Sela Ward

Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American actress. Her breakthrough TV role was as Teddy Reed in the NBC drama series Sisters (1991–96), for which she received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994. She received her second Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for the leading role of Lily Manning in the ABC drama series Once and Again (1999–2002). Ward later had the recurring role of Stacy Warner in the Fox medical drama House, also starred as Jo Danville in the CBS police procedural CSI: NY (2010–13) and starred as Dana Mosier in the CBS police procedural series FBI (2018–19).

She also played supporting roles in films, including The Man Who Loved Women (1983), Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985), Nothing in Common (1986), Hello Again (1987), The Fugitive (1993), My Fellow Americans (1996), The Badge (2002), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Guardian (2006), The Stepfather (2009), Gone Girl (2014), and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).

Early life Ward was born in Meridian, Mississippi, to Annie Kate (née Boswell), a homemaker, and Granberry Holland "G.H." Ward Jr., an electrical engineer. Her father is a native of Meridian while her mother was born in Choctaw County, Alabama, before moving to Meridian as a child. Ward is the eldest of four children with a sister, Jenna, and two brothers, Joseph Brock and Granberry Holland Ward III. She graduated from Lamar School in Meridian.

Ward attended the University of Alabama, where she was Homecoming Queen, a Crimson Tide cheerleader, and joined Chi Omega sorority.

Career

While working in New York City as a storyboard artist for multimedia presentations, Ward began modeling to supplement her income. She was recruited by the Wilhelmina agency and was soon featured in television commercials promoting Maybelline cosmetics.

Ward eventually moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983 Burt Reynolds vehicle The Man Who Loved Women. Her first regular role in a television drama series, as a socialite on Dennis Weaver's short-lived CBS series, Emerald Point N.A.S., followed in the same year. Ward continued to land guest roles in both television and films throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite Tom Hanks in 1986's Nothing in Common. In 1991 she was cast as the bohemian alcoholic Teddy Reed on Sisters, for which she received her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994. Almost Golden remains Lifetime's most watched TV film to date.

In 1995, Ward was passed over for a Bond girl role for the 1995 movie GoldenEye, learning that even though then-Bond Pierce Brosnan was 42, the casting director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago". In response, she developed and produced a documentary, The Changing Face of Beauty, about American obsession with youth and its effect on women. Later on, Ward would voice the part of former model turned villain Page Monroe in an episode ("Mean Seasons") of The New Batman/Superman Adventures, which focused primarily on the media's obsession with youth.

Ward succeeded Candice Bergen as commercial spokesperson for Sprint's long distance telephone service from 1999 until 2002. She also appeared on Frasier as supermodel/zoologist Kelly Easterbrook in the fifth season opener ("Frasier's Imaginary Friend"). When she read for the role of Lily Brooks Manning on the series Once and Again, its creators (Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of thirtysomething fame) initially deemed Ward "too beautiful" for the average single mother to identify with. Ward received her second lead actress Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.

Although she was on a brief hiatus from television, she continued to appear in feature films. She starred opposite Kevin Costner in The Guardian in 2006 and starred in the thriller The Stepfather in 2009. In July 2010, Ward signed on to star in the police drama CSI: NY, at the seventh season's start.

Ward appeared as newswoman Sharon Schieber in Gone Girl (2014), and co-starred in Independence Day: Resurgence, released June 2016, in which she played the President of the United States, President Lanford. She also played the leading role alongside Nick Nolte in the political comedy series Graves. She was in a leading role alongside Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki and Jeremy Sisto in the crime series FBI.

After meeting two foster children during a holiday trip home to Mississippi in 1997, Ward decided to fund the broader needs of abused and neglected children by creating a permanent group home and emergency shelter with transition houses. Hope Village for Children opened in Ward's hometown of Meridian in January 2002 on a property once used as a Masonic orphanage. It is intended to model a nationwide network of similar shelters. Hope Village had a capacity of 44 residents and served an average of 300 children per year .

In 2002, Ward published her autobiography, Homesick: A Memoir, through HarperCollins' ReganBooks imprint. In 2014, Ward was a part of her first group art exhibition at KM Fine Arts.

Filmography Film

Television

Legacy A roughly stretch of 22nd Avenue in Meridian (from 6th Street southeast to the Interstate 20 highway interchange) has been named the "Sela Ward Parkway" in her honor.

Awards and nominations