Frances McDormand Biography

Frances McDormand Frances McDormand has been very shrewd in her choice of film roles, and has worked with the best, including a frequent creative relationship with the Coen brothers. Born in 1957 in Chicago, Frances and her family later made a home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She completed her BA in theatre in 1979 and was awarded an MFA in 1982 from the Yale University School of Drama, where she shared a room with Holly Hunter.The drama Blood Simple was the debut film for McDormand, teaming her with the writing and directing partnership of Joel and Ethan Coen. It also featured John Getz and Dan Hedaya. During this time, Frances shared a house in the Bronx with old buddy Holly Hunter, the Coen brothers, and the director Sam Raimi. Frances also landed a recurring role in the fifth season of the hit cop TV show Hill Street Blues. Daniel J Travanti played the lead character.In 1988, Frances McDormand took the coveted part of Stella in a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, for which she was nominated for a Tony award. The same year saw the release of the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, which told the true story of a racist murder. It starred Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Dourif.Frances McDormand has worked on projects constantly over the years, and worked with another great director, Robert Altman, in the movie Short Cuts. The starry cast featured Andie MacDowell, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore, and Matthew Modine. The film that brought Frances a Best Actress Academy Award was in the Coen brother's cult hit Fargo. The surreal story set in the deep winter of North Dakota starred Frances as a tenacious police chief and co-starred William H Macy and Steve Buscemi.Director Curtis Hanson cast Frances McDormand in the comic drama, Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., and Katie Holmes. A year later, Frances did another project with the Coen brothers in a comedy called The Man Who Wasn t There. It also featured Billy Bob Thornton, James Gandolfini, and Scarlett Johansson.Recent film roles for Frances McDormand have included Aeon Flux in 2005. Karyn Kusama directed the action adventure starring Charlize Theron, Jonny Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo, and Pete Postlethwaite. McDormand starred in yet another film with Charlize Theron the same year; North Country, directed by Niki Caro, is based on the true story of a group of female coal miners who won the first successful case of sexual harassment in the U.S. Sean Bean and Woody Harrelson also featured.The year 2006 saw the release of a romantic drama directed by Nicole Holofcener called Friends with Money. Frances McDormand appears with Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, and Catherine Keener.In addition to the successful working relationship with the Coen brothers, Francis McDormand has been married to Joel Coen since 1994. They adopted a son together.