Amy Madigan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Amy Madigan
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Madigan in 2018
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Amy Marie Madigan
September 11, 1950 |
| Alma mater | Marquette University (B.A.) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 |
Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She is well-known for her roles in movies and TV shows. She has won several important awards, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, and a Golden Globe Award. She has also been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Amy Madigan first appeared in a movie called Love Child in 1982. For this role, she received her first Golden Globe Award nomination. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Twice in a Lifetime (1985). Forty years later, in 2025, she won an Academy Award for her performance in the movie Weapons. This was a record for the longest time between an actress's first and second Academy Award nominations!
Some of her other famous movies include Uncle Buck (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), and Gone Baby Gone (2007). On television, she played Sarah Weddington in a TV film in 1989, winning a Golden Globe and being nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She also had roles in popular TV series like Carnivàle (2003–2005), Grey's Anatomy (2008–2009), and Fringe (2009). She has also performed in many plays on stage.
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Early Life and Education
Amy Marie Madigan was born on September 11, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Dolores, worked as an assistant and enjoyed acting in local plays. Her father, John J. Madigan, was a journalist for Newsweek. He also talked about politics on TV shows like Meet the Press and Face the Nation. He interviewed important people, including Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr.. Amy Madigan grew up in a Catholic family with Irish American heritage. She has two brothers, Jack and Jim.
During her high school years, Amy loved performing in school plays. She went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and earned a college degree in philosophy in 1972. In 1974, she moved to Los Angeles. Later, she studied acting at the famous Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Career
Becoming an Actress in the 1980s
In the 1980s, Amy Madigan decided to switch from singing to acting. She trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Her first TV role was in an episode of Hart to Hart in 1981. The next year, she made her movie debut in Love Child. This role earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award. In 1983, she starred in the TV film The Day After.
In 1984, she appeared in the movie Streets of Fire and had a supporting role in Places in the Heart. In 1985, she starred in the TV film The Laundromat and won a CableACE Award for her performance. She also acted alongside her husband, Ed Harris, in Alamo Bay. That same year, she played Sunny Mackenzie-Sobel in Twice in a Lifetime, a movie about a woman facing challenges in her marriage. For this role, she received nominations for both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.
Amy Madigan made her stage debut in New York in 1987 in the play The Lucky Spot. She won a Theatre World Award for this performance. In 1989, she played the wife of Kevin Costner's character in the popular movie Field of Dreams. She also played Chanice Kobolowski in the John Hughes film Uncle Buck. In 1989, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for playing Sarah Weddington in a television film about an important legal case.
Notable Roles in the 1990s and 2000s
In 1990, Amy Madigan won a Drama-Logue Award for her role in the play Stevie Wants to Play the Blues. She made her Broadway debut in 1992, playing Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. She then appeared in The Dark Half (1993), a movie based on a Stephen King novel.
In 1996, she and her husband, Ed Harris, produced and starred in the TV film Riders of the Purple Sage. She also starred with Tilda Swinton in Female Perversions. In 2000, she played Peggy Guggenheim in the film Pollock, which her husband directed and starred in. In 2002, she had a supporting role as Officer Reggie Fluty in the TV film The Laramie Project, which told an important story.
From 2003 to 2005, Amy Madigan had a recurring role as Iris Crowe in the HBO series Carnivàle. In 2007, she played Beatrice "Bea" McCready in the movie Gone Baby Gone, directed by Ben Affleck. From 2008 to 2009, she played Dr. Katharine Wyatt on the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy.
Around 2010, Amy Madigan mentioned that like many actresses as they get older, she sometimes found it challenging to find many new and exciting roles. She shared that her husband, Ed Harris, worked more often than she did, and that actresses sometimes have to accept this reality.
Recent Work and Academy Award Win
In 2011, she appeared in the final episode of the TV series Memphis Beat. Amy Madigan returned to theater in 2015, but this time as a director for a play called Off the King's Road. In 2016, she starred in a play called Buried Child in New York and later in London.
In 2018, she had a supporting role in the drama American Woman. In 2021, she appeared in the horror film Antlers, playing a school principal. In 2024, she starred as Judge Motley in the independent drama Bull Street.
In 2025, Amy Madigan had a very important role in Zach Cregger's horror mystery film Weapons. She played the unique and mysterious character Gladys, the great-aunt of a young boy whose classmates went missing. Her performance in Weapons received great praise and many awards. She won the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, a Critics Choice Award, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress. On January 22, 2026, she earned her second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for this role, and she won! The 40-year gap between this win and her previous nomination for Twice in a Lifetime set a new record for actresses.
Personal Life
Amy Madigan married actor Ed Harris on November 21, 1983. They have one daughter. Amy and Ed have often worked together on movies and plays throughout their careers.
Before becoming an actress, Amy Madigan toured the United States as a singer in rock bands during the 1970s. She also performed as a solo singer and pianist in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She mentioned that she loved music and missed it, saying it was a very powerful and emotional way to tell a story quickly.
Since 2016, Amy Madigan has been a member of the board of trustees at Reed College.
See also
In Spanish: Amy Madigan para niños
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
- List of actors with more than one Academy Award nomination in the acting categories
- List of Academy Award records
- List of Golden Globe winners
