Mary McDonnell

Acting

Mary McDonnell

Born

1952-04-28 (74)

Place of birth

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

63 titles

Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in Dances With Wolves and May-Alice Culhane in Passion Fish. McDonnell is well known for her performances as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, First Lady Marilyn Whitmore in Independence Day, and Rose in Donnie Darko. She was featured as Captain Sharon Raydor during seasons 5–7 of the TNT series The Closer and starred as Commander Sharon Raydor in the spin-off series Major Crimes on the same network. In 2023, she played Madeleine Usher in the miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. Description a…

Known for

Film credits

2000s · 11 titles

Donnie Darko poster
7.8

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

Donnie Darko

2001

Battlestar Galactica: Razor poster
7.2

The history and adventures of the Battlestar Pegasus, from shortly before the Cylon invasion to shortly after Lee Adama is made commander. The story is told through the eyes of and largely focuses on one particular member of Pegasus's crew, Kendra Shaw.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

2007

A Father's Choice poster
5.2

The fast-paced city life of two sisters is turned upside down when they are sent to live in the country with their father after their mother is killed.

A Father's Choice

2000

For All Time poster
6.4

A man facing middle-age and a failing marriage finds a time slip that can take him back to the end of the nineteenth century.

For All Time

2000

Mrs. Harris poster
5.8

Based on the sensational 1980s media event, famed cardiologist Herman Tarnower meets a particularly brutal end at the hands of his jilted lover, Jean Harris.

Mrs. Harris

2005

The Locket poster
5.2

A bereaved man takes a job at a health care center, where he befriends an elderly and embittered woman - and as time passes, he becomes obsessed with reuniting her with her long-lost true love.

The Locket

2002

Nola poster
6.8

An urban fairy tale-romantic comedy, in which Nola, an aspiring songwriter, leaves an abusive Kansas home and journeys to New York to find her biological father. Once there, she finds more than she expected.

Nola

2003

The Making of ‘Sneakers’ poster
7.5

Behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of ‘Sneakers’ (1992).

The Making of ‘Sneakers’

2003

Dances with Wolves: The Creation of an Epic poster
8.0

A documentary of the making of Dances with Wolves told through interviews with cast and crew. It describes the financial and production details, scouting locations, the buffalo hunt, the Lakota Sioux, and the recognition and success the film achieved.

Dances with Wolves: The Creation of an Epic

2003

Hostile Makeover poster
7.2

Lacey Smithsonian is a stylish journalist who works as a television reporter. When interviewing a prestigious fashion designer Amanda Manville, it confesses that receives death threats from someone. Everything is complicated when the artist is shot dead during the program. Lacey will be involved in the case and launch an investigation to find the guilty.

Hostile Makeover

2009

Crazy Like a Fox poster
6.5

This is the story of Nat Banks, an 8th generation Virginian gentleman farmer living in the past, who loses his family farm, Greenwood, to a pair of land speculators from Washington, D.C. When the predatory couple manipulates a "legal" real estate transaction that turns into a hostile possession of the manor house, he temporarily loses his mind, leaving his family but not the farm. Instead he hides out in a cave on Goose Creek, waging guerilla warfare against expansionism and the destruction of historic property with the help of his family, friends, and neighbors...

Crazy Like a Fox

2004

1990s · 19 titles

Independence Day poster
6.9

Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived. Its mission: total annihilation over the Fourth of July weekend. The last hope to stop the destruction is an unlikely group of people united by fate and unimaginable circumstances.

Independence Day

1996

Dances with Wolves poster
7.8

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

Dances with Wolves

1990

Sneakers poster
6.9

When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his 'sneakers' must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box from their blackmailers.

Sneakers

1992

12 Angry Men poster
7.7

During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the guilty verdict handed down by the others as a result of their preconceptions and prejudices.

12 Angry Men

1997

Blue Chips poster
6.1

Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.

Blue Chips

1994

Passion Fish poster
7.0

After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own.

