Frances McDormand
☼ Born on 23 December 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois, USA
Biography
Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She earned a BA in theater from Bethany College in 1979 and an MFA from Yale University in 1982. Her career after graduation began onstage, and she has retained her association with the theater throughout her career. She soon obtained prominent roles in movies as well, first starring in Blood Simple (1984), in which she worked with filmmaker Joel Coen, whom she married that year. She frequently collaborated with Coen and his brother, Ethan Coen, in their films.
McDormand's skilled and versatile acting has been recognized by both the critics and the Academy, and in addition to many critics' awards, she has been nominated for an Academy Award six times - Supporting in Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005), and Lead in Fargo (1996), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and Nomadland (2020), winning the Oscar for the latter three. She also won a Best Picture Oscar as co-producer of "Nomadland." Keenly intelligent and possessed of a sharp wit, McDormand is the antithesis of the Hollywood starlet - rather than making every role about Frances McDormand, she dissolves into the characters she plays. Accordingly, she has expressed some reservations a
(click to expand)
bout the iconic recognition she has gained from her touching and amusing portrayal of Police Chief Marge Gunderson, the quintessential Minnesota Scandinavian, in Fargo (1996).
McDormand and Coen adopted a son, Pedro McDormand Coen, who was born in Paraguay, in 1994. They live in New York.
In the role of actor
Women Talking – TIFF 2022 (20/09/2022)
The women of an isolated religious community meet to decide their future in Women Talking. When multiple accounts of sexual abuse are uncovered within their Mennonite colony, a group of women, including Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand), Agata (Judith Ivey), and Greta (Sheila McCarthy) meet in a […]
The Tragedy of Macbeth (27/12/2021)
Joel Coen goes solo with this stylized adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare with The Tragedy of Macbeth. Following a victory on the battlefield, Thane of Glamis Macbeth (Denzel Washington) and his cohort Banquo (Bertie Carvel) are greeted by Three Witches (Kathryn Hunter), who tell Macbeth that he will be the next King of […]
The French Dispatch (21/10/2021)
Wes Anderson presents us with an obituary, travel guide, and 3 featured articles from a fiction magazine in The French Dispatch. Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray) was found dead of an apparent heart attack while preparing the final issue of his magazine “The French Dispatch,” a supplement of the Liberty Kansas Evening Sun, detailing life […]
Nomadland (11/04/2021)
A woman begins living out of her van after the loss of her job and husband in Nomadland. Following the 2011 closure of the US Gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada, along with the death of her husband, Fern (Frances McDormand) decides to adopt the nomad lifestyle, which includes living out of her van and driving cross-country […]
Isle of Dogs (25/03/2018)
Wes Anderson returns with the stop motion Japanese adventure Isle of Dogs. 20 years in the future, all the dogs of Japan are afflicted by a virus and Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) of Megasaki City decrees that all dogs be deported to nearby trash island. One day, the five alpha dogs of Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex […]
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (13/09/2017)
A woman seeks justice for the unsolved murder of her daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Seven months after the rape and murder of her daughter Angela, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) rents three billboards on an isolated road criticizing the police department’s supposed lack of progress on the case, specifically calling out Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody […]
Hail, Caesar! (08/02/2016)
The Coen Brothers play homage to classic Hollywood in the kidnapping comedy Hail, Caesar!. Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is the head of production at Capital Pictures, who is supervising the production of multiple motion pictures, the highest profile of which being the biblical epic Hail, Caesar! A Story of The Christ. When the film’s star Baird Whitlock […]
Moonrise Kingdom (06/06/2012)
For better or worse, Moonrise Kingdom is probably the best film Wes Anderson has made. He’s turned himself into quite an auteur over the years creating films that have a very distinct visual style. Moonrise Kingdom looks and feels like it was made in the 1960s setting of the film. The film is a coming of age […]
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (03/07/2011)
So here is the second part of my IMAX contrast, with this one centering on the habit of using the format as a premium way of seeing major blockbuster films. With at least one major film released in IMAX every month, it’s hard to believe that this is a habit that only really began a decade ago. […]
Burn After Reading (20/09/2008)
A year after taking a break from the genre with No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers return to comedy with Burn After Reading. I have to say that this is probably the Coen Brothers funniest film since 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou, though some people might even look at far back to […]