Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden was born on the 14th of August 1959 in La Jolla, California, the youngest of five children. Beverly Bushfield, her mother employed as a domestic worker and her husband Thad Harold Harden fought serving in the military. The family was often moved. While they were in Greece, she became interested in theater and attended Athens productions. Harden went on to study at American universities across Europe and then came back to the US after 1983 to continue her education at the University of Texas. She obtained an MFA at NYU and started her career as an actor. Although she had acted in a film from 1986 in the little-known The Imagemaker (1986), her debut role in the mainstream in a television films, was a sultry femme fatale in the Coen Brothers' cleverly offbeat tribute to the gangster film, Miller's Crossing (1990). Harden received praise for her sultry performance as Verna the seductive, dangerous woman. Harden continued to work in support roles. Her role was Ava Gardner, a TV biopic based on Frank Sinatra.