Marcia Cross Bio

 

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About Marcia Cross

Actress Marcia Cross was born March 25, 1962 in Marlborough , Massachusetts to parents Janet and Mark.  She has two sisters, Susan and Ellen.  Marcia discovered her love of acting – and perhaps for roles a little on the dark side – in her sixth grade production of The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  A few years later Marcia was majoring in drama at the prestigious Julliard School in New York .

Very shortly after her graduation, Marcia was gained stature as an actress on and around the New York stage, performing in such esteemed productions as the Williamstown Theater Festival’s La Ronde and the Hartford Stage Company’s Twelfth Night. 

Marcia’s high profile television career began when she was cast as Liz Correll in the hit daytime soap opera The Edge of Night.  The show ended its 28-year run just six months later, but Marcia’s career was already underway.  In 1985 she starred opposite veteran actor Carroll O’Connor in the TV movie Brass.  The following year she took the lead role in Pros & Cons and also starred in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James alongside such legends as Johnny and June Carter Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.  During these years Marcia also appeared briefly on such hits as Cheers, Who’s the Boss, Quantum Leap, Murder She Wrote and Seinfeld, further increasing her visibility.

Never at a loss for work, Marcia was cast as Kate Roberts on daytime’s One Life to Live and as Tanya in Another World.  In 1988 she played opposite Tim Daly in Almost Grown, and although the series was never picked up it received critical praise.  Marcia played Ruth Fielding in the 1990 thriller Bad Influence which also starred Rob Lowe and James Spader.  In 1991 she joined the cast of the smash hit Knots Landing as Victoria Broyelard.  But it was the following year, when Marcia left the show for another nighttime drama called Melrose Place that her career skyrocketed.

Marcia played Dr. Kimberly Shaw, a conniving temptress on the series that reigned supreme in the primetime ratings throughout much of the 1990s.  Though she had been slated to appear on only one episode of Melrose , Marcia’s Dr. Shaw created such a stir among fans that she returned as a recurring and then as a main character on the show.  Dr. Shaw disappeared for awhile, eventually returning from the grave (or so viewers were initially led to believe) with a particularly clever bit of cinematography in the last scene of a season finale.  The role of Dr. Shaw earned Marcia a spot at number 20 on the list of “The 50 Most Wicked Women of Primetime.”

Sadly, just as she received the biggest break to date in her career, Marcia experienced tragedy in her personal life when her longtime companion and fiancé actor Richard Jordan became ill and subsequently died of a brain tumor in 1993.  Marcia kept busy with the role of Kimberly Shaw, and also managed to perform in films during her run on Melrose , among them Female Perversions (1996) with Tilda Swinton and Always Say Goodbye (1996) with Polly Draper.

After six years on Melrose , Marcia left the series to earn a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Antioch University in LA.  While attending school, she continued to perform on a regular basis.  She starred in Dancing in September (2000) as Lydia Gleason; landed the lead role of Rebecca Hausman in Living in Fear (2001); and played Molly in 2003’s The Wind Effect.  In 2002 Marcia filmed a TV pilot called Eastwick, based on the film The Witches of Eastwick (1987).  Marcia played Susan Sarandon’s movie role in this TV series that was never picked up.  A role in WB’s popular and critically acclaimed 2002 drama Everwood, starring Treat Williams, brought Marcia back into the consciousness of TV viewers. 

Fans were astonished and dismayed when Marcia left Everwood after only one season for a title role on the new Sunday night series Desperate Housewives, also starring Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan.  Their disappointment was short lived as they realized they would be seeing Marcia for a long time in this wildly popular dark comedy that immediately shot to number one in the ratings.  Marcia flawlessly plays Bree Van de Camp, an ultra-perfectionist who turns to friends, lovers and alcoholism when her family begins to unravel before her eyes and beyond her control.

Marcia’s brilliant performance on the show has earned her nominations for several prestigious awards, including the Emmy (2005), Golden Globe (2005 & 2006), Golden Satellite (2005), Television Critics’ Association Award (2005), Prism Award (2005) and the Screen Actors’ Guild Award which she won, along with her fellow Housewives et al, in 2005 & 2006 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.  Marcia also placed number 28 on VH1’s 2005 List of “The Hottest People Over 40.”  She became engaged to stockbroker Tom Mahoney in August, 2005

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