Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden was born on August 14, 1959, in La Jolla, California, her third child from five. The mother of her child, Beverly (Bushfield) had been a homemaker, and her father, Thad Harold Harden an active soldier. The family was often moved. In the time they resided in Greece the family became more interested in theater and attended Athens shows. Harden started her education in American institutions in Europe and returned to the US to finish her education at the University of Texas in 1983 and then earned an MFA at NYU followed by a stint at NYU where she was able to begin her career as an actor. While she was in a film in 1986 in a film that was not widely known, The Imagemaker (1986), her first role that was mainstream which was in conjunction with TV film roles, was the sultry female fatale of the Coen Brothers' cleverly offbeat homage to the gangster movie, Miller's Crossing (1990). Harden got a positive review for her dramatic performance of Verna the seductive, mischievous female. Harden thereafter worked steadily as a supporting character, such as playing Ava Gardner in Sinatra (1992) the biopic for television on Frank Sinatra.