Mary Nell Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress,
singer, and songwriter. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress â€"
Motion Picture for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan
Demme's 1980 film Melvin and Howard.Steenburgen, who studied at New
York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, also received a Golden
Globe nomination for the 1981 film Ragtime, a BAFTA TV Award
nomination for the 1985 miniseries Tender Is the Night and an Emmy
Award nomination for the 1988 TV film The Attic: The Hiding of Anne
Frank. Her other film appearances include Time After Time (1979),
Cross Creek (1983), Parenthood (1989), Back to the Future Part III
(1990), Philadelphia (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Elf
(2003), The Brave One (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Proposal
(2009), The Help (2011), and Book Club (2018).Steenburgen was born in
Newport, Arkansas, to Nellie Mae (née Wall; 1923â€"2010), a
school-board secretary, and Maurice Hoffman Steenburgen (1914â€"1989),
a freight-train conductor who worked at the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
She has a sister, Nancy (Steenburgen) Kelly, a teacher. Her ancestry
includes Dutch, English, Scottish, and Welsh.
singer, and songwriter. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress â€"
Motion Picture for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan
Demme's 1980 film Melvin and Howard.Steenburgen, who studied at New
York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, also received a Golden
Globe nomination for the 1981 film Ragtime, a BAFTA TV Award
nomination for the 1985 miniseries Tender Is the Night and an Emmy
Award nomination for the 1988 TV film The Attic: The Hiding of Anne
Frank. Her other film appearances include Time After Time (1979),
Cross Creek (1983), Parenthood (1989), Back to the Future Part III
(1990), Philadelphia (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Elf
(2003), The Brave One (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Proposal
(2009), The Help (2011), and Book Club (2018).Steenburgen was born in
Newport, Arkansas, to Nellie Mae (née Wall; 1923â€"2010), a
school-board secretary, and Maurice Hoffman Steenburgen (1914â€"1989),
a freight-train conductor who worked at the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
She has a sister, Nancy (Steenburgen) Kelly, a teacher. Her ancestry
includes Dutch, English, Scottish, and Welsh.
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