Frances Conroy

13 Nov, 1953 | Monroe, Georgia

Actress

Biography

Frances Conroy is an Emmy-nominated, Golden Globe- and SAG Award-winning American actress. Personal life Conroy was born in Monroe, Georgia to a business executive father and a mother who also worked in business. Conroy studied drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Juilliard School in New York City. Frances Conroy married Jan Munroe in 1992. Career During the 1970s, she performed regularly with regional and touring theatrical companies (most notably The Acting Company), and appeared in an off-Broadway production of Othello with Richard Dreyfuss and Raul Julia. One of her first film appearances was as a Shakespearean actress in Woody Allen\'s 1979 classic, Manhattan. In 1980, she made her Broadway debut in The Lady From Dubuque. She focused primarily on her stage career for the next two decades, appearing in such productions as Our Town, The Little Foxes, and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, receiving one Tony and four Drama Desk Award nominations (including a Drama Desk win for The Secret Rapture). Conroy had an adorable, but small, role in the 1984 movie Falling in Love, the role of a waitress in a swanky restaurant. In 1992, Conroy became friends with playwright Arthur Miller, which led to her involvement in many of his productions on both stage and screen. During this period, she also appeared on television shows, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies, and met and married fellow actor Jan Munroe. Conroy is best known for her critically acclaimed work on HBO\'s original drama series Six Feet Under playing family matriarch Ruth Fisher. For her work on the series, Conroy was nominated for four Emmy Awards (one for every year she was eligible) and won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. By 2008, Conroy began a recurring role on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, as a wealthy widowed socialite whose life is entangled with Gabrielle and Carlos Solis\' family.