Kathy Bates

Season 4, Episode 411

Original Airdate: April 4, 1999

Winner of an Oscar for Misery and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her supporting role in Primary Colors, Kathy Bates has enjoyed an extensive career on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theater since 1973.

Born in Tennesse on June 28, 1948, she had her first success as a stage actress. Her first big hit was as in the fantasizing sister in Crimes of the Heart. She continued to win recognition in such notable roles as the suicidal daughter in 'Night Mother - winning her numerous theater awards and garnering a Tony nomination. And she received the Obie, and other theater awards, for playing the diner waitress Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, a role written with her in mind. She made her television debut in the late 1970s on an episode of The Love Boat, played Susan Lucci's cellmate on All My Children and popped up in episodes of St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, China Beach and Cagney and Lacey. During the 70s and 80s, Bates played various film roles and some more notable television roles, including the TV movie Roe vs. Wade.

It wasn't until 1990 that the seasoned actress landed her breakout film role as a deranged fan in Misery. Her chilling performance won her the Oscar for Best Actress, and led to a string of starring roles including Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Used People (1992), Dolores Claiborne (1995), as the “unsinkable” Molly Brown in the enormous blockbuster hit, Titanic (1997) and her Oscar-nominated performance as a tough political consultant in Primary Colors (1998).