Kathy Bates Age, Height, Partner, Net Worth & Biography

Kathy Bates is an American actress best known as Annie Wilkes in Misery, the obsessive fan who holds a writer captive, a role that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, and as Molly Brown in Titanic. Born on June 28, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, Bates, 78, has built a career of more than fifty years in film, television and theatre, with roles in Fried Green Tomatoes, Dolores Claiborne and American Horror Story, and in recent years as the star of the CBS legal drama Matlock.

Quick Facts

Who Is Kathy Bates?

Kathy Bates is an actress whose most famous performance is also one of the most terrifying in film history. As Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who rescues a novelist from a car crash and then holds him captive in her remote home, in Misery (1990), Bates played a woman who is sweet, obsessive and, in the end, murderous, and her performance won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, the first for a woman in a horror film. She is also known as Molly Brown, the wealthy socialite who helps Jack Dawson, in Titanic (1997), and as Evelyn Couch, a housewife who finds friendship with an elderly woman, in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).

Beyond those roles, Bates has shown a wide range. She played Dolores Claiborne, a woman who is accused of murdering her employer, in Dolores Claiborne (1995), a film based on the Stephen King novel, and she played Libby Holden, a political strategist, in Primary Colors (1998), a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in American Horror Story (2013-2018), in which she played characters such as Madame Delphine LaLaurie and Iris, and she plays Madeline Matlock, a retired lawyer who returns to work, in Matlock (2024-), a role that has earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama. Like Glenn Close, Bates is one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation, with an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Early Life & Background

Kathleen Doyle Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Bertye, a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. She was the youngest of three daughters, and she grew up in Memphis, where she attended White Station High School. She went on to study theatre at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1969, and she moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting.

She began acting on stage, appearing in the Broadway production of Goodbye Fidel (1980), and she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for ‘night, Mother (1983), in which she played Jessie Cates, a woman who tells her mother she plans to kill herself. She made her film debut in Taking Off (1971), in which she had a small, uncredited role, and she appeared in Straight Time (1978), in Summer Heat (1987), and in Men Don’t Leave (1990), before her breakthrough in Misery at the age of 42.

Career

Bates’s career in film includes Taking Off, Straight Time, Summer Heat, Men Don’t Leave, Dick Tracy (1990), Misery, Fried Green Tomatoes, Used People (1992), Dolores Claiborne, The War at Home (1996), Titanic, Primary Colors, The Waterboy (1998), About Schmidt (2002), Failure to Launch (2006), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Blind Side (2009), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (2023). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Misery, and she has been nominated for the Academy Award for Primary Colors, for About Schmidt and for Richard Jewell (2019), in which she played Bobi Jewell, the mother of the title character.

On television, Bates has played in American Horror Story, in which she appeared from 2013 to 2018, in Six Feet Under (2003-2005), in Harry’s Law (2011-2012), and in Matlock, in which she stars as Madeline Matlock. She was married to Tony Campisi, an actor, from 1991 to 1997. She is a two-time cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003 and breast cancer in 2012, and she is an advocate for lymphedema awareness. She is known for her work as an actress, and for a career that has lasted for more than fifty years.

Facts About Kathy Bates

• She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Misery (1990).
• She played Molly Brown in Titanic (1997) and Evelyn Couch in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).
• She stars as Madeline Matlock in Matlock (2024-), winning a Golden Globe Award for the role.
• She has won two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
• She is a two-time cancer survivor and an advocate for lymphedema awareness.

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