Frances McDormand Biography

A versatile character actor since the early 1980s, Frances McDormand is best known as deadpan Sheriff Marge Gunderson in the Coen brothers film Fargo (1996, with Steve Buscemi).

The role won her an Oscar as the year’s best actress. McDormand won another Oscar for her lead role in 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri (written and directed by Martin McDonagh), and a third Oscar for her lead role in 2020’s Nomadland (directed by Chloe Zhao).

McDormand made her screen debut in the Coens’s first feature, Blood Simple (1984), and married Joel Coen in 1984.

She has appeared in several Coen brothers movies, including Raising Arizona (1987, with Nicolas Cage), Miller’s Crossing (1990) and The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001, with Billy Bob Thornton).

McDormand has been a critical favorite over the years, and has been nominated twice for best supporting actress Oscars, for Mississippi Burning (1988, with Willem Dafoe) and Almost Famous (2000, with Zooey Deschanel).

She’s also been nominated for an Emmy (1996’s Hidden in America) and a Tony (1988’s A Streetcar Named Desire).

Her other films include Sam Raimi‘s Darkman (1990), Wonder Boys (2000, with Tobey Maguire), Something’s Gotta Give (2003, with Diane Keaton), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008, with Amy Adams) and the Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading (2008, starring Brad Pitt).