and Margin Call (2011). It earned her the Robert Altman Awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. McDonnell was President Laura Roslin in the critically loved series Battlestar Galactica (2004) on Syfy. She was the lead for four seasons. Her regular guest role as host on the tv show ER (1994) was rewarded with an Emmy nomination. She plays Captain Sharon Raydor on the TNT's successful drama series Major Crimes (2012), the follow-up to The Closer (2005), in which McDonnell was the sole actor and was awarded an Emmy(r) nomination for Primetime. Emmy(r) nomination. McDonnell received an Best Actress Academy Award(r) nomination and an Golden Globe nomination for her performance as an actor with paraplegia on soap opera in John Sayles's critically acclaimed film, Passion Fish (1992).