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Kathy-Bates-5
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Biographical information
Birthplace: Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Occupation: Actress, director

Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an Academy Award-winning American theatrical, film, television actress, stage and television director. She portrayed Molly Brown in James Cameron's 1997 film, Titanic.

Life and career[]

Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Bertye Kathleen (née Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her great-great-grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland to New Orleans and served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. She has two older sisters, Mary and Patricia. Bates graduated from White Station High School in Memphis. She attended Southern Methodist University, majoring in theatre and was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and graduated in 1969. She moved to New York City in 1970 in order to pursue an acting career.

Bates was nominated for the Emmy Award seven times: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, for her performance as Jay Leno's manager Helen Kushnick in HBO's The Late Shift (1996), and, twice again in the same category; as Miss Hannigan in Disney's remake of Annie (1999) and for the HBO Franklin Roosevelt biopic Warm Springs (2005). She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Lifetime Television's "Ambulance Girl" (2006), which she also directed. She appeared in ten episodes of the HBO cable television series Six Feet Under for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, as Bettina, in 2003. She also was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun in 1999, the same year that she was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries or Movie for the Dashiell Hammett-Lillian Hellman biopic Dash & Lilly. In 2011 and 2012, Bates was nominated for an Emmy Award for her titular role in the NBC show, "Harry's Law".

In 1991, Bates married actor Tony Campisi, with whom she had lived for 12 years previously. They divorced in 1997.

Bates is the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.

She is also a survivor of ovarian cancer, after winning the battle in September of 2003. Nine years later, in 2012, Bates announced on Twitter that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She later underwent a double mastectomy.

Her nickname is Bobo. She was often mistaken for comedian Roseanne Barr, who in turn spoofed Bates' role in Misery in a Saturday Night Live sketch.

External links[]

Gallery[]

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