Amy Madigan

Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She has acted on stage and screen and has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award. She has been married to actor Ed Harris since 1983.

Madigan made her film debut in the drama Love Child (1982) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. For playing a woman in a difficult marriage in the drama film Twice in a Lifetime (1985), she earned a nomination for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has also acted in Love Letters (1984), Alamo Bay (1985), Nowhere to Hide (1987), Uncle Buck (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), Female Perversions (1996), Pollock (2000), and Gone Baby Gone (2007). After a lack of "meaningful roles", she gained newfound attention for her performance in the horror film Weapons (2025).

On television, Madigan portrayed Sarah Weddington in the television film Roe vs. Wade (1989), for which she won the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She also took roles in the HBO series Carnivàle (2003–2005), Grey's Anatomy (2008–2009), and Fringe (2009). On stage, she has acted in the Off-Broadway production of The Lucky Spot (1987), for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, and a 1992 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in the role of Stella Kowalski.

Amy Marie Madigan was born September 11, 1950 in Chicago to Dolores (née Hanlon; 1921–1992), an administrative assistant and amateur actress who performed in community theatre, and John J. Madigan (1918–2012), a journalist who worked for Newsweek and provided political commentary on programs such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation; he interviewed a range of political figures, from Richard Nixon to Martin Luther King Jr., and hosted his own show with WBBM (AM). Madigan is Catholic and third-generation Irish American. She has two brothers, Jack and Jim.

During high school, Madigan performed in school plays. She attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she earned a B.A. in philosophy in 1972. She moved to Los Angeles in 1974. She later studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

In the 1980s, Madigan transitioned from a singing career to acting, and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Her first television role was Adele on an episode of Hart to Hart in 1981; she then had role in the television film Crazy Times. The following year, she made her film debut as Terry Jean Moore in Love Child, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. In 1983, she starred as Alison Ransom in the television film The Day After.

In 1984, she portrayed McCoy in the film Streets of Fire, and had a supporting role as Viola Kelsey in Places in the Heart. In 1985, she starred in the television film The Laundromat, written by Marsha Norman, opposite Carol Burnett. She won a CableACE Award for her performance as Deedee Johnson. She then co-starred as Glory Scheer, with her husband Ed Harris, in Alamo Bay, directed by Louis Malle. Also in 1985, she portrayed Sunny Mackenzie-Sobel in Twice in a Lifetime, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Madigan made her Off-Broadway debut in 1987, portraying Sue Jack Tiller in The Lucky Spot by Beth Henley, for which she won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 1988, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance in The Prince of Pennsylvania. That year, she performed in A Lie of the Mind at the Mark Taper Forum. In 1989 she played the wife of Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture; and played Chanice Kobolowski, the girlfriend of John Candy's character, in the John Hughes film Uncle Buck. Also in 1989, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance as Sarah Weddington in the television film Roe vs. Wade.