Mary Steenburgen was an American actress, who was recognized for being a charming and kind personality in a broad range of roles, from comedic to evil and from patient to control.
Mary Steenburgen was mainly recognized for playing Lynda Dummar, who won an Oscar for the film “Melvin and Howard,” directed by Jonathan Demme, in 1980. Along with several other honors, she has also received the “Golden Globe Award” for the same performance.
She has been in a number of very successful films, and many of her performances have been well-received by experts.
Mary Steenburgen’s Date of Birth and Age
In Newport, Arkansas, the United States, Mary Nell Steenburgen was born on February 8, 1953.
Mary Steenburgen’s Parents
At the Missouri Pacific Railroad, her father Maurice Steenburgen was a container shipping conductor. Secretary for the school board, Nellie Mae, was her mother. Nancy Kelly, one of her sisters, is a teacher by trade.
See also The Natural Solution to Erectile DysfunctionMary Steenburgen’s Education
Mary joined “Hendrix College” to study acting after graduating. One of her instructors at “Hendrix College” advised that she try out for the “Neighborhood Playhouse” in New York City.
Mary Steenburgen’s Husband
While co-starring with actor Malcolm McDowell in the movie Time After Time in 1978, Steenburgen met him and started dating him. After being married, they had two kids, including Charlie McDowell.
They separated afterward. On October 7, 1995, Steenburgen wed actor Ted Danson, whom she had met while working on the movie Pontiac Moon.
Steenburgen also took on the role of stepmother to Danson’s two kids from his first marriage to producer Cassandra Coates.
With her family, Steenburgen lives in the Los Angeles region. She graduated from Hendrix College and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the school in 1989.
Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas awarded Steenburgen an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2006.
She and Danson delivered a guest lecture for students at the Clinton School of Public Service in September 2005 where they spoke about their responsibilities in public service as well as the organizations and issues they support.
Steenburgen and Danson supported Hillary Clinton’s 2008 reelection campaign since they are friends with the former senator and secretary of state.
At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she also spoke. Steenburgen is also active with a number of organizations, from environmental activist groups to human rights organizations.
Charlie McDowell, Steenburgen’s son, has been making fun of her since 2014 by repeatedly claiming on social media that his mother is the actress Andie MacDowell.
Mary Steenburgen’s Career
Following a successful audition at the “Neighborhood Playhouse” in New York City, Mary Steenburgen relocated to Manhattan in 1972 to start a career in acting. She started doing various jobs to support herself for a while.
Her big break happened in 1978 when Jack Nicholson came across her in the lobby of Paramount’s New York headquarters. She was cast in the main part of his second film, “Goin’ South,” which he directed.
Mary collaborated with Malcolm McDowell in the movie “Time After Time” the next year. She featured “Amy Robbins,” a leading lady who falls in love with a writer.
In the 1980s “Melvin and Howard,” the third movie in which Steenburgen starred, performed the part of “Lynda Dummar,” and she quickly rose to popularity.
She received six nominations for this performance, winning every one of them, including an “Academy Award” and a “Golden Globe Award.”
After playing in “Melvin and Howard,” she has been cast in a variety of other films. She gained praise for her work in movies including “Cross Creek” (1983), “Parenthood” (1989), “Back to the Future Part III” (1990), and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” from both reviewers and viewers (1993).
Her other well-liked movies include 1993’s “Philadelphia,” 2003’s “Elf,” 2008’s “Four Christmases,” 2009’s “The Proposal,” and 2010’s “Dirty Girl.”
Mary Steenburgen didn’t only work in the movie business. She made her television debut in 1983 with “Faerie Tale Theatre,” and went on to have a similarly successful career in the television business.
She appeared in many TV shows, including “Back to the Future” (1991–1992), “Ink” (1996–1997), “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000–17), “Justified” (2014–15), and “The Last Man on Earth” (2015-18). She has appeared in several episodes as a guest star in addition to these series.
She has furthermore acted in television movies including “The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank” in 1988, “The Gift” in 1994, “Noah’s Ark” in 1999, “Living with the Dead” in 2002, and “7 Days in Hell” from 2015.
She played “Jeannie” in the biographical comedy-drama movie “A Walk in the Woods” in 2015.
She had an appearance in the romantic comedy “Book Club” in 2018. The film “Wild Rose” included her song “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” as the film’s musical finale the same year.
In 2020, she was given a role in the musical comedy television series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.”
In the 1980 film “Melvin and Howard,” Mary Steenburgen featured “Lynda Dummar,” the wife of “Melvin Dummar,” who was played by Paul Le Mat. For this movie, she received several honors, including the “Academy Award” and “Golden Globe Award.”
She performed as“Clara Clayton” in the 1990 motion picture “Back to the Future Part III.” She played a schoolteacher who falls in love with Christopher Lloyd’s character “Doc Brown.”
