Frances Fisher

Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is an English American actress. She began her career in theater and later starred as Detective Deborah Saxon in the ABC daytime soap opera The Edge of Night (1976–1981). In film, she is known for her roles in Unforgiven, Titanic (1997), True Crime (1999), House of Sand and Fog (2003), Laws of Attraction (2004), The Kingdom (2007), In the Valley of Elah (2007), Jolene (2008), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), and The Host (2013). From 2014 to 2015, Fisher starred in the ABC drama series Resurrection. In 2019, she appeared in the HBO television series Watchmen, a sequel to the graphic novel of the same title.

Early life and education Fisher was born on May 11, 1952, in Milford on Sea, England, the daughter of American parents Olga Rosine (née Moen), a housewife, and William Irving "Bill" Fisher, Sr, an oil refinery construction superintendent. Her father was of Russian-Jewish and Hungarian-Jewish descent, whereas her mother was of Norwegian ancestry. Before she reached the age of 15, she had moved nine times and travelled because of her father's job, going to places including Italy, Turkey, Colombia, France, Canada, and Brazil.

When she was 15, her mother died and she took on the responsibility of raising her younger brother.

Career

Theater

Deciding to follow her interest in theater, she moved to New York City, where she subsequently enjoyed a 14-year stage career in regional and off-Broadway productions. She became involved with the Actors Studio, where she studied with Lee Strasberg.

Television

Fisher gained recognition playing Detective Deborah Saxon on the ABC daytime soap opera The Edge of Night from 1976 to 1981. She later joined the cast of CBS's Guiding Light as Suzette Saxon in 1985. After leaving daytime television, Fisher guest starred as a bartender, Savannah, at "The Lobo" in the first season of ABC comedy series Roseanne. She also appeared on Newhart, Matlock and In the Heat of the Night.

Fisher was originally cast to play Jill Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, but was replaced after initial filming because producers felt that her pilot episode performance did not test well with the audience. She was cast in the unaired pilot to the short-lived 1992 ABC summer series Human Target (originally filmed in 1990, her role was recast by the time the series was picked up in October 1991, replaced by actress Signy Coleman).

In 1991, Fisher was cast as Lucille Ball in the television film Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter, which aired to strong ratings and good reviews. From 1994 to 1995 she starred in the Fox drama series Strange Luck. In 2000, Fisher portrayed Audrey Hepburn's mother, Ella Hepburn, in the biographical film of the actress. In the same year she played the role of Janet Lee Bouvier in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Fisher also guest-starred on Grey's Anatomy, The Shield, Two and a Half Men, Private Practice, Sons of Anarchy, Torchwood: Miracle Day, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cold Case, and Castle.

In 2014, Fisher was starring in the ABC drama series Resurrection about the residents of Arcadia, Missouri, whose lives are upended when their loved ones return from the dead, unaged since their deaths. She played the role of Lucille Langston.

In 2017, she and her daughter Francesca Eastwood both starred in the acclaimed Fargo episode "The Law of Non-Contradiction" as the older and younger versions of the same character.

In 2019, she starred in the HBO television series Watchmen, a sequel to the graphic novel of the same name.

Film Fisher made her film debut in Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) and later appeared in Patty Hearst directed by Paul Schrader. She also appeared in the films The Potters and You're Not You, both released in 2014.

Fisher appeared in the film Woman in Gold (2015), playing the mother of Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds).

Political activities Fisher has been described as a progressive Democrat. She has served as SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Chapter's first vice-president, as well as a member of the Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors since 2004 (before its merger with AFTRA) and after the merger.

In the 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in California, Fisher endorsed and campaigned for Independent candidate for district 33, Marianne Williamson, an author and founder of Project Angel Food. Fisher later endorsed Williamson for her 2020 presidential campaign and again for her 2024 presidential campaign.

In the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Fisher endorsed and canvassed for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Later that same year, on Jane Fonda's 79th birthday, Fisher, Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Catherine Keener marched alongside labor leader Dolores Huerta in support of the Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In 2022, she was cast in On Sacred Ground, a movie set during the protest.

In August 2019, Fisher jokingly called for U.S. President Donald Trump, who is a SAG-AFTRA member and whom she had previously called "the biggest bully in the world", to vote for the union election's opposition MembershipFirst slate, in a bid to mobilize all the union members, regardless of whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independent, to cast their ballots to have their voices heard. The co-plaintiffs included fellow actors David Andrews, Belinda Balaski, Stephen R. Hart, and Anne Lockhart.

After her split from Eastwood, Fisher dated fellow actor George Clooney in 1995.

Fisher has explained that finding a boyfriend was difficult while raising a child on her own. She stated in 2010 that "as a single mom, you know, it's been a different thing. No gentleman callers."

Filmography