50 Fun Facts About Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for playing an author's obsessive fan in which 1990 thriller?

Misery cast Kathy Bates when she was a stage actress mostly unknown to film audiences, and the part of Annie Wilkes won her both the Oscar and a Golden Globe.

Which real first-class passenger did Kathy Bates play in the 1997 epic Titanic?

Molly Brown is looked down on by the other first-class women as vulgar new money. The real Margaret Brown urged Lifeboat 6's crew to go back for survivors, and her obituaries called her the Unsinkable Mrs. Brown.

Kathy Bates played the overprotective Mama Boucher, mother of which comedian's character, in The Waterboy?

Adam Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, and Kathy Bates nearly passed on the film: she threw the script in the trash after a few pages because football did not interest her.

Which tool does Kathy Bates's Annie Wilkes swing to break her captive writer's ankles in a notorious hobbling scene?

A sledgehammer replaced the novel's axe, with which Annie cuts off a foot. The director insisted she only break the ankles, and the screenwriter later agreed an amputation would have made audiences hate her.

Kathy Bates's CBS drama Matlock shares its name with a 1980s legal series that starred which television veteran?

Andy Griffith played the title lawyer, Ben Matlock, from 1986. In the Bates series the old show exists as television, and her character borrows the famous surname as an alias.

Kathy Bates won her second Emmy as slave-torturing socialite Delphine LaLaurie in which Ryan Murphy anthology series?

American Horror Story cast her in its Coven season as a New Orleans socialite dug up after 180 years buried alive. Bates said creator Ryan Murphy had resurrected her career.

Kathy Bates plays Evelyn Couch, a timid housewife emboldened by an old woman's Alabama tales, in which 1991 film?

Fried Green Tomatoes pairs her with Jessica Tandy, whose tales of the Whistle Stop Cafe push Evelyn to stand up for herself. The role brought Bates a BAFTA nomination.

Which screen legend flees a hot tub after Kathy Bates's Roberta makes a pass at him in About Schmidt?

Jack Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, whose daughter is marrying Roberta's son. Bates settled with the director exactly what the nude scene would show before she agreed to it.

Which star played waitress Frankie in the 1991 film Frankie and Johnny, a role Kathy Bates originated Off-Broadway?

Michelle Pfeiffer got the part opposite Al Pacino. Bates, who won an Obie in the play, later said the director passed her over because he did not think she looked like a romantic lead.

Kathy Bates won her first Emmy for a guest spot as the ghost of a hedonistic jingle writer on which sitcom?

Two and a Half Men brought her on as the late Charlie Harper, returned as a ghost in a woman's body. The win ended a run of nine Emmy nominations without a trophy.

Annie Wilkes, the role that won Kathy Bates an Oscar, trained in which profession before rescuing her favorite writer?

Nursing gave Annie the skills to keep the injured Paul Sheldon helpless in her home. The film's director has said she is loosely based on a real nurse believed to have killed children in her care.

Which Godfather star played bedridden novelist Paul Sheldon opposite Kathy Bates's Annie Wilkes?

James Caan took the part after William Hurt, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and a string of other leading men turned down a role that keeps its hero flat on his back.

Which director of When Harry Met Sally cast the then little-known Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes?

Rob Reiner hired her at the suggestion of screenwriter William Goldman, after Anjelica Huston and Bette Midler had both turned the part down.

Annie Wilkes and Dolores Claiborne, two of Kathy Bates's best-known film roles, were both created by which novelist?

Stephen King created both women, and the two films came five years apart. Bates has called her Dolores Claiborne the favorite performance she ever gave.

Kathy Bates's Dolores Claiborne lures her abusive husband onto a rotted well cover during which rare event?

A solar eclipse darkens the sky as Joe falls. To film it, the crew took the house apart and rebuilt it on a giant blue-screen stage inside a hockey arena.

Which actress played Selena, the journalist daughter who doubts Kathy Bates's title character in Dolores Claiborne?

Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the New York reporter who returns to her Maine island home when her mother is suspected of murder. Both women earned Saturn Award nominations.

What does Kathy Bates's character lend the penniless hero in Titanic so he can dine among the wealthy passengers?

An evening suit she had bought for her son lets the steerage artist pass at a first-class dinner. Unlike the other wealthy women aboard, she is friendly to him.

Kathy Bates rejoined Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in which 2008 drama about a suburban marriage?

Revolutionary Road cast her as Helen Givings, the realtor who befriends the unhappy Wheelers. It was the three actors' second film together.

Kathy Bates earned an Oscar nomination as fixer Libby Holden in which 1998 film modeled on a real presidential campaign?

