Kathy Bates

At 76 years old, Kathy Bates has this physical status:

Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actress and director.

She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she studied theatre at the Southern Methodist University before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career.

She landed minor stage roles before being cast in her first on screen role in Taking Off (1971).

Her first Off-Broadway stage performance was in the 1976 production of Vanities.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, she continued to perform on screen and on stage, and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play in 1983 for her performance in 'night, Mother, and won an Obie Award in 1988 for her performance in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Bates' performance as Annie Wilkes in the horror film Misery (1990), marked her Hollywood breakthrough, winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Further acclaim came for her starring role in Dolores Claiborne (1995) and supporting roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Titanic (1997); the latter, in which she portrayed Molly Brown, became the highest-grossing film to that point.

Bates received Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations for her work in Primary Colors (1998) and About Schmidt (2002). Bates' television work has resulted in 14 Emmy Award nominations, including two for her leading role on the NBC series Harry's Law (2011–12).

She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on the ninth season of Two and a Half Men (2012) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her portrayal of Delphine LaLaurie on the third season of American Horror Story (2014).

She also received accolades for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in the 1999 television adaptation of Annie.

Her directing credits include several episodes of the HBO television series Six Feet Under (2001–03).

Early life

Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters of mechanical engineer Langdon Doyle Bates and homemaker Bertye Kathleen (née Talbert). Her paternal grandfather was lawyer and author Finis L. Bates. Her great-great-grandfather, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, Louisiana, served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. She graduated early from White Station High School (1965) and from Southern Methodist University (1969), where she studied theatre and became a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career. Bates is an alumna of the William Esper Studio for the performing arts in Manhattan, New York City.

Personal life

As a teenager, Bates wrote self-described "sad songs" and struggled with bouts of depression. Bates was married to Tony Campisi for six years, from 1991 until their divorce in 1997. She is a member of the United Methodist Church and a registered Democrat.

In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Bates and others told the stories of the people murdered there.

Bates has battled ovarian cancer since her diagnosis in 2003. In September 2012, she revealed via Twitter that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer two months earlier and had undergone a double mastectomy. In 2014, at the New York Walk for Lymphedema & Lymphatic Diseases, Bates announced via pre-recorded audio that, due to the double mastectomy, she has lymphedema in both arms. That year, Bates became a national spokesperson for lymphedema and chairperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network's (LE&RN) honorary board.

On May 11, 2018, Bates led advocates in a Capitol Hill Lobby Day to garner congressional support for further research funding. The next day, May 12, Bates addressed supporters at the first-ever DC/VA Walk to Fight Lymphedema & Lymphatic Diseases at the Lincoln Memorial. She was awarded the 2018 WebMD Health Heroes "Game Changer" Award for her role in raising awareness of this chronic lymphatic disease.

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Career

Since relocating to New York City, Bates performed in a variety of odd jobs as well as minor stage appearances, despite trying to find theatre work. She began working as a cashier at the Museum of Modern Art at one point.

Bates played a minor role in the Milo Forman comedy Taking Off (credited as "Bobo Bates"), her first on screen role in a feature film in 1971. She continued to struggle for acting roles after the fact that more than one casting agent told her that she was not well-known enough to be a good actress.

After being a part of Taking Off (1978), Bates didn't work on another feature film until she appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman in Straight Time (1978). She appeared on stage throughout the 1970s. Vanities' 1976 production was her first Off-Broadway appearance. In the first production of Crimes of the Heart at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1979, Bates subsequently played Lenny. She appeared in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, beginning in 1980. Karen Black and Cher performed in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and Jimmy Dean, 1982. During this time, she began appearing on television, including The Doctors, All My Children, and One Life to Live, as well as making guest appearances in prime-time shows such as The Love Boat, Cagney & Lacey, and St. Elsewhere in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, were primarily from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.

In the early 1980s, Bates "established herself as one of America's finest stage actresses," the New York Times reported. In 1983, she was nominated for the Best Lead Actress in a Play for her role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'night, Mother.' For more than a year, the stage performance lasted. In Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny, she discovered more success on Off Broadway, for which she received an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1988. The play for Bates was written by McNally specifically. In 1988, she succeeded Amy Irving in The Road to Mecca, an Off-Broadway production. She shifted her attention to screen acting around this time, appearing in The Morning After (1986) and Summer Heat (1987).

Bates' appearance in the 1990 horror film Misery, based on Stephen King's book of the same name, marked her Hollywood debut. The film was both a commercial and critical success, and Annie Wilkes' appearance as Annie Wilkes was met with widespread critical adulation. She appeared in Warren Beatty's crime film Dick Tracy (1990), also that year. She received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama the following year. Annie Wilkes (as played by Bates) was included in the American Film Institute's "100 Heroes and Villains" list, naming her as the 17th most influential villain (and sixth most iconic villainess) in film history.

She appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes, a 1991 film based on Fannie Flagg's book. She was nominated for her role in this film by the BAFTA Awards for her role. In 1995, Bates appeared as the title in Dolores Claiborne, another well-received Stephen King version for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards.

Bates' early acting appearances include episodes of Great Performances, Homicide: Life on the Street, and NYPD Blue, and she began behind the screen as well as as a producer on several television series in 1995; as a producer on several television series, she also appeared on several television series.

In 1996, Bates received her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role as Jay Leno's boss Helen Kushnick in HBO's The Late Shift (1996). In addition, Bates was given her second Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

When Bates portrayed Molly Brown in James Cameron's epic romance and disaster film Titanic, which was based on the RMS Titanic's sinking in 1912, she gained more attention in 1997. In 1998, the film became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, and it stayed so for ten years until Avatar (2009), which was also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010.

In Primary Colors (1998), which was adapted from political journalist Joe Klein's book, she received her second Academy Award (and first in the Best Supporting Actress category) for her work as the acid-tongued political advisor Libby Holden. She was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in the same year as well as Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries or Movie for her role on the Dash & Lilly biopic Dash & Lilly. In 2000, Bates received another Emmy Award nomination for her role as Miss Hannigan in Disney's remake of Annie (1999).

She received her third Academy Award nomination, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her role as an aging free-spirited woman in About Schmidt, opposite Jack Nicholson. Critics also noted a scene in the film in which Bates completely nude enters a hot tub. It's called "the scene everybody is talking about," NPR said. In several interviews, Bates talked about the scene; speaking to Hello!

Bates appeared in Hollywood cinema regularly throughout the 2000s, with many of them playing supporting roles in such films as Rumor Has It (2006), Failure to Launch (2006), P.S. I Love You (2007), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and The Blind Side (2009). Melanie Griffith produced and co-starred in her debut film directorial debut, Have Mercy (2006). In 2008, Bates re-teamed with her Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the romantic drama film Revolutionary Road.

She appeared on television for the first time during this period. She appeared in ten episodes of HBO's Six Feet Under for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2003. She has also narrated several episodes of the series. For Lifetime Television's film Ambulance Girl (2006), which she also produced, Bates received another Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie.

In 2010, Bates appeared in Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Valentine's Day film. Jo Bennett appeared on NBC sitcom The Office as a regular guest from 2010 to 2011. In David E. Kelley's legal drama Harry's Law, she was the first leading role on a television series, but it was later cancelled on May 14, 2012. In Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, she portrayed famous art collector Gertrude Stein. Bates appeared on Two and a Half Men as Charlie Harper's ghost on the episode "Why We Can't Behave Women" on April 30, 2012. Following nine nominations, Bates received her first Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Delphine LaLaurie, an immortal racist who is brought back to the modern world after being buried for years, began appearing in Coven, an American Horror Story series. She received her second Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Film for her role. Ryan Murphy, the show's creator, "resurrected [her] career," Bates said.

Bates appeared in the fourth season of American Horror Story, Freak Exhibition, this time as Ethel Darling, a bearded lady who appears in a strange performance. She returned to Hotel for the fifth season, where she played Iris, the hotel's manager. Bates appeared in her fourth and the show's sixth season, Roanoke, as two characters—Thomasin "The Butcher" White and Agnes Mary Winstead. Each season, she received additional Emmy Award nominations.

On September 20, 2016, Bates was named on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her film work. Her star is located on 6927 Hollywood Boulevard. Bates appeared in the Netflix television series Disjointed, in which she played Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, the owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary. The show aired for two seasons.

Dorothy Kenyon appeared in two films in 2018: Xavier Dolan's critically acclaimed arthouse film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan and as political feminist Dorothy Kenyon in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex. She appeared in the climax of the 11th season of CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory that year.

In 2019, Bates portrayed American politician Miriam A. Ferguson in the Netflix crime film The Highwaymen. Richard Jewell, the title character's biographical drama film, also appeared in the Clint Eastwood biographical drama Richard Jewell. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination (also in the Best Supporting Actress category).

It was announced that Bates would appear in The Miracle Club, an Irish drama film starring Maggie Smith and Laura Linney in 2020. The film's plot is described as a "joyful and amusing" journey of a group of riotous working-class women from Dublin, whose pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, enables them to discover each other's friendships and their own personal miracles." Are You There God? was a coming-of-age film starring Sheryl Crow. It's Me, Margaret, a film based on Judy Blume's book of the same name directed by Kelly Fremon Craig.

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