Amy Madigan (Actor)

Amy Madigan on Grey's Anatomy. (Photo: ABC)

Former rock musician and performer turned lead and supporting player of stage, film and TV. Madigan married actor Ed Harris in 1983 and has since appeared with him in Robert Benton's "Places in the Heart" (1984) and Louis Malle's "Alamo Bay" (1985). Rather gruff-voiced and often unglamorous in manner, this attractive tomboy is not the standard Hollywood leading lady. Madigan brings a refreshing strength and earthiness to her roles. She was memorable in Walter Hill's violent rock'n'roll fantasy, "Streets of Fire" (1984), as the tough lesbian soldier who befriends Michael Pare. As the angry daughter of the philandering Gene Hackman in "Twice Upon A Time" (1985), Madigan earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

In recent years, Madigan's most high profile credits featured her as somewhat disgruntled but basically tolerant and supportive wives and girlfriends in "Field of Dreams", "Uncle Buck" (both 1989), and "The Dark Half" (1993). Meatier parts were to be found on stage (e.g. "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange; Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind"; and David Rabe's "In the Boom Boom Room") and in high-minded TV movies including "Victims" (1982), Nicholas Meyer's "The Day After" (1983) and "Roe vs. Wade" (1989).