Frances McDormand

American actress

Frances McDormand is an acclaimed American actress and producer who has won numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Emmys, and a Tony Award. She is known for her roles in independent films and has appeared in several Coen brothers movies. Her worldwide box office gross exceeds $2.2 billion, and she is one of the few performers to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting.”

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About the Frances McDormand

Frances Louise McDormandis an American actress and producer. In a career spanning over four decades, she has gained acclaim for her roles in small-budget independent films. McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting”. Additionally, she has received three BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. McDormand’s worldwide box office gross exceeds $2.2 billion.

McDormand has been married to Joel Coen of the Coen brothers since 1984. She has appeared in a number of their films, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller’s Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008), and Hail, Caesar! (2016). McDormand won three Academy Awards for Best Actress for playing a pregnant police chief in Fargo (1996), a grieving mother seeking vengeance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and a widowed nomad in Nomadland (2020). For producing the later, she was also awarded the Academy Award for Best Picture, making her the first person to win Academy Awards both as producer and performer for the same film. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005). McDormand is the second woman to win Best Actress three times (after Katharine Hepburn), and the seventh performer to win three acting Oscars.

On television, McDormand produced and starred as the titular protagonist in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014), which won her the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. She had previously been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Television Movie for her work in the Showtime film Hidden in America (1996). On stage, McDormand made her Broadway debut in a revival of Awake and Sing! (1984). She went on to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as a troubled single mother in Good People (2011). She was previously nominated for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1988 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frances McDormand has won numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, one Tony Award, three BAFTAs, and two Golden Globe Awards, making her one of the few performers to achieve the ‘Triple Crown of Acting’.

Frances McDormand’s worldwide box office gross has exceeded $2.2 billion.

Frances McDormand was educated at Bethany College and Yale University.

Frances McDormand has appeared in several Coen brothers’ films, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller’s Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008), and Hail, Caesar! (2016).

Frances McDormand has been married to Joel Coen of the Coen brothers since 1984.

Frances McDormand produced and starred as the titular protagonist in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014), which won her the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.

Frances McDormand made her Broadway debut in a revival of Awake and Sing! (1984).

16 Quotes by Frances McDormand

  1. 1.

    It’s much easier to play supporting roles because that’s what I do in my life: I support my son.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  2. 2.

    I don’t think you can ever completely transform yourself on film, but if you do your job well, you can make people believe that you’re the character you’re trying to be.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  3. 3.

    The fact that I’m sleeping with the director may have something to do with it.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  4. 4.

    Who can worry about a career? Have a life.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  5. 5.

    I like hard rock, and classic rock, and even metal.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  6. 6.

    I haven’t wanted to play a mother for a long time because I am one.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  7. 7.

    Most women’s pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men’s pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, what you get is an extreme closeup of a woman breaking down.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  8. 8.

    The only power you have is the word no.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  9. 9.

    Certainly, a lot of the films I’ve worked on have ended up good movies, but they haven’t always been the best experiences.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  10. 10.

    Movie stars have careers – actors work, and then they don’t work, and then they work again.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  11. 11.

    I am an ordinary person.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  12. 12.

    I never trusted good-looking boys.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  13. 13.

    It’s a scary thing going into the workforce with a $50,000 debt and you’ve been trained as a classical theatre actor. There’s always a depression in the theatre.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  14. 14.

    I don’t think of myself as a movie star and I can pretty easily convince other people that I’m not a movie star.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  15. 15.

    I’m a character actress, plain and simple… Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers – actors work, and then they don’t work, and then they work again.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress

  16. 16.

    There’s only two givens with choosing acting as a profession: one is you will always be unemployed, always, and it doesn’t matter how much money you make, you’re still always going to be unemployed; and that you have no power.

    Frances McDormand

    American actress