
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American film and stage actress. She is the recipient of many accolades including an Academy Award and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards. She began her acting career appearing in television programs throughout the 1980s. In 1986, she appeared in her first film role, with her breakthrough coming in the 1990 Coen brothers-directed Miller's Crossing. Her next notable film credits include The First Wives Club (1996), Flubber (1997), and Space Cowboys (2000). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lee Krasner in Pollock (2000). She had a supporting role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in the drama film Mystic River (2003). She appeared in several 2007 films, including Sean Penn's Into the Wild and Frank Darabont's The Mist, based on the novella by Stephen King. Also in 2007, she shared top billing with Kevin Bacon in Rails & Ties, the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood. Harden played a woman who has a mastectomy in Home (2008). (Her character in Rails & Ties also had a mastectomy.) One scene required her to bare her breasts, with the missing breast removed using computer-generated imagery. In Home, her co-stars include her daughter, Eulala Scheel. In 2009, she had quite a busy year. She appeared as a regular on the FX series Damages as a shrewd corporate attorney opposite Glenn Close and William Hurt. She co-starred in the films Whip It, and The Maiden Heist. She returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, co-starring with James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels. All three actors were nominated for a Tony Award; Harden won Best Actress in a Play. She received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis in the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and earned a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Janina Krzyżanowska in the television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009). She reunited with her former Broadway co-star Jeff Daniels as a new cast member on HBO's series The Newsroom in 2013. In 2015, she had a starring role in the medical drama Code Black. Her other notable television credits include ABC's How to Get Away with Murder and the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. She played Christian Grey's mother, Grace Trevelyan Grey, in the Fifty Shades film series from 2015 to 2018. She stars in the 2022 CBS drama So Help Me Todd.
146 acting credits
Acting · 146

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009

The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019

Margo's Got Money Troubles
2026

BoJack Horseman
2014

Fifty Shades Freed
2018

Chicago Hope
1994

The View
1997

How to Get Away with Murder
2014

Great Performances
1971

Body of Proof
2011

Fifty Shades of Grey
2015

Damages
2007

Homicide: Life on the Street
1993

Sherri
2022

Simon & Simon
1981

The Morning Show
2019

A Million Little Things
2018

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992

Tamron Hall
2019

The Newsroom
2012

The Oscars
1953

Royal Pains
2009

People's Choice Awards
1975

The Mist
2007

Fallen Angels
1993

The Cuphead Show!
2022

Code Black
2015

So Help Me Todd
2022

Fifty Shades Darker
2017

Murder in a Small Town
2024

Meet Joe Black
1998

Parkland
2013

Into the Wild
2007

Detachment
2011

Mystic River
2003

The Dreadful
2026

The Education of Max Bickford
2001

Reef Break
2019

Gigi & Nate
2022

Trophy Wife
2013

Uncoupled
2022

Miller's Crossing
1990

Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951

Flubber
1997

Bent
2012

Space Cowboys
2000

Spy Hard
1996

You're Not You
2014

Mona Lisa Smile
2003

Bad News Bears
2005

The First Wives Club
1996

Whip It
2009

Barkskins
2020

Confess, Fletch
2022

Unity
2015

Knox Goes Away
2024

Moxie
2021

RuPaul
2019
Gideon Oliver
1989

The Invisible
2007

Desperate Measures
1998

Grandma
2015

P.S.
2004

Magic in the Moonlight
2014

The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
2009

Sinatra
1992

Money, Explained
2021

Point Blank
2019

Pollock
2000

The Dead Girl
2006
TRINITY
2026

The Maiden Heist
2009

The Hoax
2006

American Gun
2005

American Dreamz
2006

Get a Job
2016

The Daytrippers
1997

The Oil Fund
2018

Love You to Death
2019

After Words
2015

Elsa & Fred
2014

This Ordinary Thing
2025

Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant
2015

Rails & Ties
2007

Fog City Mavericks
2007

Christmas Cottage
2008

Welcome to Mooseport
2004

Safe Passage
1994

Tell It Like a Woman
2022

Used People
1992

The Spitfire Grill
1996

Curtain Call
1998

Innocent
2011
The Tower
2008
Drift
—

Convict Cowboy
1995

Street Smart
—

Far Harbor
1996

Fever
1994

King of Texas
2002

Pink Skies Ahead
2020

Small Vices
1999

Daughter of the Bride
2023

Felicity: An American Girl Adventure
2005

Gaudi Afternoon
2001

Walking Shadow
2001

Renner
2025

Canvas
2006

Labor of Love
1998

Crush
1992

Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story
2013

Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast
2005

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
2012

Casa de los Babys
2003

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
2006

Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy
2011

Thin Air
2000

Sex and Lies in Sin City
2009

The Wine of Summer
2013

Superman's 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel
1988

She's Too Young
2004
Mystic River: From Page to Screen
2003

In Broad Daylight
1991
From Where I Sit
2000

In from the Night
2006

If I Were You
2013

When Darkness Came: The Making of 'The Mist'
2008

Kojak: None So Blind
1990

Guilty Hearts
2002

Talking With
1995

Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing
1997

Late for Dinner
1991

See You in My Dreams
2004

The Cold Open
2019

Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone
2020

In the Wings: Angels in America On Broadway
1993

Home
2009
Mystic River: Beneath the Surface
2004
Geoffrey Beene 30
1993
Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater
2006

Not Only Strangers
1979

Willa Cather: The Road Is All
2005
In the Echo
—

In the Night I Remember Your Name
2018