Mary Stuart Masterson (born June 28, 1966) is an American actress and director. She has appeared in From Up Close (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), Chances Are (1989), Fried Green. Tomatoes (1991) and Benny Joon (1993).
She won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1989 film The Immediate Family and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. The musical for the 2003 Broadway revival of Nine.
Early years and education
Masterson was born June 28, 1966, in Manhattan, the daughter of writer-director-actor-producer Peter Masterson (1934-2018). and singer-actress Carlene Glynn (1940-). She has two siblings, Peter Jr. and Alexandra.
As a teenager, she attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York with actors Robert Downey Jr. and John Cryer. She later attended schools in New York City, including eight months studying anthropology at New York University.
Career
Masterson’s first film appearance was in Stepford Wives (1975) at the age of eight, playing her real father’s daughter. Rather than pursue 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 the movies in Heaven Help Us as Danny, a plucky teenager who runs her severely depressed father’s soda store. She appeared with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken in At A Close Range (1986) as Brad Jr.’s girlfriend Terry, a film based on a true crime in rural Pennsylvania. family led by Bruce Johnston Sr. during the 1960s and 1970s. Later, she played drummer-turned-wrecker Watts in the teen drama Some Kind of Wonderful (1987).
As a result, she loosely connected with Brat Pack. That same year, Francis Ford Coppola cast her in Stone Gardens, in which she played her parents, whom Coppola hired to play her screen parents.
In 1989 she played Chances, along with Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O’Neill and Robert Downey Jr. and also played the role of Lucy Moore, a teenage girl who gives her first child to a rich couple, played by Glenn Close and James Woods in Middle Family. For her work in this film, she won the Best Supporting Actress award from the National Film Review Board.
The1990s
Masterson continued to appear in film and television during the 1990s. In 1991 she starred in Fried Green Tomatoes, 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 and June as Joon, his mentally ill love interest.
In 1994 she played Bad Girls, playing Anita Crown, a former prostitute who joins three other former prostitutes (played by Madeleine Stowe, Andy McDowell and Drew Barrymore ) on a trip through the Old West. In 1996 Masterson played alongside Christian Slater in the romantic drama Bed of Roses.
The 2000s
Although Masterson continued her work in the film industry, by 2000 she made the transition to television. 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 HBO biographical drama Emmy and Peabody, the biographical drama Something the Lord Did. Between 2004 and 2007, she appeared five times as a guest on Law & Order: Special Victims as Dr. Rebecca Hendricks. Ten years later, she appeared in a recurring role as FBI Director Eleanor Hearst in seasons two and three of The Blindspot.
Masterson has appeared in Broadway theater productions and was nominated for a 2003 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in Maury Yeston’s musical Nine: The Musical, directed by David Leveaux.
Masterson has voiced several audiobooks, including I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass, Books of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell, Quickie by James Patterson and Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.
Directing
In May 1993 Masterson revealed that she had written a screenplay for a movie tentatively titled Around the Block, a romantic comedy about “a woman who overcomes her fears by becoming a singer” ; in a cover article about Benny and Jun’s box office receipts she told Entertainment Weekly that she planned to direct it herself, principal photography expected this fall.
She began her directing career in 2001 with a segment titled “The Other Side” in the TV movie “On the Verge.”
Masterson made her directorial debut in 2007 with Cake Eaters, which premiered at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and the Independent Film Festival in Ashland, where it won the Audience Award – Drama Film in 2008. Of her transition to directing, Masterson said in an interview, “When I signed with Make It, I wasn’t afraid, but yes, it was scary. I’m 40 now, although we don’t want to talk about it. In ’92 I wrote my first script, which I then had to direct, but I ended up getting a job as an actor because it takes forever to make a movie.”
Personal Life
Masterson was married to George Carla Francisco from 1990 to 1992. Masterson was married to filmmaker. Damon Santostefano from 2000 to 2004. In 2006, Masterson married actor Jeremy Davidson (née Jeremy Michael Greenberg) after they starred together in the 2004 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Masterson gave birth to her first child, a son named Phineas B. Greenberg, on October 11, 2009. In August 2011, she gave birth to twins, son Wilder Greenberg and daughter Clio Greenberg.
Filmography
1975 – “Stepford Wives”
1985 – “Heaven Help Us”
1986 – “Up close”
1987 – “Some Wonderful”
1988 – “Mr. North”
1989 – “Most Likely”
1990 – “Funny About Love”
1991 – “Fried Green Tomatoes”
1992 – “Crazy on the Moon”
1993 – “Married to Him”
1994 – “Bad Girls”
1996 – “Bed of Roses”
1997 – “Dogtown”
1999 – “Book of Stars”
2002 – “West of Here”
2005 – “Sisters”
2006 – “Rebels”
2017 – “As You Are”
2018 – “Skin”
2019 – “Daniel Isn ‘t Real”
As Director
2001 – “On the Verge”
2007 – “Cake Eaters”
