Biography
Tessie Jean "Tess" Harper (née Washam; born August 15, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her first film role in 1983's Tender Mercies, and for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1986 film Crimes of the Heart. Her other film appearances include Flashpoint (1984), Ishtar (1987), Far North (1988), and No Country for Old Men (2007). She also had a recurring role on the first three seasons of Breaking Bad (200...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Our Almost Completely True Story
2023
as Tess
When a beautiful, tall, aging Hollywood star and a short, funny Jewish man try online dating, it's a disaster. But when they randomly meet at a bird ...

American Outlaws
2023
as Loretta Hillhouse
Facing the possibility of prison - and in search of an idealized freedom - 3 siblings take matters in to their own hands with a cross country crime sp...

Good Side of Bad
2023
as Mary Ellen
Three adult siblings are brought back together after a shocking diagnosis forces them to confront harsh future realities regarding the mental state of...

Rosebud Lane
2023
as Sugar
When a middle aged Hollywood filmmaker receives an unexpected card from his young son whom he has never met, he makes the difficult decision to go see...

The Evening Hour
2021
as Dorothy Freeman
Cole Freeman maintains an uneasy equilibrium in his rural Appalachian town, looking after the old and infirm while selling their excess painkillers to...

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page
2020
as Self
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page presents an unvarnished look at the unlikely author whose autobiographical fiction helped shape American ideas o...

The Long Shadow
2020
as Mama Doris
A young female Sheriff's Deputy in rural Louisiana takes on her town's old money establishment when the woman she loves - an attorney fighting to stop...

The Road to El Camino: Behind the Scenes of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
2019
as Self
Aaron Paul, Vince Gilligan and other cast members, producers and crew share stories and footage from the making of "El Camino."

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
2019
as Mrs. Pinkman
In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse Pinkman must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future.

Burden
2018
as Hazel
Ku Klux Klansman Mike Burden opens the Redneck Shop and KKK museum in historic Laurens, SC. He subsequently falls in love with a single mother and, un...

The Perfect Guy
2015
as Mrs. McCarthy
With a fulfilling career and a loving relationship, lobbyist Leah Vaughn seems to have it all. Things come crashing down when Dave, her long-term boyf...

Boys On Film 13: Trick & Treat
2015
as Linda (segment "Surprise")
Boys On Film surprises and delights with films exploring relationships, dark desires, and confronting hidden secrets. Volume 13: Trick & Treat feature...

Surprise
2015
as Linda
A mother and son confess their secrets.

Frank
2014
as Frank's Mom
A young wannabe musician discovers he has bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Fra...

Sunlight Jr.
2013
as Kathleen
Quickie-mart employee Melissa and paraplegic Richie are very much in love. Supported only by Melissa’s small hourly wage, they are nevertheless thrill...

Straight A's
2013
as Mother
Pressured by his late mother's ghost to return home to the family he abandoned, a former addict grabs a bag of pills and a sack of marijuana and hits ...

The Christmas Heart
2012
as Elizabeth
The tight-knit neighbors on Arthur Avenue have proudly lit Christmas luminaries for 40 years, but that long-standing tradition is cancelled this year ...

A Christmas Wish
2011
as Trudy Willis
MARTHA EVANS has been abandoned by her ne'er-do-well husband, who took all their cash and left her homeless and virtually destitute with her two daugh...

Fatal Secrets
2009
as Naomi
An attractive woman enlists the help of her two best friends to confront a charming man with a secret background who has pushed her to the breaking po...
Diary of a Country Sheriff
2008
as Self
No Country for Old Men: Diary of a Country Sheriff

Broken
2007
as Clare
A waitress confronts all the wrong turns she has made in her short life and ultimately ends up facing the biggest wrong turn of all: her dangerous ex-...

Saving Sarah Cain
2007
as Miriam Esh
When Sarah Cain, a self-involved big-city newspaper columnist, travels to Pennsylvania for the funeral of her Amish sister, she soon discovers that sh...

Kiss the Bride
2007
as Barbara Davis
In high school, Matt and Ryan were best friends. More than friends, actually. But in the ensuing ten years, they've lost contact. So when Matt receive...

No Country for Old Men
2007
as Loretta Bell
Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it,...
Judy's Got a Gun
2007
as Susan Lemen

Broken Bridges
2006
as Dixie Rose Delton
A fading country music star returns to his hometown, where he reunites with his childhood sweetheart and also meets his 16-year-old daughter for the f...

Jam
2006
as Ruby
A traffic accident on a rural mountain road becomes a life changing experience for fifteen diverse travelers.

Jesus, Mary and Joey
2006
as Liz O`Callahan
Twenty-something and aimless, Joey Vitello still lives at home with his colorful Italian-American family when he is reunited with a childhood schoolma...

Loggerheads
2005
as Elizabeth
A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a ...

Angel in the Family
2004
as Mrs. Nelly Tomkins
Sisters separated by a lifetime of misunderstanding and their family desperately in need of healing old wounds, find themselves brought back together ...
Lonely Place
2004
A menacing farmhand worms his way between a husband and wife on an old peach farm.

The Rising Place
2001
as Rebecca Hodge
The close friendship of two young women, each of a different race, and their struggle to find purpose in their lives during this time of social injust...

