Biography
Mary Nell Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in the Western comedy film Goin' South (1978). Steenburgen went on to earn critical acclaim for her role in Time After Time (1979) and Jonathan Demme's comedy-drama film Melvin and Howard (1980), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
as Self
CBS presents DICK VAN DYKE 98 YEARS OF MAGIC, an unforgettable special celebrating the legendary career of the iconic entertainer for his 98th birthda...

Book Club: The Next Chapter
2023
as Carol
Four best friends take their book club to Italy for the fun girls' trip they never had. When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their r...

Celebrating Betty White: America's Golden Girl
2022
as Self
Friends and stars pay tribute to America's comedy sweetheart and her trailblazing television career.

Nightmare Alley
2021
as Mrs. Kimball
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dang...

Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas
2021
as Maggie Clarke
On her first holiday without her father, Zoey attempts to create a magical Christmas for her family just like the ones Mitch used to do.

Happiest Season
2020
as Tipper
A young woman's plans to propose to her girlfriend while at her family's annual holiday party are upended when she discovers her partner hasn't yet co...

Best Summer Ever
2020
Executive Producer
A high school football player is shocked to discover that the new girl in school is the same girl he fell in love with at a summer dance camp.

30 Rock: A One-Time Special
2020
as Mary Steenburgen
In a one-time special event featuring all the beloved characters from the original series, Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy reunite the TGS team to help Ken...

Flannery
2019
as Flannery O'Connor (voice)
Explore the life of Flannery O’Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, ne...

Antiquities
2019
as Dr. Margot
After his father's death, a young man searches to find who his dad was only to stumble onto himself.

Book Club
2018
as Carol
Four lifelong friends decide that their lives could change by becoming nasty and reading Fifty Shades of Grey in their monthly book club to get inspir...

Katie Says Goodbye
2018
as Maybelle
A kindhearted seventeen-year-old in the American Southwest turns to prostitution to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.

I Do... Until I Don't
2017
as Cybil Burger
In Vero Beach, Florida, a trio of couples at various points in their relationships become the subjects of a film about marriage being an antiquated id...

The Discovery
2017
as Interviewer
In the near future, due to a breakthrough scientific discovery by Dr. Thomas Harbor, there is now definitive proof of an afterlife. While countless pe...

The Book of Love
2017
as Julia Mureaux
After tragedy strikes Henry and Penny, he befriends a tenacious young girl and discovers she is constructing a raft to sail across the Atlantic to fin...

Dean
2016
as Carol
A freelance illustrator in New York suffers a quarter-life crisis and leaves his home for the west coast.

Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow
2015
as Aunt Cly
While visiting their kooky aunt, two siblings go hunting for a Bigfoot-like creature called the Howling Hoodoo, encountering other monsters in the woo...

A Walk in the Woods
2015
as Jeannie
After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appa...

7 Days in Hell
2015
as Louisa Poole
A fictional documentary-style expose on the rivalry between two tennis stars who battled it out in a 1999 match that lasted seven days.

The One I Love
2014
as Mom (voice)
Ethan and Sophie are a married couple on the brink of separation when, at the urging of their therapist, they decide to salvage their relationship by ...

The One I Love
2014
Thanks
Ethan and Sophie are a married couple on the brink of separation when, at the urging of their therapist, they decide to salvage their relationship by ...

Song One
2014
as Karen Ellis
Estranged from her family, Franny returns home when an accident leaves her brother comatose. Retracing his life as an aspiring musician, she tracks do...

Last Vegas
2013
as Diana Boyle
Aging pals Billy, Paddy, Archie, and Sam have been best friends since childhood. When Billy finally proposes to his much-younger girlfriend, all four ...

Brahmin Bulls
2013
as Helen West
When Ashok makes a surprise visit to Los Angeles to visit his estranged son, the two begin a journey to mend their relationship until Sid discovers th...

Outlaw Country
2012
as Anastasia Lee
A crime thriller/family drama set against the backdrop of southern organized crime and Nashville royalty where music, love, hope and tragedy collide. ...
Clinton Foundation: Celebrity Division
2011
as Self
Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Jack Black, Matt Damon, Sean Penn, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen & Kevin Spacey, who comprise the Clinton Foundation's Celeb...

The Help
2011
as Elaine Stein
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson ...

Fight for Your Right Revisited
2011
as Café Patron
Fight for Your Right Revisited stars Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, and Elijah Wood as the "young" Beastie Boys from the past and Jack Black, John C. Reil...

Tales from the Future
2010
as Self
Eight-part retrospective documentary on the making of "Back to the Future" (and its two sequels) for the film's 25th anniversary.

Dirty Girl
2010
as Peggy
When Danielle is banished to special education because of her misbehavior, she joins Clarke on a road trip to discover themselves.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
2010
as Mrs. Yankovic
A fictional biographical film about ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic that parodies other films based on musicians.

