LAURIE METCALF

'Lauren "Laurie" Ophelia Metcalf' (born June 16, 1955) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress. She is known for her performance as Jackie Harris in ''Roseanne'', as Carolyn Bigsby in ''Desperate Housewives'' and as Lucille Crunkenhorn aka Crazy Scientist in ''Meet the Robinsons''.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Stage career

Screen career

Personal life

Emmy Award Nominations

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Metcalf was born in Carbondale, Illinois, the oldest of three children, and was raised in rural Edwardsville, Illinois. Her father was the comptroller at Southern Illinois University and her mother was a librarian; Laurie's great aunt was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zoe Akins. Among Laurie's childhood pursuits was theater; she would put on plays with her friends.^[1]. She was also academically gifted in school and her many talents became apparent by her teen years.

Stage career

Metcalf attended Illinois State University and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Theater in 1977. While at ISU, she met fellow theater students, among them John Malkovich, Glenne Headley, Joan Allen, and Gary Sinise - who went on to establish Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Metcalf began her professional career at Steppenwolf. In 1981, she was brought on as a performer on ''Saturday Night Live'' for their cast, but appeared in only one episode before the season abruptly ended due to a writer's strike; she was not asked back in the fall. In 1983, Metcalf went to New York to appear in a Steppenwolf production of ''Balm in Gilead'', for which she received the 1984 Obie Award for Best Actress. Metcalf was showered with praise for her performance as Darlene, specifically for her tour de force twenty minute Act Two monologue. She relocated to Manhattan and began to work in both film and theater.

Screen career

She performed as a comic or character actress in numerous movies, including ''Desperately Seeking Susan'', ''Making Mr. Right'', ''Miles from Home'', ''Internal Affairs'', ''Stars and Bars'', ''Uncle Buck'', ''A Dangerous Woman'', ''Blink'', ''The Secret Life of Houses'', ''Treasure Planet'', ''Toy Story'', ''Runaway Bride'',and ''Leaving Las Vegas''. In ''JFK'', she played a dramatic role against type, as one of Jim Garrison's chief investigators. She appeared as the murderous mother of Billy Loomis in the horror film ''Scream 2'' and portrayed real-life Carolyn McCarthy in the television movie ''The Long Island Incident''.
Laurie has appeared in several television series, but she is best known as Jackie, sister to the title character in the hit series ''Roseanne''. Laurie's performance as Roseanne's complex, intelligent, quirky sister garnered her three Emmy Awards. ''Roseanne'' ran from 1988 to 1997, and Laurie appeared as Jackie over the show's entire run.
She subsequently appeared with Norm MacDonald on ''The Norm Show'' (or ''Norm''), which ran for three seasons (it is reported that Laurie missed the set of ''Roseanne'', was not very happy on the set of ''Norm'' and was secretly relieved when ''Norm'' was cancelled), and was also a regular character on the 2003 Nathan Lane series ''Charlie Lawrence''; however, that show was cancelled after only two episodes aired. Laurie has made guest appearances on series including ''Absolutely Fabulous'', ''Malcolm in the Middle'', ''Monk'', ''3rd Rock from the Sun'', ''Frasier'', ''Without a Trace'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''My Boys'' and ''Dharma & Greg''. Laurie also recently appeared in a recurring, semi-dramatic role on ''Desperate Housewives'', and she appeared alongside her ex-husband Jeff Perry in an episode of ''Grey's Anatomy''. For the former, Metcalf was critically acclaimed for her performance in the episode "Bang."

Personal life

Metcalf dated Steppenwolf actor Terry Kinney and married Steppenwolf co-founding member Jeff Perry. The two had a daughter, Zoe, born in 1984. Metcalf and Perry subsequently divorced and she married actor Matt Roth. The couple have two children, Will, born November 1993 and Mae, born in 2005 (who was born via surrogate). Metcalf met Roth when he played her abusive boyfriend, Fisher, on ''Roseanne''. Both Metcalf and Roth appeared in the same episode of ''Desperate Housewives''. Roth's character played a role in Metcalf's character being killed in that episode.

Emmy Award Nominations

For successful Emmy Awards, see the Infobox. Nominations, that did not win, were :

★ 1995 - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, ''Roseanne''

★ 1999 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, ''3rd Rock From the Sun''

★ 2006 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, ''Monk''

★ 2007 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, ''Desperate Housewives''

References

1. http://www.wchstv.com/abc/thenormshow/lauriemetcalf.shtml

External links

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