Passion Fish

1992

Grand Canyon poster
6.4

The lives of six residents from different backgrounds intertwine in modern-day Los Angeles. At the center is the unlikely friendship of two men from different races and classes brought together when one finds himself in jeopardy in the other's rough neighborhood.

Grand Canyon

1991

Woman Undone poster
4.1

When Terri Hansen (Mary McDonnell) emerges from a fiery car crash as a widow, the local sheriff at first believes her account of the accident. But there's a snag in her story. Namely, a bullet in her dead husband. Just what did happen on that dark desert road? Through a series of telling flashbacks, we and the jury learn the bizarre truth. Randy Quaid and Sam Elliott costar in this riveting drama.

Woman Undone

1996

Independence Day: The ID4 Invasion poster
6.6

A "mockumentary" of the alien invasion during Independence Day. Barry Nolan hosts the programme, the first 9 minutes of which are a spoof news report of the events of the film. The middle bit is a discussion of the film by cast and crew, and at the end various scientists and politicians discuss what would happen if real aliens arrive on Earth.

Independence Day: The ID4 Invasion

1996

Mumford poster
6.6

When a would-be psychologist, curiously named Dr. Mumford, comes to the idyllic town of the same name and offers his talent for listening and a disarming frankness, the town's quirkiest citizens scramble for a seat on his couch. As he lightens hearts darkened by old secrets no one realizes he's hiding a whopper of his own, or that he's fallen head over heels for one of his patients!

Mumford

1999

Replacing Dad poster
6.4

Linda and George live in a small town. He is the school principal. They are about to celebrate their 16th anniversary. She catches him with her daughter's young teacher, and has to deal with the kids, the town and her love to him.

Replacing Dad

1999

You Can Thank Me Later poster
5.8

Shirley Cooperberg heads a Montreal Jewish family. During her husband's operation, her brood arrives at the hospital — failed writer Eli, neurotic Susan, and successful theatrical producer Edward. An onslaught of one-liners find targets amid sibling rivalries and angst-ridden animosities.

You Can Thank Me Later

1998

The Making of 'Dances with Wolves' poster
7.0

A documentary about the making of director Kevin Costner's Academy Award-winning directorial debut, Dances With Wolves.

The Making of 'Dances with Wolves'

1990

The American Clock poster
5.7

Moe, Rose and Lee Baumler are members of an upper class family who find the world completely changed when they lose everything in the stock market crash of 1929. Lee, a college-age young man, who now faces no possibility of entering college, decides to go on the road to see what is happening to the rest of the country.

The American Clock

1993

Evidence of Blood poster
6.6

When a brilliant crime writer investigates a 40-year-old murder, he confronts a small town's worst fears.

Evidence of Blood

1998

Two Voices poster
5.0

When two women have breast implants for contrasting reasons, they both suffer from frightening side effects. They decide to unite and fight the drug companies who have turned their lives upside down.

Two Voices

1997

The Making of 'Independence Day' poster
6.1

We take a look at various fields of development for the motion picture, Independence Day (1996). Jeff Goldblum is our guide through 'Area ID4' (a rip-off name of Area 51). He pretends to creep around and give us "secret" information about the film. There is also interviews with the cast and crew, and some other behind the scenes stuff that is only there to impress you, and to make you want to go see the film.

The Making of 'Independence Day'

1996

Behind the Mask poster
5.5

Dr. Bob Shushan is an overworked and absent father who runs a centre for the mentally and physically challenged. When Shushan suffers a heart attack, his life is saved by James Jones, a young patient at the center. The two men forge a friendship and help each other rekindle the father-son bond that has been missing in their lives.

Behind the Mask

1999

No artwork available
8.0

In this forceful study of religious passion an extraordinary spiritual experience is placed in the center of a deftly evoked natural world, namely, rural upstate New York just after the turn of the century. At summer's end, when she is 17, Mariette Baptiste, educated daughter of the local doctor, enters the cloistered convent of Our Lady of the Afflictions as a postulant. Her religious fervor, understated but determined, makes an impact on the small community of nuns whose days and nights are measured in a round of prayer and farm work changing only with the seasons. Their ordered life is disrupted, however, as Mariette begins to fall into a series of trances from which she awakens with stigmata, which heal as spontaneously as they appear. The feelings of skepticism, jealousy and adoration evoked in the nuns, Mariette's own response and that of the Mother Superior are delicately, indelibly presented.

