For more than four decades, Amy Madigan has been consistently one of the most reliable and compelling supporting actresses in film and television.
Two weeks ago, Madigan won Best Supporting Actress at the SAG Awards, building momentum as she heads into Sunday’s Academy Awards, where she is a favorite for her performance in Weapons.
Madigan grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s, attending St. Philip Neri School and later Aquinas Dominican High School, where she began appearing in school plays.
Her path to Hollywood was not exactly straight. She studied philosophy at Marquette University, then moved west to train at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. For a while in the 1970s, she fronted a rock band called Jelly before fully committing to acting.
Madigan’s breakthrough came with Twice in a Lifetime in 1985, which earned her an Academy Award nomination and firmly put her on Hollywood’s radar. A string of memorable roles followed in films like Streets of Fire and Field of Dreams.
John Hughes brought her home to Chicago for the filming of Uncle Buck in a memorable role as Chanice Kobolowski, the longtime girlfriend of the famously unreliable Buck Russell, played by John Candy.
Offscreen, Madigan shares an enduring partnership with actor Ed Harris, her husband and frequent collaborator on stage and screen. Their creative partnership began in the early 1980s while performing in Sam Shepard’s play Fool for Love and has lasted more than four decades.
Now Madigan is enjoying a late-career surge thanks to her performance in the horror film Weapons, where she plays the eerie and unpredictable Aunt Gladys. The role has brought her new fans and awards-season attention.
Storytelling runs in the family. Her father, John J. Madigan, was a well-known and respected Chicago journalist who worked with CBS-TV, served as news director at WBBM-TV Channel 2, and spent many years as political director at WBBM-AM radio.
If Amy Madigan’s name is called Sunday night, it will shine a well-deserved spotlight on a career built one memorable role at a time.
Amy Madigan receives the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Award at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA.
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