Molly Parker

At 51 years old, Molly Parker has this physical status:

Molly Parker (born 30 June 1972) is a Canadian actor, writer, and producer.

She is best known for her appearances in independent films as well as television.

Her awards include two Genie Awards, one Independent Spirit Awards nomination, one Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and three nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award. Parker, a native of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, began her career in Canadian film and television productions and gained critical notice for her portrayal of a necrophiliac medical student in the 1996 drama Kissed.

She appeared in Intensity (1996) before landing her first major American film, Waking the Dead (2000).

Parker's role as a Las Vegas escort in Wayne Wang's low-budget drama The Center of the World (2001), for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Actress, attracted further societal notice. Parker appeared in numerous films in the early 2000s, including Max (2002), Pure (also 2002), and Nine Lives (2005).

Parker debuted on HBO's Western series Deadwood in 2004, and she appeared in all three seasons.

She appeared in The Road (2009), a post-apocalyptic thriller, and Trigger (2010).

In 2011, she appeared as a recurring guest star in the sixth season of Dexter before being cast as House Majority Whip Jacqueline Sharp on Netflix's House of Cards in 2014; Parker appeared in the role for three seasons, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the fourth season. Parker's subsequent film appearances include the drama American Pastoral (2016), as well as two Netflix-produced features: The crime thriller Small Crimes, and the Stephen King adaptation 1922 (both 2017).

Parker appeared in Errol Morris' docudrama miniseries Wormwood.

Parker appeared in Lost in Space, a Netflix-produced recreation of the 1965 TV series, beginning with Maureen Robinson.

1972–1990: Early life

Parker was born in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver, and spent her childhood on a farm in Pitt Meadows. Henry is her younger brother. Parker's parents, who she has described as "hippies," ran a seafood store. Parker studied ballet from the age of 3 to 17, and he spent three years with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company.

At the age of 14, she began performing in local theatres. Her uncle's agent began rehearsing early in her career, appearing in various Canadian television roles before deciding to study with Gastown Actors' Studio in Vancouver.

She appeared in the Corey Haim-led teen comedy Just One of the Girls in 1993. She appeared in The Subtute, a television drama film in which she appeared as a supporting actress. Alice Ramsey appeared in "The Wrath of Kali" (1995), a fourth-season episode of Highlander: The Series. In the television film Serving in Silence (1995), opposite Glenn Close and Judy Davis, she played the daughter of a lesbian military officer. In a modern adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, she appeared in a minor role as a nurse in the Western Last of the Dogmen (1995) as well as the Lifetime holiday television film Ebbie (also 1995) portraying the niece (and sister) of Susan Lucci's Scrooge. She was nominated for her role in the Canadian television film Paris or Somewhere, and she also received a Gemini Award for her role in the Canadian television film Paris or Somewhere. In Lynne Stopkewich's controversial film Kissed (1996), Parker had her breakthrough portraying a necrophiliac medical student. Parker received the Genie Award for Best Actress of the year for his film. Parker appeared in a number of Canadian horror film Poltergeist: The Legacy, as well as Bruce McDonald's independent film Hard Core Logo in which she played an aspiring actress. In the television horror film Intensity, a Dean Koontz novel adaptation, Chyna Shepard, a kidnap victim, starred in 1997.

She appeared in the surrealist Canadian sitcom Twitch City, which aired for two seasons, beginning in 1998. She appeared in Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland (1999) and in the historical drama Sunshine (also 1999), playing a Hungarian Jew during World War II. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nastassja Kinski co-starred in the Canadian-British thriller The Intruder, about a woman who murders her husband's husband.

Parker's first major American film was Waking the Dead (2000), in which she co-starred Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly as the socialite girlfriend of a political candidate. Parker reunited with Lynne Stopkewich for the film Suspicious River (2000), in which she played a rape victim. Parker was nominated for a Leo Award for Best Actress for her role. She also appeared in The War Bride (2001), which earned her a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Parker appeared in the low-budget independent film The Center of the World, directed by Wayne Wang, in which she appeared as a stripper who accompanies a man on a weekend in Las Vegas for $10,000. Parker received a Best Female Lead nomination for the film, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

Parker appeared in the drama film Pure in 2002, portraying a mother suffering from heroin use. She appeared in two episodes of HBO's Six Feet Under this year, as a rabbi. Parker married her first husband, writer and director Matthew Bissonette, in 2002 and was one of the executive producers of his debut film Looking for Leonard.