Mariette in Ecstasy

1996

1980s · 5 titles

Series credits

Grey's Anatomy poster
8.2

Follows the personal and professional lives of a group of doctors at Seattle's Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

Grey's Anatomy

2005

Fargo poster
8.3

A close-knit anthology series dealing with stories involving malice, violence and murder based in and around Minnesota.

Fargo

2014

ER poster
7.8

ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room.

ER

1994

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

Golden Globe Awards poster
7.0

An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Golden Globe Awards

1944

American Experience poster
6.5

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

American Experience

1988

Battlestar Galactica poster
8.2

When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged Galactica protect a small civilian fleet - the last of humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.

Battlestar Galactica

2004

Veronica Mars poster
7.8

In the fictional town of Neptune, California, student Veronica Mars progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father.

Veronica Mars

2004

Touched by an Angel poster
7.2

Monica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives.

Touched by an Angel

1994

Major Crimes poster
7.4

Major Crimes explores how the American justice system approaches the art of the deals as law enforcement officers and prosecutors work together to score a conviction. Los Angeles Police Captain Sharon Raydor heads up a special squad within the LAPD that deals with high-profile or particularly sensitive crimes.

Major Crimes

2012

The Oscars poster
7.1

An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar.

The Oscars

1953

The Fall of the House of Usher poster
7.5

To secure their fortune — and future — two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one.

The Fall of the House of Usher

2023

The Boroughs poster
7.2

In a seemingly perfect retirement community, a crew of unlikely heroes must stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don't have: time.

The Boroughs

2026

Battlestar Galactica poster
8.2

A re-imagining of the original series in which a "rag-tag fugitive fleet" of the last remnants of mankind flees pursuing robots while simultaneously searching for their true home, Earth.

Battlestar Galactica

2003

E/R poster
5.7

E/R is an American television sitcom that aired in 1984 and 1985. Developed from the long running play of the same name created and produced by the Organic Theater Company under the direction of Stuart Gordon and conceived by Dr. Ronald Berman, the series was produced by Norman Lear and Embassy Television and lasted a single season. Shuko Akune and Bruce A. Young reprised their roles from the original Organic Theater Company production of the play. Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton borrowed heavily from this show in the creation of their television drama similarly entitled ER.George Clooney, a regular on this show, would later appeared in the NBC's drama.

E/R

1984

Rebel poster
7.1

Annie “Rebel” Bello is a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. When Rebel applies herself to a fight she believes in, she will win at almost any cost.

Rebel

2021

Rebel poster
7.1

Annie “Rebel” Bello is a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. When Rebel applies herself to a fight she believes in, she will win at almost any cost.

Rebel

2021

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

High Society poster
8.0

High Society is the title of an American television sitcom that aired Monday nights on CBS in 1995 and early 1996. The series revolves around two New York City women who act in an outrageous, campy, and decadent manner. The theme song was the Lady is a Tramp sung by Chaka Khan. Its premise was similar to the campy British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous.

High Society

1995

Ryan Caulfield: Year One poster
6.0

Ryan Caulfield: Year One is an American crime drama that aired from October 15, 1999 to October 22, 1999. The series original title was going to be The Badland, and it appearred in the 1999 Fall Preview of TV Guide under that name.

Ryan Caulfield: Year One

1999

Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas poster
7.8

Talented Saville Row textile pattern designer Kate lives in the quaint village of Blexford, England. Unbeknownst to Kate, her best friend Laura signs her up for The 12 Dates of Christmas – a holiday-themed matchmaking program in the days leading up to the holiday featuring carefully curated, yuletide dating experiences, in an attempt to get Kate out of her rut. Lovingly coerced by Laura and longtime best friend Callum, a reluctant Kate ultimately gets into the spirit of the program and is caught off guard when she meets someone who reinvigorates her zest for life.

Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas

2025