Mary McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated American film, stage, and television actress. She is most famous from her Oscar-nominated role in Dances with Wolves and starring as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica.
McDonnell was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Ithaca, New York. After graduating from the State University of New York at Fredonia, she attended drama school and joined the East Coast's prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company, with whom she worked for over 20 years. She won an Obie in 1980 for her work in the play Still Life. On Broadway, she has performed in productions of Execution of Justice, The Heidi Chronicles, and Summer and Smoke.
After more than 21 years of theater and television work, McDonnell made her film breakthrough in 1990 as Stands With A Fist, a European American raised by Sioux Indians, in Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves. She received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. McDonnell's role in Passion Fish (1992) brought her another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Her other notable films include Grand Canyon (1991), Sneakers (1992), Independence Day (1996), and Donnie Darko (2001).
On television, McDonnell had her first regular role in 1980 on the soap opera As the World Turns. She starred in 1984 on the short-lived medical sitcom E/R, alongside Elliott Gould and George Clooney. Coincidentally, she guest-starred in 2001 on the NBC medical series of the same name, ER, which also featured Clooney. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role on the show as Eleanor Carter, the mother of Dr. John Carter.
McDonnell also starred with Patrick Swayze in the 1988 movie, Tiger Warsaw.
In 2003, the cult 1970s show Battlestar Galactica was brought back to life, albeit in a re-imagined form as a three-hour miniseries. McDonnell starred as Laura Roslin, a Secretary of Education who is sworn in as President of the Colonies, and received rave critical notice for her performance. The miniseries effectively served as a pilot for the subsequent series, which was commissioned in a collaborative effort between the Sci Fi Channel and Sky TV. Battlestar Galactica is filmed mostly in Vancouver, Canada and is currently filming its fourth season, where McDonnell is a regular cast member.
McDonnell is married to Randle Mell and has two children, Olivia and Michael.
