1991, MARY-LOUISE PARKER & 'FRIED GREEN TOMATOES'

Parker, Bates, Tandy & Stuart Masterson

Today, The Grandma is at home resting and watching some films from the 90's.

Cinema has two ways to create scripts: creating new ones, original ones, full of new ideas and plots or recurring to adapt best sellers. This second way is sometimes a synonymous of success because if the novel has had a good acceptation, this is the best introduction to the film. This is the case of Fried Green Tomatoes, a wonderful film, an American comedy-drama based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe written by Fannie Flagg. The film talks about the friendship of two women during the difficult years of the Depression-age in Anderson, Alabama. Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker are the main actresses of this unforgettable film.

The Grandma admires these four actresses, especially Kathy Bates (American Horror Story, Dolores Claiborne, Misery, Primary Colors, Six Feet Under...), but today she wants to talk about Mary-Louise Parker who was born on a day like today in 1964.

Before watching Fried Green Tomatoes, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 8. Changes of Structure (III) (Spanish Version) 

Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964) is an American actress and writer. After making her stage debut as Rita in a Broadway production of Craig Lucas's Prelude to a Kiss in 1990, for which she received a Tony Award nomination, Parker came to prominence for film roles in Grand Canyon (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Client (1994), Bullets over Broadway (1994), Boys on the Side (1995), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and The Maker (1997).

Among stage and independent film appearances thereafter, Parker received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Catherine Llewellyn in David Auburn's Proof in 2001, among other accolades. Between 2001 and 2006, she recurred as Amy Gardner on the NBC television series The West Wing, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002.

Mary-Louise Parker

She received both the Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Harper Pitt on the acclaimed HBO television miniseries Angels in America in 2003.

Parker went on to enjoy large success as Nancy Botwin, the lead role on the television series Weeds, which ran from 2005 to 2012 and for which she received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series between 2007 and 2009 and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress-Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2006.

Her later film appearances include roles in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Red (2010), R.I.P.D. (2013), and Red 2 (2013). Since 2007, Parker has contributed articles to Esquire magazine and published her memoir, Dear Mr. You, in 2015.

In 2017, she starred as Roma Guy on the ABC television miniseries When We Rise. In 2018, she appeared as a political consultant in the show Billions on Showtime.

More information: Broadway Buzz

Parker was born in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The youngest of four children, she is the daughter of Caroline Louise and John Morgan Parker, a judge who served in the U.S. Army. Her ancestry includes Swedish, from her maternal grandfather, English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Dutch. Because of her father's career, Parker spent parts of her childhood in Tennessee and Texas, as well as in Thailand, Germany, and France.

She described her childhood as profoundly unhappy, further noting that, My parents did everything they could; I had books, clothes, a home and a warm bed, but I was never happy. She graduated from Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona. Parker majored in drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and graduated in 1986.

Parker got her start in acting with a role on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. In the late 1980s, Parker moved to New York. After a few minor roles, she made her Broadway debut in a production of Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, playing the lead role of Rita, in 1990. She moved with the production when it transferred from its origin Off-Broadway. Parker won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance and was nominated for a Tony Award, although she did not play the role when the film was made.

Stuart Masterson & Parker in Fried Green Tomatoes

In 1989 she was in the film Longtime Companion, a film starring Campbell Scott, Bruce Davison and Dermot Mulroney about the emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic.

Parker starred with Kevin Kline in Grand Canyon (1991); with Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991); with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in The Client (1994); with John Cusack in Bullets over Broadway (1994); and with Drew Barrymore and Whoopi Goldberg in Boys on the Side (1995), as a woman with AIDS.

Parker's next role was in a movie adaptation of another Craig Lucas play, Reckless (1995), alongside Mia Farrow, followed by Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), which also starred Nicole Kidman, Viggo Mortensen, Christian Bale, John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey. In addition, she appeared alongside Matthew Modine in Tim Hunter's The Maker (1997).

More information: Elle

Parker's theater career continued when she appeared in Paula Vogel's 1997 critical smash How I Learned to Drive, with David Morse. In the late 1990s, she appeared in several independent films, including Let the Devil Wear Black and The Five Senses. She starred alongside Sidney Poitier in the 1999 movie The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn.

On December 7, 2003, HBO aired a six-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Tony Kushner's acclaimed Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. Parker played Harper Pitt, the Mormon Valium-addicted wife of a closeted lawyer. For her performance, Parker received the Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award, both for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.

Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds

In 2004, Parker appeared in the comedy Saved! and a television film called Miracle Run, based on the true story of a mother of two sons with autism, as well as appearing in the lead role in Craig Lucas' Reckless on Broadway. The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, earned Parker another nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in 2005.

In November 2005, Parker was the subject of a career exhibition at Boston University, where memorabilia from her career were donated to the University's library.

In 2006, Parker received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress-Television Series Musical or Comedy, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for her lead role in Weeds. In that category, she defeated the four leads of Desperate Housewives. She dedicated the award to the late John Spencer, known for his work as Leo McGarry on The West Wing. After receiving the award, Parker stated: I'm really in favor of legalizing marijuana. I don't think it's that controversial.

In March 2007, Parker played the lead role in the television film The Robber Bride. She then portrayed Zerelda Mimms in the Andrew Dominik film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which opened in cinemas in September 2007. Parker appeared alongside Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, and Garret Dillahunt. In August 2007, Parker continued her role in the third season of Weeds.

Parker appeared in 2008's The Spiderwick Chronicles and in Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons production in the New York premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, alongside Drama Desk Award winner Kathleen Chalfant.

More information: The New York Times

She filmed the Donna Vermeer film Les Passages alongside Julie Delpy. Following this, she returned to work on the fifth season of Weeds. Parker took the lead role in the Roundabout Theatre Broadway revival of the play Hedda Gabler, running from January through March 29, 2009. The play garnered a series of negative reviews.

Parker starred opposite Bruce Willis in the film Red, an adaptation of the comic book miniseries of the same name. The film was released on October 15, 2010.  

Visiting Whistle Stop Cafe, Anderson, Alabama

In 2011, Parker became the host for the tenth season of the PBS documentary series Independent Lens.

In 2013 she played roles in both Red 2 and R.I.P.D. She appeared in the Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club production of the play The Snow Geese by Sharr White at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre from October 24 through December 15, 2013.

Parker starred in the new play by Simon Stephens, Heisenberg, produced Off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club. 

Since 2007, Parker has contributed articles to Esquire magazine. In November 2015, Scribner Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, published her memoir in letters titled Dear Mr. You.

More information: The Guardian

Fried Green Tomatoes is a 1991 American comedy-drama film based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.

Directed by Jon Avnet and written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, it stars Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Mary-Louise Parker.

It tells the story of a Depression-era friendship between two women, Ruth and Idgie, and a 1980s friendship between Evelyn, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny, an elderly woman. The centerpiece and parallel story concerns the murder of Ruth's abusive husband, Frank, and the accusations that follow.

Released on December 27, 1991, the film received a generally positive reception from critics and grossed $119 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Oscars at the 64th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Tandy) and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

More information: Rain on a Tin Roof

The theater is who I am

-it's where I feel the most inspired,

the most at home, the most useful.

Mary-Louise Parker