Patricia Clarkson

Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. After having a dramatic education in the East Coast, Clarkson launched acting career in 1985, and is working steadily on both film and television. She won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under. Also she was nominated the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Pieces of April (2003).
Clarkson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Jacquelyn (née Brechtel), a prominent local New Orleans politician and councilwoman, and Arthur, a school administrator who worked at the Department of Medicine of Louisiana State University. Patricia Clarkson studied drama at Fordham University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and earned her MFA at the Yale School of Drama before making her film debut in The Untouchables in 1987.
Clarkson had supporting roles in a series of high-profile films in her early career, including The Dead Pool, Rocket Gibraltar and Everybody's All-American. She starred in the short-run television series Davis Rules, and in the miniseries Alex Haley's Queen. More often a character actor than a leading woman, Clarkson has nevertheless appeared in such major films as