Tess Harper

Tess Harper

1950-08-15 Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, USA 67 Credits

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

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Complete Filmography

Our Almost Completely True Story

Our Almost Completely True Story

2023

as Tess

1.0
Acting

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

American Outlaws

2023

as Loretta Hillhouse

4.6
Acting

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

Good Side of Bad

2023

as Mary Ellen

5.0
Acting

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

Rosebud Lane

2023

as Sugar

2.0
Acting

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

The Evening Hour

2021

as Dorothy Freeman

3.5
Acting

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

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page

2020

as Self

Acting

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

The Long Shadow

2020

as Mama Doris

3.1
Acting

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

The Road to El Camino: Behind the Scenes of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

2019

as Self

7.0
Acting

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

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

2019

as Mrs. Pinkman

7.0
Acting

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

Burden

2018

as Hazel

6.2
Acting

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

The Perfect Guy

2015

as Mrs. McCarthy

5.7
Acting

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

Boys On Film 13: Trick & Treat

2015

as Linda (segment "Surprise")

1.0
Acting

Boys On Film surprises and delights with films exploring relationships, dark desires, and confronting hidden secrets. Volume 13: Trick & Treat feature...

Surprise

Surprise

2015

as Linda

4.6
Acting

A mother and son confess their secrets.

Frank

Frank

2014

as Frank's Mom

6.9
Acting

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.

Sunlight Jr.

2013

as Kathleen

5.2
Acting

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

Straight A's

2013

as Mother

5.2
Acting

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

The Christmas Heart

2012

as Elizabeth

5.8
Acting

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

A Christmas Wish

2011

as Trudy Willis

5.9
Acting

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

Fatal Secrets

2009

as Naomi

3.2
Acting

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

8.0
Acting

No Country for Old Men: Diary of a Country Sheriff

Broken

Broken

2007

as Clare

5.6
Acting

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

Saving Sarah Cain

2007

as Miriam Esh

5.3
Acting

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

Kiss the Bride

2007

as Barbara Davis

4.8
Acting

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

No Country for Old Men

2007

as Loretta Bell

7.9
Acting

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

1.0
Acting
Broken Bridges

Broken Bridges

2006

as Dixie Rose Delton

7.4
Acting

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

Jam

2006

as Ruby

5.2
Acting

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

Jesus, Mary and Joey

Jesus, Mary and Joey

2006

as Liz O`Callahan

4.0
Acting

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

Loggerheads

2005

as Elizabeth

6.0
Acting

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

Angel in the Family

2004

as Mrs. Nelly Tomkins

4.5
Acting

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

Acting

A menacing farmhand worms his way between a husband and wife on an old peach farm.

The Rising Place

The Rising Place

2001

as Rebecca Hodge

6.0
Acting

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

The In Crowd

2000

as Dr. Amanda Giles

4.6
Acting

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

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder

1999

as Narrator / Older Laura Ingalls Wilder

6.4
Acting

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

The Jackal

1997

as The First Lady

6.4
Acting

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

Gun

1997

as Virginia

7.0
Acting

Follows a gun and the different hands it falls into and the different characters that use it.

A Child's Wish

A Child's Wish

1997

as Joanna Chandler

6.2
Acting

A family discovers their youngest daughter has cancer. But the real struggle has yet to start.

The Killing Secret

The Killing Secret

1997

as Tina Decapprio

5.2
Acting

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

A Stranger to Love

1996

as Linda Grant

5.4
Acting

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

The Road to Galveston

1996

as Julia Archer

3.0
Acting

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

Death in Small Doses

1995

as Jerri Sims

6.0
Acting

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

Dangerous: The Short Films

1993

as Self (uncredited)

8.2
Acting

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

Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story

1992

as Verna Heath

6.0
Acting

A homemaker is driven by jealousy to conspire against the mother of her daughter's rival.

My New Gun

My New Gun

1992

as Kimmy Hayes

4.3
Acting

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

In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion

1992

as Vickie Singer

3.0
Acting

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

The Turning

1992

as Martha Harnish

3.0
Acting

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

The Man in the Moon

1991

as Abigail Trant

7.4
Acting

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

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

1991

as Cheryl

6.1
Acting

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?

Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will?

1990

as Sara Lee

5.2
Acting

Bickering siblings are reunited at their Texas home as their father lies on his deathbed.

Incident at Dark River

Incident at Dark River

1989

as Betty McFall

Acting

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

Criminal Law

1989

as Detective Stillwell

5.6
Acting

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

Her Alibi

1989

as Sally Blackwood

5.4
Acting

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

Unconquered

1989

as Mrs. Mary Flowers

10.0
Acting

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

Far North

1988

as Rita

6.3
Acting

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

Little Girl Lost

Little Girl Lost

1988

as Clara Brady

8.0
Acting

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

Ishtar

1987

as Willa

4.5
Acting

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

Daddy

1987

as Ann Burnette

7.5
Acting

Two high schoolers are unprepared for the reality of parenthood when the girl becomes pregnant.

Crimes of the Heart

Crimes of the Heart

1986

as Chick Boyle

6.0
Acting

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep

1985

as Gwen Palmer

5.0
Acting

An aging cowboy returns to the family he abandoned 30 years ago with a terrifying secret.

A Summer to Remember

A Summer to Remember

1985

as Jeannie Wyler

6.2
Acting

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

Reckless Disregard

1985

as Meredith Craig

Acting

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

Flashpoint

1984

as Ellen

6.2
Acting

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

Silkwood

1983

as Linda Dawson

7.0
Acting

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

Amityville 3-D

Amityville 3-D

1983

as Nancy Baxter

4.6
Acting

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

Tender Mercies

1983

as Rosa Lee

6.7
Acting

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

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land

1983

as Janet Briggs

4.8
Acting

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

Kentucky Woman

1983

6.0
Acting

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