The In Crowd
2000
as Dr. Amanda Giles
A mentally disturbed young woman takes a job at a posh country club and falls in with a clique of wealthy college kids where she's taken under the win...

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
1999
as Narrator / Older Laura Ingalls Wilder
A version of the "Little House" stories that cover some of the events that take place in the last three books of the series and the book "The First Fo...

The Jackal
1997
as The First Lady
Hired by a powerful member of the Russian mafia to avenge an FBI sting that left his brother dead, a psychopathic hitman known only as The Jackal prov...

Gun
1997
as Virginia
Follows a gun and the different hands it falls into and the different characters that use it.

A Child's Wish
1997
as Joanna Chandler
A family discovers their youngest daughter has cancer. But the real struggle has yet to start.

The Killing Secret
1997
as Tina Decapprio
A pregnant teen is murdered and a popular high-school senior is suspected. But will his girlfriend stick by him to prove his innocence despite the fac...

A Stranger to Love
1996
as Linda Grant
In this Hallmark story, Allan is a normal middleaged man with a wife and two kids. When Alan is suddenly attacked one night, he loses his memory, lead...

The Road to Galveston
1996
as Julia Archer
Jordan Roosevelt, at 65, found herself alone, destitute, and depressed. Up against the wall, she took heart from the suggestion of a friend, a blind w...

Death in Small Doses
1995
as Jerri Sims
One night Nancy Lyon awakes in pain and dies shortly after - poisoned with arsenic. Her family immediately suspects her husband Richard, who left her ...

Dangerous: The Short Films
1993
as Self (uncredited)
Michael Jackson's Dangerous album once again rocketed the global superstar to mega-platinum success! "Dangerous - The Short Films" captures the visual...

Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story
1992
as Verna Heath
A homemaker is driven by jealousy to conspire against the mother of her daughter's rival.

My New Gun
1992
as Kimmy Hayes
Debbie Bender is a New Jersey housewife whose life is turned upside down when her husband gives her a gun for self-protection. But his plans backfire ...

In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion
1992
as Vickie Singer
Adam Swapp and his brother Jonathan are suspects in the bombing of Mormon Center in Utah. The brothers and their families hold-up on their farm with p...

The Turning
1992
as Martha Harnish
Gillian Anderson in her first ever screen role. Anderson's psycho boyfriend, Cliff, returns to his home town seething with pent-up frustration and rag...

The Man in the Moon
1991
as Abigail Trant
Maureen Trant and her younger sibling Dani share a strong connection, but local boy Court Foster threatens to throw their bond off balance. Dani and C...

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
1991
as Cheryl
H.D. Dalton is a champion rodeo rider whose career is ruined after being gored by a bull. He returns home to discover things have drastically changed ...

Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will?
1990
as Sara Lee
Bickering siblings are reunited at their Texas home as their father lies on his deathbed.

Incident at Dark River
1989
as Betty McFall
When Tim McFall's young daughter dies as the result of toxic waste dumped in the local river, he tries to shut down the company and everybody turns ag...

Criminal Law
1989
as Detective Stillwell
Ben Chase is an on-the-rise Boston attorney currently defending a wealthy client in a high-profile murder case. Martin Thiel is the wealthy young man ...

Her Alibi
1989
as Sally Blackwood
A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thin...

Unconquered
1989
as Mrs. Mary Flowers
In 1962 in Montgomery, Alabama, State Attorney Richmond Flowers, Sr. is one of few willing to fight racial injustices even if it costs him his family'...

Far North
1988
as Rita
After generations of being apart, an accident brings a family back together and they begin to cope with their original issues.

Little Girl Lost
1988
as Clara Brady
This heart-wrenching story inspired by real events depicts the trials of the Brady family, who are trying desperately to adopt a helpless little girl ...

Ishtar
1987
as Willa
Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the ...

Daddy
1987
as Ann Burnette
Two high schoolers are unprepared for the reality of parenthood when the girl becomes pregnant.

Crimes of the Heart
1986
as Chick Boyle
Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Promises to Keep
1985
as Gwen Palmer
An aging cowboy returns to the family he abandoned 30 years ago with a terrifying secret.

A Summer to Remember
1985
as Jeannie Wyler
Silent since losing his hearing to meningitis, young Toby Wyler takes a bitter stance against the world and his family, refusing to accept his new ste...

Reckless Disregard
1985
as Meredith Craig
Meredith Craig is lawyer who has a small practice. She is then approached by a Dr. Lucas who is a doctor at a clinic, who was exposed on a television ...

Flashpoint
1984
as Ellen
Two Texas border guards find a jeep buried in the desert, with a skeleton, a scoped rifle, and a box with $800,000 in cash. Before they decide whether...

Silkwood
1983
as Linda Dawson
The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possi...

Amityville 3-D
1983
as Nancy Baxter
To debunk the Amityville house's infamous reputation and take advantage of a rock-bottom asking price, skeptical journalist John Baxter buys the place...

Tender Mercies
1983
as Rosa Lee
Alchoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his...

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land
1983
as Janet Briggs
Starflight One, a commercial aircraft that can whisk passengers around the globe in a matter of hours, embarks on its maiden voyage. The trip goes hor...

Kentucky Woman
1983
A woman faces harassment and humiliation when she goes to work as a coal miner to support her small son and ailing dad.