Did You Hear About the Morgans?
2009
as Emma Wheeler
New Yorkers Paul and Meryl Morgan seem to have it all -- except that their marriage is crumbling around them. But their romantic woes are small compar...

Clarkworld
2009
as Self
Documentary on the life and death of Bob Clark, a director of movies such as Christmas Story, Porky's and Black Christmas.

The Proposal
2009
as Grace Paxton
When she learns she's in danger of losing her visa status and being deported, overbearing book editor Margaret Tate forces her put-upon assistant, And...

In the Electric Mist
2009
as Bootsie Robicheaux
Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Bal...

The Open Road
2009
as Katherine
Minor leaguer Carlton Garret takes an unexpected road trip to track down his estranged father, legendary baseball player Kyle Garret when Carlton’s mo...

Four Christmases
2008
as Marilyn
Brad and Kate have made something of an art form out of avoiding their families during the holidays, but this year their foolproof plan is about go bu...

Step Brothers
2008
as Nancy Huff
Brennan Huff and Dale Doback might be grown men. But that doesn't stop them from living at home and turning into jealous, competitive stepbrothers whe...

The Brave One
2007
as Carol
A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge.

Honeydripper
2007
as Amanda Winship
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric gui...

Numb
2007
as Dr. Blaine
Hudson Milbank is a successful Hollywood screenwriter who suddenly and strangely finds himself without any emotional feelings. He tries doctor after d...

Nobel Son
2007
as Sarah Michaelson
Soon after his insufferably arrogant father wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Barkley Michaelson is kidnapped by Thaddeus James, a young genius who ...

Elvis & Anabelle
2007
as Geneva Leigh
A small-town beauty queen and an unlicensed mortician set out across the Texas plains on a journey of self-discovery.

Inland Empire
2006
as Visitor #2
As a Hollywood actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.

The Dead Girl
2006
as Beverley, Leah's Mother
The clues to a young woman's death come together as the lives of seemingly unrelated people begin to intersect.

O Lucky Malcolm!
2006
as Self
Actor Malcolm McDowell talks about his life and career. With interviews featuring his friends, family, directors and co-stars.

Bye Bye Benjamin
2006
Executive Producer
Benjamin Osgood, a savvy ten-year-old business executive, meets a coworker's daughter, and must decide how grown up he wants to be.

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
2006
as Marienne Hotchkiss
Frank Keane, a baker by trade, has been consumed by grief over his wife's untimely death. But everything changes when he pulls his bread truck over on...

Remembering Ragtime
2004
as Mother (archive footage)
Memories from the making of the classic Milos Forman film "Ragtime".

It Must Be Love
2004
as Clem Gazelle
A couple decides to settle their divorce in a civilized manner without lawyers, which brings complications.

Elf
2003
as Emily
When young Buddy falls into Santa's gift sack on Christmas Eve, he's transported back to the North Pole and raised as a toy-making elf by Santa's help...

Casa de los Babys
2003
as Gayle
A group of women, including Skipper, the wealthy young Jennifer and the domineering Nan, journey from the United States to South America in hopes of e...

Hope Springs
2003
as Joanie Fisher
British artist Colin Ware discovers that his fiancée, Vera, is going to marry another man. Distraught and despondent, he gets on a plane for America a...

Mrs. Pilgrim Goes to Hollywood
2003
as Mary
Mrs. Pilgrim, a sweet kindergarten teacher from Arkansas, has become so confident in her annual 5 food group school play that she decides to turn it i...

Sunshine State
2002
as Francine Pinkney
A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estat...

Wish You Were Dead
2002
as Sally Rider
Two bad women fight over one man in a back-stabbing, money-grabbing, insurance-hustling, double-dealing, two-timing caper.

Living with the Dead
2002
as Detective Karen Condrin
A man begins to have disturbing visions of dead people, among whom are his mother and victims of a local serial killer. All telling their story of how...

I Am Sam
2001
as Dr. Blake
Sam, a neurodivergent man, has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. ...

Life as a House
2001
as Colleen Beck
When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in ...

The Trumpet of the Swan
2001
as Mother (voice)
The adventures of a young Trumpeter swan who cannot speak. With the help of a human boy and the love of his family and friends, Louie discovers his ow...

Nobody's Baby
2001
as Estelle
Two not so bright small time crooks end up with a baby girl by "accident" and find a change in their lives. Billy (Ulrich) becomes the guy to take car...

The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses ...

Picnic
2000
as Rosemary Sydney
The son of the richest man in town wants to marry the town's beauty queen, but she meets a more interesting stranger who just got off the train.

About Sarah
1998
as Sarah Elizabeth McCaffrey
When the matriarch of the family suddenly dies, custody of a mentally disabled mother is inherited by her normal daughter.

