Monday nights, France 2 airs Major Crimes, series lead by Mary McDonnell. Télé 2 semaines gives you five info on the actress.

1) She practiced synchronized swimming
Mary McDonnell was born in 1952 in Pennsylvania. Since young age, she practiced synchonized swimming. Still today, she swims regularly, also to keep in shape.

2) She went door-to-door
After moving to New York, while trying to get her first cachets, she had different jobs. So used to go door-to-door selling products or was a waitress.

3) She was for 20 years in a theatre company
After studying in New York, she entered the prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company. She played roles with them for more than 20 years. Only then she landed her first film role: that of “Stands with a fist”, the adopted daughter of the Sioux tribe in Dances with Wolves.

4) She thaught acting in class
Mary McDonnel is married to actor Randle Mell since 1984. Together, they had several acting classes. She kept doing it, even after being nominated for the first time for an Oscar for Dances With Wolves as best supporting actress.

5) She played the First Lady
Mary McDonnell played the United States of America’s First Lady in Independence Day, with Will Smith e Bill Pullman. In Battlestar Galactica, she played the role of the Presidente of the Twelve Colonies. She also played in three different medical series, E/R, a sitcom in the corridors of a hospital in Chicago with George Clooney, following her role as Dr. Carter’s mother in ER. She also played Dr Virginia Dixon in three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.