In the film The Good Shepherd (2004), Parker appeared opposite Christian Slater. "Slater and Parker make a good pair of leads, each handling their conversation with a calm calmness," Variety's Derek Elley praised the performances. Helen Paul and Lucy Burns appeared in the historical drama Iron Jawed Angels, opposite Hilary Swank and Frances O'Connor, which chronicles the lives of several suffragists, including Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

Alma Garret, a widow in 1870s South Dakota, was also cast in the leading role on HBO's Western series Deadwood in 2004. Parker appeared in the series's three seasons, which culminated in a Screen Actor Guild Award nomination for Best Ensemble in 2007. Parker gave birth to her first child, William, in Los Angeles, in October 2006, during the airing of Deadwood's final season. Parker appeared in film Nine Lives (2004), an anthology film in which she starred Holly Hunter, Stephen Dillane, and Jason Isaacs in a short about a feuding couple.

In Neil LaBute's reimagining of The Wicker Man (2006), she appeared as a cultist. She appeared in a supporting role in the period drama Hollywoodland and the comedic drama Who Loves the Sun (also 2006), the former of which was directed by Parker's then-husband Matthew Bissonnette.

Parker appeared in the CBS program Swingtown, a 1970s-set family drama, which aired for one season in 2008. She appeared in one episode of Party Down and later appeared in a supporting role in The Road's post-apocalyptic thriller, portraying a woman struggling to recover after an apocalyptic event. Parker divorced Bissonnette Parker in 2009 and then divorced later.

Parker appeared in the Canadian police procedural Shattered, which later aired for a single season, as the lead actress in the independent film Trigger, opposite Tracy Wright, in her last film appearance before her death. She appeared on several episodes of the showtime series Dexter's sixth season over the next year. Parker continued his television work by appearing as Abby McDeere on the thriller series The Firm (2012), a John Grisham 1991 book and its 1993 film version. In the Philip Kaufman-directed HBO television film Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Parker also appeared as Pauline Pfeiffer, Ernest Hemingway's second wife, as well as Nicole Kidman (as Martha Gellhorn).

In the second season of Netflix's House of Cards, Jacqueline Sharp appeared as Congresswoman Jacqueline Sharp. Parker played a role in seasons 3 and 4. Parker was nominated for the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the fourth season. Parker appeared in a stage production of the Simon Stephens play Harper Regan in early 2015. Parker was later cast in the dramatic drama The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016), directed by Alexandre Aja, with Jamie Dornan, Sarah Gadon, and Aaron Paul. Parker co-starred in the Amazon Studios' legal drama Goliath, as well as Bruce McDonald's independent drama film Weirdos, for which she received the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Best Supporting Actress award. She also played a supporting role as a therapist in Ewan McGregor's American Pastoral, which is based on the 1997 Philip Roth book of the same name. After a protracted seven-year separation, Parker divorced Bissonnete in October 2016.

Parker appeared in three Netflix films in 2017: In the crime film Small Crimes (2017), she starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gary Cole, portraying a nurse who is romantically linked with a former police officer. She appeared in 1922, a film adaptation of Stephen King's novella of the same name, as the wife of a farmer in 1920s Nebraska, and was followed by a lead role in Errol Morris' Miniseries Wormwood, based on scientist Frank Olson's life. Parker made her debut as a producer and writer with the short film Birds, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was competing for the festival's Short Cuts award.

Madeline's Madeline, Josephine Decker's 2018 feature film Madeline's Madeline, she co-starred. Parker debuted in Lost in Space, the Netflix spin-off of the 1965 TV series, beginning in 2018. Parker reprised her role as Alma Garret in the HBO television film Deadwood: The Movie, which was released in May 2019. It was announced in March 2021 that she would be playing Mrs. Darling in Disney+'s Peter Pan & Wendy.

1991–2001: Early work and breakthrough

She appeared in Just One of the Girls, a Corey Haim-led teen comedy in 1993. She appeared in the television thriller film The Substitute in a supporting role. In "The Wrath of Kali," a fourth-season episode of Highlander: The Series, Parker portrayed Alice Ramsey. In the television film Serving in Silence (1995), opposite Glenn Close and Judy Davis, she played the daughter of a lesbian military officer. In a modern retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, she appeared as a nurse in the Western Last of the Dogmen (1995) as well as in the Lifetime holiday television film Ebbie (also 1995). She was nominated for her role in the Canadian television film Paris or Somewhere, later this year. Parker made her debut in Lynne Stopkewich's controversial film Kissed (1996) in the following year. Parker received the Genie Award for Best Actress that year for his role in the film. Parker appeared in an episode of Poltergeist: The Legacy, as well as Bruce McDonald's independent film Hard Core Logo, in which she played an aspiring actress. In 1997, Parker starred Chyna Shepard, a kidnap perpetrator, in Intensity, a television horror film based on the Dean Koontz novel.

She appeared in Twitch City, a surrealist Canadian sitcom, for two seasons from 1998 to 2000. She continued to appear as a pregnant woman in Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland (1999) and in the historical drama Sunshine (also 1999), playing a Hungarian Jew during World War II. In the Canadian-British thriller film The Intruder, a woman who murders her husband's husband's lover, she co-starred with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nastassja Kinski.