The Grass Harp
1996
as Sister Ida
Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in ...

Nixon
1995
as Hannah Nixon
A look at President Richard M. Nixon—a man carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders while battling the self-destructive demands from within—spa...

Powder
1995
as Jessie Caldwell
Harassed by classmates who won't accept his shocking appearance, a shy young man known as "Powder" struggles to fit in. But the cruel taunts stop when...

My Family
1995
as Gloria
Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los A...

Pontiac Moon
1994
as Katherine Bellamy
An absent-minded-professor father and his son take off in an old Pontiac to bond during a symbolic road trip through the Western U.S. This while his w...

It Runs in the Family
1994
as Mrs. Parker (Mother)
It is now summer in the Parker family; and the usual amount of numerous events are happening in their separate lives. Ralphie is searching for the per...

Clifford
1994
as Sarah Davis
When his brother asks him to look after his young son, Clifford, Martin Daniels agrees, taking the boy into his home and introducing him to his future...

Philadelphia
1993
as Belinda Conine
Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes...

What's Eating Gilbert Grape
1993
as Betty Carver
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't lea...

Earth and the American Dream
1992
as Reader (voice)
A beautiful and disturbing film recounts America’s story from the environment’s point of view. From the arrival of Columbus to the simple wilderness l...

The Butcher's Wife
1991
as Stella Keefover
A clairvoyant woman thinks that she's met her future husband because she's seen him in a dream. They marry and he takes her back to his butcher shop i...

The Long Walk Home
1990
as Narrator (voice)
Two women, black and white, in 1955 Montgomery Alabama, must decide what they are going to do in response to the famous bus boycott led by Martin Luth...
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret
1990
as Self
A leading acting teacher who trained some of the most famous performers of the stage and screen, Sanford Meisner was a founding member of the Group Th...

The Secrets of the 'Back to the Future' Trilogy
1990
as Self
The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy was a program hosted by Kirk Cameron. The show answered questions that Back to the Future fans sent in b...

Back to the Future Part III
1990
as Clara Clayton
The final installment finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc in the Wild West of 1885. But when their time mac...

Parenthood
1989
as Karen Buckman
The story of the Buckman family and friends, attempting to bring up their children. They suffer/enjoy all the events that occur: estranged relatives, ...
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
1989
as Herself
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and ...

Miss Firecracker
1989
as Elaine Rutledge
Carnelle Scott is a restless Mississippi girl looking for a life change. She decides to enter a beauty pageant, which her cousin had won years before....

The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank
1988
as Miep Gies
During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Otto Frank decides to hide his family, who are Jewish, after his daughter Margot is called to appear for tran...

The Whales of August
1987
as Young Sarah
Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

End of the Line
1987
as Rose Pickett
When the closure of a railway is announced, employees commandeer a locomotive to get to corporate headquarters and confront the president.

End of the Line
1987
Executive Producer
When the closure of a railway is announced, employees commandeer a locomotive to get to corporate headquarters and confront the president.

Dead of Winter
1987
as Julie Rose / Katie McGovern / Evelyn
A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.

One Magic Christmas
1985
as Ginny Grainger
Ginny Grainger, a young mother, rediscovers the joy and beauty of Christmas, thanks to the unshakable faith of her six-year-old daughter Abbie and Gid...

Little Red Riding Hood
1983
as Little Red Riding Hood a.k.a. Mary
A sheltered but adventurous young woman finds trouble when she encounters a wolf.

Romantic Comedy
1983
as Phoebe Craddock
Jason is in need of a collaborator to give him inspiration. Phoebe is a small-town English teacher with an urge to write. On the day Jason is being ma...

Cross Creek
1983
as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused n...

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
1982
as Adrian
A nutty inventor, his frustrated wife, a philosopher cousin, his much younger fiancée, a randy doctor, and a free-thinking nurse spend a summer weeken...

Ragtime
1981
as Mother
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nos...

Melvin and Howard
1980
as Lynda Dummar
The story of hard-luck Melvin Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.

Time After Time
1979
as Amy Robbins
Writer H. G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern day San Francisco after the infamous serial killer steals his time machine to escape the 19th cen...

Goin' South
1978
as Julia Tate
Henry Moon is captured for a capital offense by a posse when his horse quits while trying to escape to Mexico. He finds that there is a post-Civil War...
Last Train to Fortune
N/A
When schoolteacher Cecil Peachtree misses the last train to Fortune, he strikes a deal with outlaw Dooley to secure safe and timely travel. On the jo...
Let's Have Kids!
N/A
as Sue
Two best friends, Emma and Phoebe, decide to get pregnant simultaneously to navigate motherhood together, but their friendship is tested when only one...
The Dink
N/A
A washed-up tennis pro who, in trying to save a club in crisis and win his father’s respect, is forced to break a solemn vow and do the one thing he s...