Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden is the fifth of her siblings who were born at La Jolla on 14 August 1959. Beverly Bushfield was her maternal grandmother. Thad Harden, who was in military service, was the father. Her family moved frequently. As they travelled to Greece the family became more interested in theatre and enrolled in Athens plays. Harden began college in Europe in American universities and later moved to the US and completed her education at the University of Texas. In 1983, Harden earned her MFA from NYU. While she was in a film since 1986 in the largely unnoticed The Imagemaker (1986), her first role that was mainstream, coming alongside some TV film roles, was the hot, sultry woman fatale in her role in the Coen Brothers' cleverly offbeat tribute to the gangster film, Miller's Crossing (1990). Harden was praised for her sultry performance as Verna, a seductive, dangerous moll. Harden then continued to perform consistently as a supporting character, such as her portrayal as Ava Gardner in Sinatra (1992), a television biopic that focused on Frank Sinatra.