Mary Stuart Masterson

Mary Stuart Masterson (born June 28, 1966) is an American actress, producer, and director. After making her acting debut as a child in The Stepford Wives, Masterson took a ten-year hiatus to focus on her education. Her early film roles include Heaven Help Us (1985), At Close Range (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), and Chances Are (1989). Her performance in the film Immediate Family (1989) won her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she earned additional praise for her roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Benny & Joon (1993).

Masterson later shifted her focus to television projects, appearing in Kate Brasher (2001) which she also produced, Something the Lord Made (2004), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2004–2007), Mercy (2010), NCIS (2017), Blindspot (2017–2019), and For Life (2020). She also performed in the Broadway revival of Nine (2003) for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and directed The Cake Eaters (2007). She returned to mainstream film with As You Are (2017), and has since appeared in Skin (2018), Daniel Isn't Real (2019), and Five Nights at Freddy's (2023).

Early life Masterson was born June 28, 1966, in Los Angeles, California, to writer-director-actor-producer Peter Masterson and singer-actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Jr., and Alexandra.

As a teenager, she attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in the Catskills Mountains New York with actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Cryer. Later, she attended schools in New York, including eight months studying anthropology at New York University.

Career

Masterson's first film appearance was in The Stepford Wives (1975) at the age of eight, playing a daughter to her real-life father. Rather than continue her career as a child actor, she chose to continue her studies, although she did appear in several productions at the Dalton School.

In 1985, she returned to cinema in Heaven Help Us as Danni, a courageous teen running the soda shop of her gravely depressed father. She appeared with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken in the film At Close Range (1986) as Brad Jr.'s girlfriend Terry, a film based on an actual rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston Sr. during the 1960s and 1970s. She later starred as the tomboyish drummer Watts in the teenage drama Some Kind of Wonderful (1987).

That same year, Francis Ford Coppola cast her in Gardens of Stone in which she acted with her parents who were hired by Coppola to play her on-screen parents. In 1989, she played in Chances Are alongside Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O'Neal and Robert Downey Jr., and starred as Lucy Moore, a teenage girl giving up her first baby to a wealthy couple, played by Glenn Close and James Woods in Immediate Family. For her work in the latter, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Masterson continued acting in films and television during the 1990s. In 1991, she starred in Fried Green Tomatoes, a film based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The film was well-received, with film critic Roger Ebert applauding Masterson's work. The following year she was invited to host Saturday Night Live. In 1993, she played opposite Johnny Depp in Benny & Joon as Joon, his mentally ill love interest. In May 1993, Masterson revealed she had written a screenplay for a film tentatively entitled Around the Block, a romantic comedy about a "woman who conquers her fears by becoming a singer"; in a cover story about Benny & Joons box office success, she told Entertainment Weekly she was going to direct it herself, with principal photography expected that autumn.

In 1994, she acted in Bad Girls, playing Anita Crown, a former prostitute, who joins with three other former prostitutes (played by Madeleine Stowe, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore) in traveling the Old West. In 1996, Masterson acted alongside Christian Slater in the romantic drama Bed of Roses.

Although Masterson carried on her work in the film industry, by 2000 she had made a move towards television. In 2001, she began her directing career with a segment titled "The Other Side" in the television movie On the Edge. In 2001, she produced her own television series, Kate Brasher, which was canceled by CBS after six episodes. In 2004, Masterson played Dr. Helen Taussig in the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning HBO biographical drama Something the Lord Made.

Masterson has appeared in Broadway theater productions, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in the Maury Yeston musical Nine, directed by David Leveaux. Between 2004 and 2007, she made five guest starring appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Dr. Rebecca Hendrix. A decade later, she appeared in a recurring role as FBI director Eleanor Hirst in the second and third seasons of Blindspot. In 2020, she appeared in a starring role in the first season of the legal drama For Life. In 2023, she appeared in Five Nights at Freddy's.

Masterson has narrated several audiobooks, including I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass, Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell, The Quickie by James Patterson and Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.

Masterson made her feature film directorial debut in 2007, with The Cake Eaters, which premiered at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival as well as the Ashland Independent Film Festival where it received the 'Audience Award – Dramatic Feature' prize in 2008. Of her move to directing, Masterson said in an interview, "When I signed to do this, I wasn't scared but, yes, it was scary. I'm already 40, although we don't want to talk about that. In '92, I wrote my first screenplay, which I then was to direct, but I ended up taking an acting job because it takes forever to get a movie made."

Personal life Masterson was married to George Carl Francisco from 1990 to 1992 and to filmmaker Damon Santostefano from 2000 to 2004. In 2006, Masterson married actor Jeremy Davidson after they starred together in the 2004 stage production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In October 2009, Masterson gave birth to their first child, son Phineas Bee. She gave birth to twins in August 2011, son Wilder and daughter Clio, and she had a fourth child in October 2013.

Filmography

Film

As director Year Title Notes 2001 On the Edge Television filmSegment: "The Other Side" 2007 The Cake Eaters Feature film

Television Year Title Role Notes 1980 City in Fear Abby Crawford ABC television film 1985 Love Lives On Susan Wallace ABC television film 1986 Amazing Stories Cynthia Simpson Segment: "Go to the Head of the Class (Book Two)" 1992 Saturday Night Live Herself / Host Episode: "Mary Stuart Masterson/En Vogue" 1996 Lily Dale Lily Dale Showtime television film 1997 On the 2nd Day of Christmas Patricia "Trish" Tracy Lifetime Television television film 1999 Black and Blue Frances Benedetto CBS television film2001 Kate Brasher Kate Brasher Main role; also producer Three Blind Mice Patricia Demming CBS television film 2002 R.U.S./H. Elaine Burba Unsold CBS pilot 2003 Gary the Rat Caroline Swanson Voice roleEpisode: "Old Flame"2004 Blue's Clues Cinderella Episode: "Love Day" Something the Lord Made Dr. Helen Taussig HBO television film 2004–2007 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Dr. Rebecca Hendrix Recurring role; 5 episodes 2006 Waterfront Heather Centrella Recurring role; 5 episodes 2009 Cupid Mira Episode: "Live and Let Spy" 2010 Mercy Dr. Denise Cabe Recurring role; 4 episodes 2012 Touch Beth Cooper Episode: "The Road Not Taken" 2013 The Good Wife Rachel Keyser Episode: "Whack-a-Mole" 2015 Blue Bloods Catherine Tucker Episode: "Absolute Power" 2017 NCIS Congresswoman Jenna Flemming Recurring role; 3 episodes 2017–2019 Blindspot FBI Director Eleanor Hirst Recurring role; 11 episodes 2020 For Life Anya Harrison Main role

Awards and nominations