Parker's first major American film was Waking the Dead (2000), in which she co-starred Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly as the socialite girlfriend of a political candidate. Parker reunited with Lynne Stopkewich for the drama Suspicious River (2000), in which she portrayed a rape victim. Parker was nominated for a Leo Award for Best Actress for her appearance. She appeared in The War Bride (2001), which earned her a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Parker appeared in The Center of the World, a low-budget independent film directed by Wayne Wang in which she played a stripper who accompanies a man (played by Peter Sarsgaard), a weekend in Las Vegas for $10,000. Parker received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead after receiving critical feedback for the film.

Parker appeared alongside Keira Knightley in the drama film Pure in 2002, portraying a mother suffering from heroin use. She appeared in two episodes of HBO's Six Feet Under the same year as a rabbi. Parker married her first husband, writer and producer Matthew Bissonette, in 2002, and was one of the executive producers of his debut feature film Looking for Leonard.

In the film The Good Shepherd (2004), Parker appeared opposite Christian Slater. "Slater and Parker make a good pair of leads, each handling their dialogue with crisp clarity," Variety writer Derek Elley praised. She appeared in Iron Jawed Angels, opposite Hilary Swank and Frances O'Connor, a film that chronicles the lives of several suffragists, including Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

Alma Garret, a widow in 1870s South Dakota, was also cast in the leading role in the HBO Western series Deadwood. Parker appeared in the series's three seasons, earning a Screen Actor Guild Award nomination for Best Ensemble in 2007. Parker gave birth to her first child, William, in Los Angeles, in October 2006. Parker appeared in film Nine Lives (2005), an anthology film in which she played Holly Hunter, Stephen Dillane, and Jason Isaacs in a short about a feuding couple during her tenure on Deadwood.

In Neil LaBute's adaptation of The Wicker Man (2006), she appeared as a cultist for the next year. She appeared in a supporting role in the period drama Hollywoodland and the comedic drama Who Loves the Sun (both 2006), the latter of which was produced by Parker's then-husband Matthew Bissonnette.

Parker appeared on the CBS show Swingtown, a 1970s-set family romance drama, which aired for one season in 2008. She appeared in one episode of Party Down the following year and then appeared in a supporting role in the post-apocalyptic thriller The Road, playing a woman struggling to recover after an apocalyptic event. Parker divorced from her husband, Bissonnette, in 2009 and later divorced.

Parker starred in the Canadian police procedural Shattered, which also aired for a single season, in her last film appearance before her death, opposite Tracy Wright. She appeared on several episodes of the Showtime series Dexter's sixth season over the course of the year. Parker continued on television work by appearing as Abby McDeere in the James Bond film version, a John Grisham 1991 book and its 1993 film version. In the Philip Kaufman-directed HBO television film Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Parker also appeared as Pauline Pfeiffer, Ernest Hemingway's second wife, starring Clive Owen (as Hemingway) and Nicole Kidman (as Martha Gellhorn).

In the second season of Netflix's House of Cards, Jacqueline Sharp appeared as Congresswoman Jacqueline Sharp. In seasons 3 and 4, Parker played a key role. Parker was nominated for the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in the fourth season for her role in the fourth season. Parker appeared in the Simon Stephens' play Harper Regan in Toronto in early 2015. Parker appeared alongside Jamie Dornan, Sarah Gadon, and Aaron Paul in the supernatural thriller The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016), directed by Alexandre Aja, and was later cast by Alexandre Aja. Parker also appeared in the Amazon Studios legal film Goliath in 2016, as well as Bruce McDonald's independent drama film Weirdos, for which she received the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actress. In Ewan McGregor's American Pastoral, which was based on the 1997 Philip Roth novel of the same name, she also played a supporting role as a therapist. After a lengthy seven-year separation, Parker divorced Bissonnete in October 2016.

Parker appeared in three Netflix films in 2017: In the crime film Small Crimes (2017), she starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gary Cole, portraying a nurse who becomes romantically linked with a former police officer. She appeared in 1922, a film adaptation of Stephen King's novella of the same name, as the wife of a farmer in 1920s Nebraska, and she was also featured in Errol Morris' miniseries Wormwood, based on scientist Frank Olson's life. Parker made her debut as a producer and writer with the short film Birds, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where it competed for the festival's Short Cuts award.

Madeline's Madeline, Josephine Decker's 2018 feature film Madeline's Madeline, co-starring Michelle Henderson. In Lost in Space, the Netflix spinoff of the 1965 TV series, Parker appeared as Maureen Robinson beginning in 2018. Alma Garret, who appeared in the HBO television film Deadwood: The Movie, was released in May 2019. It was revealed that she would be playing Mrs. in March 2021. Darling in Disney+'s Peter Pan & Wendy.

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