Mary Steenburgen

Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. Born on February 8, 1953, she made her professional acting debut in 1978 and achieved acclaim for her film and television work. Across her career, she has earned an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Saturn Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award.

Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, to Nellie Mae, a school-board secretary, and Maurice Hoffman Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor. In 1971, she studied drama at Hendrix College before auditioning for New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She moved to Manhattan in 1972 to study under William Esper while working as a server and at Doubleday.

Her acting break came when Jack Nicholson discovered her in Paramount Pictures's New York office reception room and cast her as the female lead in Goin' South (1978). She then starred in Time After Time (1979), winning a Saturn Award for Best Actress. In 1980, Steenburgen starred in Melvin and Howard as Lynda Dummar, winning the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Steenburgen earned a Golden Globe nomination for Ragtime (1981). Her subsequent film credits include A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Cross Creek, One Magic Christmas, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Philadelphia, and Nixon. She played Clara Clayton in Back to the Future Part III (1990), later voicing the character in its animated series. She also portrayed mothers in several comedies, such as Parenthood, Elf, Step Brothers, Four Christmases, The Proposal, and Happiest Season.

Her later film work includes The Help, Last Vegas, A Walk in the Woods, Book Club, Nightmare Alley, and Book Club: The Next Chapter. On television, Steenburgen appeared in Ink, Joan of Arcadia, 30 Rock, Wilfred, Justified, and The Last Man on Earth. She starred as Maggie Clarke in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and appeared as Mona Margadoff in the second season of A Man on the Inside in 2025.

Steenburgen is also a singer-songwriter signed to Universal Music Group. Following a 2007 arm surgery involving general anaesthesia, she began hearing continuous music, leading her to take music lessons to transcribe her compositions. She wrote the song "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)" for Wild Rose (2018), earning the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song, and signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group in 2020.

Beyond entertainment, Steenburgen co-founded Artists for a Free South Africa in 1989 and supports various human rights and environmental causes. She received honorary doctorates from Hendrix College and Lyon College, as well as the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2025. She was married to actor Malcolm McDowell from 1980 to 1990, with whom she has two children, and married actor Ted Danson in 1995.