Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actress and director. Her work spans over five decades, and her accolades include an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Bates studied theater at Southern Methodist University before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career. She landed minor stage roles before being cast in her first on-screen role in Taking Off (1971). Her first Off-Broadway stage role was in the play Vanities (1976). She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award Best Lead Actress in a Play for the Marsha Norman play 'night, Mother (1983), and won an Obie Award for her role in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1988).
Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying Annie Wilkes in the psychological thriller Misery (1990). She was further Oscar-nominated for her roles as a tough political operative in Primary Colors (1998), a free-spirited neighbor in About Schmidt (2002), and the mother of a bombing suspect in Richard Jewell (2019). She has also acted in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), The Waterboy (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Blind Side (2009), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023).
On television, Bates received Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance as the Ghost of Charlie Harper in Two and a Half Men (2012) and for her portrayal of Delphine LaLaurie in American Horror Story: Coven (2013). She was also Emmy-nominated for her roles in The Late Shift (1996), Annie (1999), Six Feet Under (2003), Warm Springs (2005), Harry's Law (2011–2012), American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014), and American Horror Story: Hotel (2015). Since 2024, she has portrayed the titular lead in the CBS series Matlock, for which she was also nominated for an Emmy.
Outside of acting, Bates is also known for her advocacy. After undergoing a double mastectomy and developing lymphedema, Bates became a spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN).
Kathleen Doyle Bates was born on June 28, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters of mechanical engineer Langdon Bates of Tennessee and homemaker Bertye Kathleen (née Talbert) of McCormick County, South Carolina. Her paternal grandfather Finis L. Bates was a lawyer and author. Her great-great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant to New Orleans, Louisiana, served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. She graduated early from White Station High School (1965) and from Southern Methodist University (1969), where she studied theater and became a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career. Bates is an alumna of the William Esper Studio for the performing arts in Manhattan, New York City.
Early work and success on stage (1970–1989)
After moving to New York City, Bates worked several odd jobs as well as minor stage roles while struggling to find work as an actress. At one point, she worked as a cashier at the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1970, Bates was cast in a minor role in the Miloš Forman comedy Taking Off (credited as "Bobo Bates"), her first on-screen role in a feature film. Following this, she continued to struggle to find acting roles, later claiming in an interview with The New York Times that more than one casting agent told her that she wasn't sufficiently attractive to be a successful actress:
I'm not a stunning woman. I never was an ingenue; I've always just been a character actor. When I was younger it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough for the roles that other young women were being cast in. The roles I was lucky enough to get were real stretches for me: usually a character who was older, or a little weird, or whatever. And it was hard, not just for the lack of work but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you. And you think, "Well, y'know, I'm a real person."
After Taking Off was released, Bates did not work on another feature film until she appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman in Straight Time (1978), though she continued to perform on stage throughout the 1970s. In 1973 she performed in Wayside Theatre's traveling group, Wayside Theatre on Tour, and was credited as "Bobo Bates". Her first Off-Broadway performance was in the 1976 production of Vanities. Bates subsequently originated the role of Lenny in the first production of Crimes of the Heart at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1979. Beginning in 1980, she appeared in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July. In 1982, she starred in the Robert Altman-directed Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean with Karen Black and Cher. During this time, she also began working in television, making appearances in episodes of prime-time series such as The Love Boat, Cagney & Lacey, and St. Elsewhere in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, as well as several soap operas, including The Doctors, All My Children, and One Life to Live.
The New York Times wrote that, in the early 1980s, Bates "established herself as one of America's finest stage actresses". In 1983, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'night, Mother. The stage production ran for more than a year. She found further success on Off Broadway, in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, for which she won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1988. McNally specifically wrote the play for Bates. She later succeeded Amy Irving in the Off-Broadway production of The Road to Mecca in 1988. Around this time, she shifted her focus to screen acting, with roles in The Morning After (1986), and Summer Heat (1987).
Film breakthrough and critical success (1990–2009)
Bates' performance in the 1990 horror film Misery, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, marked her Hollywood breakthrough. The film was a commercial and critical success, and her performance as Annie Wilkes was met with widespread critical praise. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for Misery. The American Film Institute included Annie Wilkes in their "100 Heroes and Villains" list, ranking her as the 17th-most iconic villain (and sixth-most iconic villainess) in film history. Also that year, she had a role in Warren Beatty's crime film Dick Tracy.
The following year, she starred in the acclaimed 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes, based on the novel by comedic actress Fannie Flagg. For her performance in this film, she received a BAFTA Award nomination. In 1995, Bates played the title character in Dolores Claiborne, another well-received Stephen King adaptation, for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards.
In 1995, Bates began working behind the screen as a director on several television series; her early directing jobs include episodes of Great Performances, Homicide: Life on the Street, and NYPD Blue.
In 1996, Bates received her first Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Jay Leno's manager Helen Kushnick in HBO's The Late Shift (1996). The role also won Bates her second Golden Globe and her first SAG Award.
Bates gained wider recognition in 1997 when she portrayed American socialite Molly Brown in James Cameron's epic romance disaster film Titanic. She received her second Academy Award nomination for her work as the acid-tongued political advisor Libby Holden in the dramedy Primary Colors (1998), which was adapted from the book by political journalist Joe Klein. That same year, she starred as Adam Sandler's overprotective mother in The Waterboy (1998). The following year, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance as deranged alien hunter Charlotte Everly in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, as well as for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Movie for her work on the Dashiell Hammett-Lillian Hellman biopic Dash and Lilly. In 2000, Bates received another Emmy Award nomination for her role as Miss Hannigan in Disney's remake of Annie (1999).