Mary Steenburgen is an American award-winning actress best known for her role on the Jonathan Demme comedy drama film Melvin and Howard.
The daughter of Nell Steenburgen, a school-board secretary, and Maurice Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor, Mary Steenburgen was born on February 8, 1953 in Newport, Arkansas. She received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas in 2006.
In 1972, Mary Steenburgen moved to New York City to study acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, while working at Doubleday’s. She finally had her break when renowned actor Jack Nicholson discovered her while she was at the reception of Paramount’s New York office. He cast her as the lead actress of his second directorial project Goin’ South which was released in 1978.
In 1980, Steenburgen starred in Melvin and Howard, playing Lynda Dummar, whose husband claims that he is a good friend of billionaire Howard Hughes. Her outstanding performance in the role earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1990, Steenburgen portrayed the schoolteacher Clara Clayton in Back to the Future III. She later reprised the role when she provided the voice of her character in Back to the Future: The Animated Series. The animated series originally aired on ABC from September 21, 1991 to September 1993 and was later repeated on Fox from March to September 2003.
Steenburgen also starred in the 1979 feature film Time after Time along with Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Charles Cioffi. In the film, Steenburgen played Amy Robbins who falls for the author H.G. Wells played by Malcolm McDowell. She also co-starred with Johnny Depp in the 1993 drama film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, as the adulterous wife Betty Carver. In 1995, she played Richard Nixon’s mother in the Oliver Stone biographical motion picture Nixon.
Steenburgern’s other film and television appearances also include Elf, Ink, Gulliver’s Travels and Curb Your Enthusiasm.