For the movie “Goin’ South,” Mary Steenburgen received a “Golden Globe Award” nomination in 1978.
In 1979, she received the “Saturn Award” for “Best Actress” for the movie “Time After Time.”
Six prizes in all were given to her, including an “Academy Award” in the category of “Best Supporting Actress” and a “Golden Globe Award” in the category of “Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture” for the film “Melvin and Howard.”
For her work in “Joan of Arcadia,” she received the “Satellite Award” in 2004 for “Best Supporting Actress – Television Series.
She received the “Screen Actors Guild Award” in 2011 for her performance in “The Help” in the category of “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.”
She earned recognition for “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” from the Hollywood Critics Association, the Houston Film Critics Society, and the Critics’ Choice Movie Award.
After having minor surgery on her arm in 2007 that needed immediate treatment, Steenburgen soon started to hear “music playing in her mind day and night.”
After taking music courses to help her record what she was hearing, she earned approximately 50 composition credits by 2013.
She has worked with Nashville-based bands and has a writing contract with Universal Music. Steenburgen sings one of her own pieces on film while playing a nightclub singer in Last Vegas.
In 2018, Jessie Buckley’s performance of her song “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” served as the film Wild Rose’s finale musical scene and earned Steenburgen multiple prizes, including the Critics Choice Award.
Steenburgen and Universal Music Publishing Group signed a worldwide publishing agreement on October 30, 2020.
Mary Steenburgen’s Net Worth
American actress Mary Steenburgen has an estimated net worth of $80 million as of 2022. Together with her longtime partner, fellow actor Ted Danson, they have a joint net worth of that amount.
Throughout her acting career, Mary Steenburgen has been in various movies. She continued to act in movies including “Ragtime,” “Cross Creek,” “Parenthood,” “Elf,” “The Help,” and “Book Club” after receiving the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her third picture, 1980’s “Melvin and Howard.”
The television shows “Ink,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Joan of Arcadia,” “Justified,” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” are just a few that Steenburgen has been on.
More About Mary Steenburgen
She and Danson gave a guest lecture at the Clinton School of Public Service in September 2005 where they spoke about their positions in public service as well as the organizations and issues they support.
Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas awarded Steenburgen an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2006.
She and her husband backed Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. She is a close personal friend of former First Lady and Senator, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She shares her time between California and Martha’s Vineyard, and she also lives together with Danson in an apartment in Little Rock’s River Market neighborhood.
A well-known arts supporter who has organized exhibitions in the past; her husband, actor Ted Danson, also developed an interest in sculpture.
In order to keep a promise to the parents of Thea Leopoulos, a youngster who was murdered in a car accident in 2001, I went back to my former high school in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in April 2002 to teach theater workshops to kids.
Often referred to as Colonel Jack O’Neill’s love interest in Stargate SG-1 (1997) by Richard Dean Anderson.
She represented the love interest of a time traveler who eventually went on to become one herself in the films Time After Time (1979) and Back to the Future Part III (1990). She came from the time traveler’s past in the first case and his future in the second.
She shares a birthdate with Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe, Seth Green of The Trumpet of the Swan (2001), James Dean, and Ethan Phillips. In Joan of Arcadia, she played Jason Ritter’s mother (2003). In Mumford, her husband Ted Danson plays Ritter’s father (1999).
In the movies Goin’ South (1978), Back to the Future Part III (1990), and Wish You Were Dead, she had screen time with Christopher Lloyd (2001).
She was the third Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner with the letters “M.S.” in a row. The others are Maureen Stapleton for Reds, Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Maggie Smith for California Suite (1978). (1981).
The wedding of Steenburgen and Ted Danson in 1995 was attended by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Since she lived in Little Rock and Clinton was the governor of Arkansas at the time, Steenburgen knew him well.
The President’s 51st birthday was honored at the couple’s Martha’s Vineyard residence. She was found by Jack Nicholson in the lobby of the Paramount headquarters in New York. She had a leading role in Nicholson’s first motion picture, Goin’ South (1978).
Steve Martin used to reside next door to her in an apartment in Manhattan. On December 16, 2009, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Kate and Alexis Danson’s stepmother. Her ancestry includes Dutch, English, Scottish, and Welsh. She has a Dutch last name. Nellie May Wall Steenburgen, her mother, passed away on January 26, 2010, at the age of 86.
Mother of Lilly McDowell (Lilly Amanda McDowell; born January 22, 1981) and Charlie McDowell, with ex-husband Malcolm McDowell (Charles Malcolm McDowell; b. July 10, 1983).
She has one grandchild via her daughter Lilly McDowell, Clementine Mae Walton (b. January 2012). She was the 84th woman to win an Academy Award; on March 31, 1981, at the 53rd Annual Academy Awards (1981), she received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Melvin and Howard (1980).
