Mary-Louise Parker

Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964 in Fort Jackson, South Carolina) is an American actress whose work in theater and film has won her international acclaim. She has been the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Her best-known works include Boys on the Side, The West Wing, and Angels in America. Parker is currently starring on Showtime's Weeds.

2001 - 2003

In 2001, Parker appeared alongside Len Cariou and Anne Heche in David Auburn's Proof on Broadway, and among the praise showered on her was the much-coveted Tony award. However, Parker again lost out when the play was made into a film and the role was given to Gwyneth Paltrow. But whatever her theatrical aspirations, she would leave the stage for three years as her profile soared and she found roles wherever she looked: among them, the Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon and Pipe Dream (2002).

Related Topics:
2001 - Len Cariou - Anne Heche - David Auburn - Proof - Gwyneth Paltrow - Silence of the Lambs - Red Dragon - Pipe Dream

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Next up was a guest role on the Rob Lowe/Martin Sheen NBC drama, The West Wing, as women's rights activist Amelia 'Amy' Gardner, which soon became a recurring role. Beginning in 2001, her character became Chief of Staff to the First Lady , became a love interest for neurotic Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman, and provided another female voice in a show publicly criticised for its lack of high-level political women. For this role, Parker was nominated for an Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild award. Around the fifth season Parker became pregnant and her character was written out of the series after five episodes of the fifth season. She was later to return in 2005.

Related Topics:
Rob Lowe - Martin Sheen - NBC - The West Wing - Women's rights - Activist - Amelia 'Amy' Gardner - 2001 - First Lady - Screen Actors Guild - Pregnant - 2005

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In November 2003, she split with long-time boyfriend Billy Crudup, after a seven year relationship which began when they met in a 1996 theater reprisal of the Marilyn Monroe film Bus Stop.

Related Topics:
November - Billy Crudup - 1996 - Marilyn Monroe - Bus Stop

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On December 7 2003, HBO aired what would become the biggest event of the year in television: an epic six-and-a-half hour adaptation of Tony Kushner's acclaimed Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. The miniseries - about a group of lost souls in New York during the AIDS epidemic of the '80s - was internationally acclaimed. Parker played Harper Pitt, the valium-addicted wife of a closeted lawyer, and - among its many awards - Parker received the Golden Globe and Emmy awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries. On January 7 2004 - two months after her split from Billy Crudup - Parker gave birth to a healthy baby boy, William Atticus.

Related Topics:
December 7 - HBO - Tony Kushner - Angels in America - Mike Nichols - Golden Globe - Emmy - January 7 - 2004

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