The Nominees: Frances McDormand
Playing an iron miner named Glory in "North Country" can't be much of a stretch for actress Frances McDormand. She's played such a wacky medley of characters in her career to date that it's hard to imagine a role she'd balk at playing.
McDormand's three previous Oscar-nominated roles show her versatility as an actress. In the drama "Mississippi Burning" (1988), she was the wife of a Ku Klux Klansman who develops a relationship with a federal agent. In the dark comic "Fargo" (1996), she's a pregnant small-town police chief who is unflappable in the face of any amount of mayhem ("Is that your partner back there in the wood chipper?") In "Almost Famous" (2000), she's the loving mom of a precocious rock music writer. She won the Oscar for "Fargo."
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Born in Chicago on June 23, 1957, McDormand earned a master's degree at the Yale University School of Drama. But a key to her distinguished if offbeat career can be found in her marriage in 1984 to Joel Coen. Many of her best roles were made in films produced by Joel and his brother, Ethan Coen.