Kathy Bates

Kathleen Doyle Bates, born June 28, 1948, is an American actress and director whose career spans over five decades. Known for her extensive work across stage, film, and television, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, alongside nominations for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards.

Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to mechanical engineer Langdon Bates and homemaker Bertye Kathleen Bates. The youngest of three daughters, she graduated from White Station High School in 1965 and earned a degree from Southern Methodist University in 1969, where she studied theater. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue her acting career and later trained at the William Esper Studio for performing arts.

After relocating to New York, Bates took on minor stage roles and odd jobs, including working as a cashier at the Museum of Modern Art. She made her feature film debut in Taking Off (1971), credited as Bobo Bates. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she performed on stage in productions such as Vanities (1976), Crimes of the Heart (1979), Fifth of July (1980), and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Her lead role in 'night, Mother (1983) earned her a Tony Award nomination, and she won an Obie Award for Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1988). During this period, she also appeared in several television series and soap operas.

Bates achieved major film success with her performance as Annie Wilkes in the horror film Misery (1990), winning the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award. She subsequently earned three additional Academy Award nominations for her performances in Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002), and Richard Jewell (2019). Her extensive film credits also include Dick Tracy (1990), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), The Waterboy (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Blind Side (2009), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023).

On television, Bates won her first Primetime Emmy Award for a guest role in Two and a Half Men (2012) and her second for playing Delphine LaLaurie in American Horror Story: Coven (2013). She received additional Emmy nominations for roles in productions including The Late Shift (1996), Annie (1999), Six Feet Under (2003), Warm Springs (2005), Harry's Law (2011–2012), American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014), and American Horror Story: Hotel (2015). Behind the camera, she has directed episodes of series such as NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Six Feet Under, as well as the feature film Have Mercy (2006).

In 2024, Bates began starring as the title character in the CBS legal series Matlock, earning a Critics' Choice Television Award and an Emmy Award nomination. Outside of acting and directing, she is an active health advocate. Following a double mastectomy and a diagnosis of lymphedema, she became a spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network.