Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959, La Jolla,California, U.S.) is an American actress who is known for her ability to play a wide variety of characters in movies, onstage, and on television.

Harden was the daughter of an American naval officer, and during her childhood she spent time inTexas,Japan,Germany,Italy, andGreece. She began taking courses intheatre while living inEurope and later studied drama at theUniversity of Texas (B.A., 1980) and atNew York University (M.F.A., 1988). Harden began heracting career inWashington, D.C., where she was nominated forHelen Hayes Awards in 1985 and 1986 for her performances in theBeth Henley playsCrimes of the Heart andThe Miss Firecracker Contest, respectively.

Harden’s firstfilm role was a small part in the virtually unseen thrillerThe Imagemaker (1986). She won favourable notice for her performance as the tough-talking girlfriend of a mobster inJoel and Ethan Coen’sMiller’s Crossing (1990) and for her portrayal ofAva Gardner in the biographical TV miniseriesSinatra (1992). Her film career failed to ignite, however, and she spent the next several yearsalternating guest roles in TV shows with appearances in mostly minor movies. She played a malevolent seductress in the dramaCrush (1992) and a simple-minded waitress inThe Spitfire Grill (1996). Harden continued acting onstage, and in 1993 she made herBroadway debut, playing the troubled wife of a gayMormon lawyer inTony Kushner’sAngels in America. She was nominated for aTony Award for her performance.

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Harden later appeared in the film comediesThe First Wives Club (1996) andFlubber (1997), in which she played oppositeRobin Williams, as well as in the dramaMeet Joe Black (1998), loosely based onDeath Takes a Holiday (1934), and inClint Eastwood’s adventure movieSpace Cowboys (2000). Harden’s performance as the gifted artistLee Krasner, wife ofAbstract ExpressionistJackson Pollock, in the biopicPollock (2000) earned her theAcademy Award for best supporting actress.

Harden later appeared in the minorcomedyGaudi Afternoon (2001) and the television movieKing of Texas (2002), anadaptation ofShakespeare’sKing Lear starringPatrick Stewart. She also starred withRichard Dreyfuss in the short-lived TV seriesThe Education of Max Bickford (2001–02). Harden was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as the wife of the character played byTim Robbins in Eastwood’sMystic River (2003). Her later films includedBad News Bears (2005), Lasse Hallström’sThe Hoax (2006),Sean Penn’sInto the Wild (2007), and the horror movieThe Mist (2007). She also appeared in filmadaptations (2015,2017, and2018) of the Fifty Shades series of erotic novels byE.L. James.

During this time Harden continued to appear on television, and in 2007 she was nominated for anEmmy Award for her performance in a recurring guest part (2005–13) in the seriesLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit. She received another Emmy nod for her role as the mother of the title character (played byAnna Paquin) in the TV movieThe Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009). In 2009 she earned a Tony Award for her starring role inGod of Carnage (2009–10). Harden played recurring characters in the TV seriesThe Newsroom in 2013–14 andHow to Get Away with Murder in 2015. She later starred in the medical drama seriesCode Black (2015–18). In 2019 Harden appeared in the true-crime TV movieLove You to Death, and that year saw thedebut ofThe Morning Show, in which she portrayed a reporter. She then was cast inBarkskins (2020), a limited series based onAnnie Proulx’snovel of the same name. In the comedy seriesUncoupled (2022– ), Harden played a socialite whose husband leaves her for a much younger woman.

In 2018 Harden publishedThe Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers, which centres on her relationship with her mother, who was diagnosed withAlzheimer disease in 2009.

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