Frances Conroy (born November 13, 1953) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth, the matriarch of the Fisher family, on Six Feet Under, which earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Early life[link]

Conroy was born in Monroe, Georgia to a business executive father and a mother who also worked in business.^[1] During the 1971-1972 school year she was a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the Mermaid Players and appeared in college theatrical productions. She moved to New York City to study drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Juilliard School. She was a member of Juilliard's Drama Division Group 6 (1973–1977)^[2] which also included Kelsey Grammer, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Robin Williams.^[3]

Career[link]

During the 1970s, she performed regularly with regional and touring theatrical companies (most notably The Acting Company), and appeared as Desdemona at the Delacorte Theatre in a production of Othello with Richard Dreyfuss and Raul Julia. One of her first film appearances was as a Shakespearean actress in Woody Allen's 1979 classic, Manhattan. In 1980, she made a very well received Broadway debut in Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque. She focused primarily on her stage career for the next two decades, appearing in such productions as Our Town, The Little Foxes, and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, receiving one Tony and four Drama Desk Award nominations (including a Drama Desk win for The Secret Rapture). Conroy had a small role in the 1984 movie Falling in Love, as a waitress in a swanky restaurant.

In 1992, Conroy became friends with playwright Arthur Miller, which led to her involvement in many of his productions on both stage and screen. During this period, she also appeared on television shows, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies, and met and married fellow actor Jan Munroe.

She is best known for her critically acclaimed work on HBO's original drama series Six Feet Under, which started in 2001, playing family matriarch Ruth Fisher. For her work on the series, Conroy was nominated for four Emmy Awards (one for every year she was eligible) and won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In 2008, she landed a guest role in ABC's Desperate Housewives as Virginia Hildebrand, a rich woman who tries to buy the Solis family's love. But Eva Longoria's character, Gabrielle Solis, declines Virginia's motives, despite being open to receiving her entire fortune.

In 2010, Conroy played Madylyn, the wife of Robert De Niro's character Jack Mabrey, in the John Curran thriller Stone. In the same year, Conroy played the recurring role of Peggy Haplin in the short-lived ABC drama series Happy Town created by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg.

In 2011, Conroy began appearing in the television series American Horror Story, on the FX network, as one of two actresses playing the housekeeper.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Frances Conroy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Frances Conroy at the Internet Movie Database
• Frances Conroy at AllRovi
• Frances Conroy at Yahoo! Movies