Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates is an award-winning actress and director best known for her roles in Misery, Titanic and American Horror Story. Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and she graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in theater in 1969. After college, she moved to New York City to pursue acting and began working in stage productions while taking small television and film roles.

Bates gained critical acclaim in off Broadway productions in the early 1980s but rose to international fame with her performance as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery, earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received additional Oscar nominations for Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002) and Richard Jewell (2019). Her film credits also include Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Waterboy (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008) and Midnight in Paris (2011). In 2023, she signed on to the cast of Matlock as Madeline Matlock.

On television, Bates earned multiple Emmy Awards for roles on Two and a Half Men and American Horror Story. She also starred on Harry’s Law and Disjointed and directed episodes of Six Feet Under, NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street. She has spoken publicly about her battles with ovarian and breast cancer and became a spokesperson for lymphedema awareness following her double mastectomy.

Bates married actor Tony Campisi in 1991, and the couple split in 1997.