Virginia Madsen Biography

Virginia Madsen’s portrayal of Maya, the wine-loving and emotionally fragile waitress in the dark comedy Sideways, earned her a 2004 Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Madsen had seemed to be on the cusp of stardom twenty years earlier, in 1984, when she appeared as the cello-player-next-door in the romantic comedy Electric Dreams and as Princess Irulan in the sci-fi epic Dune.

But her big breakthrough role never quite came.

Instead, for the next two decades she took parts in a scattershot mix of TV movies like Long Gone (1987, with William Petersen) and studio ‘B’ movies like the sequel Highlander II (1991, with Sean Connery) and the horror flick Candyman (1992).

The quirky independent film Sideways cast her as a wine enthusiast on the cusp of middle age who begins an awkward romance with a nebbish played by Paul Giamatti.

The film was a surprise hit, winning five Academy Award nominations (including one for best picture and a supporting actor nomination for Thomas Haden Church).

She followed that success with a Harrison Ford thriller, Firewall (2006), an all-star film version of Garrison Keillor‘s A Prairie Home Companion (2006) and a TV series, Smith (2006, co-starring Ray Liotta).