- Date of Birth: 08 February, 1953
- Place of Birth: Newport, Arkansas , United States
Biography
Mary Steenburgen is an Academy Award-winning American actress.
Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, daughter of Nell, a school-board secretary, and Maurice Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor. Steenburgen married Malcolm McDowell in 1980 and they had two children together: Lily Amanda, born January 21, 1981 and Charles Malcolm born July 10, 1983, before divorcing in 1990, and has been married to actor Ted Danson since 1995. In 2006, Steenburgen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. She is a close personal friend of former first lady, New York Senator, and new presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi.
Steenburgen moved to New York City in 1972, working at Doubleday's while studying acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Her break came when she discovered by Jack Nicholson in the reception room of Paramount's New York office, and soon after cast her as the lead in his second directorial effort, the 1978 Western Goin' South. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1980 film Melvin and Howard. She played Clara Clayton in Back to the Future Part III (1990), a role which her children, fans of the Back to the Future movies, convinced her to play. She reprised the role by providing the character's voice in the Back to the Future: The Animated Series. She also had a role in the 1979 film Time After Time in which she played the love interest to H.G. Wells played by her husband-to-be Malcolm McDowell. In both films, she played the love interest of a time traveller. She also starred in the sitcom Ink and the television miniseries of Gulliver's Travels with her husband Ted Danson.
Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, daughter of Nell, a school-board secretary, and Maurice Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor. Steenburgen married Malcolm McDowell in 1980 and they had two children together: Lily Amanda, born January 21, 1981 and Charles Malcolm born July 10, 1983, before divorcing in 1990, and has been married to actor Ted Danson since 1995. In 2006, Steenburgen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. She is a close personal friend of former first lady, New York Senator, and new presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi.
Steenburgen moved to New York City in 1972, working at Doubleday's while studying acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Her break came when she discovered by Jack Nicholson in the reception room of Paramount's New York office, and soon after cast her as the lead in his second directorial effort, the 1978 Western Goin' South. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1980 film Melvin and Howard. She played Clara Clayton in Back to the Future Part III (1990), a role which her children, fans of the Back to the Future movies, convinced her to play. She reprised the role by providing the character's voice in the Back to the Future: The Animated Series. She also had a role in the 1979 film Time After Time in which she played the love interest to H.G. Wells played by her husband-to-be Malcolm McDowell. In both films, she played the love interest of a time traveller. She also starred in the sitcom Ink and the television miniseries of Gulliver's Travels with her husband Ted Danson.