Here is the biography of Kathy Bates:
Kathy Bates was born on June 28, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot),a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates. Kathy has English, Irish, Scottish, and German ancestry, and one of her ancestors, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor.
Kathy discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders.
By the mid-to-late 1970s, Kathy was treading the boards frequently as an arising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. She appeared in "Casserole" and "A Quality of Mercy" (both 1975) before earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in "Vanities". She took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980's "Goodbye Fidel," which lasted only six performances.
Kathy made a false start in films with "Taking Off" (1971),in which she was billed as "Bobo Bates". She didn't film again until "Straight Time" (1978),starring Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not substantial enough to cause a stir.
Kathy's breakthrough came with her fanatical turn as the drab, chunky, porcine-looking psychopath Annie Wilkes, who kidnaps her favorite author (James Caan) and subjects him to a series of horrific tortures, in "Misery" (1990),based on the popular Stephen King novel. With the 1990 shocker, Kathy captured the "Best Actress" Oscar and Golden Globe award, a first in that genre (horror) for that category.
Quality film scripts now started coming her way and the 1990s proved to be a rich and rewarding time for her. She starred together with another older "overnight" film star, fellow Oscar winner Jessica Tandy, in the modern portion of the beautifully nuanced, flashback period piece "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991). She then outdid herself as the detached and depressed housekeeper accused of murdering her abusive husband (David Strathairn) in "Dolores Claiborne" (1995).
Kathy has continued to work prolifically on TV as a 14-time Emmy winner or nominee thus far. She has also taken to directing a couple of TV-movies on the sly. As most actors, she has been in hit and miss TV shows.