Primary Colors stars John Travolta as a governor closely resembling Bill Clinton, and came from a novel first published anonymously. Bates's Libby forces a confession at gunpoint.

Which veteran director guided Kathy Bates to a fourth Oscar nomination as the mother of wrongly accused Richard Jewell?

Clint Eastwood directed and produced the 2019 drama, in which Bobi Jewell pleads at a press conference for the FBI to clear her son. Bates also won the National Board of Review's supporting actress award.

The film Richard Jewell, with Kathy Bates as his mother, follows a guard wrongly accused after a bombing at which event?

The Atlanta Olympics of 1996 are where Jewell, a security guard, found a bomb in Centennial Park and raised the alarm, only to be accused of planting it himself.

Which real writer and art collector did Kathy Bates play in Woody Allen's time-travel comedy Midnight in Paris?

Gertrude Stein reads the hero's unfinished novel and praises his rewrite, in between critiquing a new Picasso painting. Hemingway is the one who takes him to meet her.

What job does Kathy Bates's outspoken Miss Sue do for Michael Oher in the football drama The Blind Side?

Private tutor Miss Sue is hired by the Tuohy family because he must reach a minimum grade point average before a college will take him.

Kathy Bates plays grandmother Sylvia in a 2023 film of which author's 1970 novel about 11-year-old Margaret Simon?

Judy Blume's novel about a girl's talks with God waited more than fifty years for a film. Bates's Sylvia gladly takes her granddaughter to temple when asked.

Kathy Bates played wealthy matriarch Charlotte Cartwright in The Family That Preys for which writer-director?

Tyler Perry wrote, co-produced and directed the 2008 drama, and took a role in it himself. Bates's socialite has to fight her own son for control of the family business.

Which British monarch did Kathy Bates play in the 2004 Jackie Chan comedy Around the World in 80 Days?

Queen Victoria turns up at the finish to have the scheming Lord Kelvin arrested, once his plots against Phileas Fogg come to light.

Which cabinet post does Kathy Bates's character hold in the 2008 Keanu Reeves remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still?

Secretary of Defense is the official the alien Klaatu tells why he has come: to save the planet from the damage humans are doing. Bates had only two weeks to film her scenes.

Kathy Bates played Texas governor Ma Ferguson in The Highwaymen, a film about the hunt for which outlaw pair?

Bonnie and Clyde are tracked by two former Texas Rangers, played by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson. Bates's governor is persuaded to hire the lawman Frank Hamer for the job.

Kathy Bates played activist Dorothy Kenyon in On the Basis of Sex, a biopic of which Supreme Court justice?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is played by Felicity Jones in a film written by the justice's own nephew. Bates's Kenyon reads the young lawyer's brief and talks the ACLU's Mel Wulf into helping.

In The Miracle Club, Kathy Bates and Maggie Smith play Dublin women who win a pilgrimage to which French town?

Lourdes is the prize in a parish talent show, which the women enter in 1967 as a singing group called the Miracles.

Kathy Bates won a Golden Globe as Helen Kushnick, the hard-nosed manager of which talk show host, in The Late Shift?

Jay Leno's manager wins him The Tonight Show and installs herself as its producer, until her bullying gets her dismissed by NBC and then fired by her own client.

What sideshow act does Kathy Bates's Ethel Darling perform in the Freak Show season of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology?

Bearded lady Ethel Darling was her second role for the series, and her ex-husband in the plot is the troupe's strongman. The part brought her another Emmy nomination.

In the NBC drama Harry's Law, Kathy Bates's fired patent lawyer opens her new firm inside what kind of shop?

A shoe store in Cincinnati doubles as the law office, and her assistant goes on selling footwear there. It was Bates's first lead role in a television series.

Which creator of Ally McBeal and The Practice also created Harry's Law, the legal drama starring Kathy Bates?

David E. Kelley, a former attorney himself, launched the show on NBC in January 2011 as a midseason replacement. It ran for two seasons.

Kathy Bates's Jo Bennett on The Office is the blunt chief executive of which company that buys Dunder Mifflin?

Sabre is run by a forthright woman from the South who has written her own autobiography, holds a pilot's licence and owns two Great Danes. Bates played her in a recurring guest role from 2010 to 2011.

Kathy Bates directed episodes of, and played Bettina in, which HBO drama about a family that runs a funeral home?

Six Feet Under put her behind the camera for five episodes as well as on screen, where her Bettina earned an Emmy nomination for guest acting.

Which scheming character did Kathy Bates play in Disney's 1999 television film of the musical Annie?

Miss Hannigan is the tyrant who runs the orphanage Annie longs to leave, and the part brought Bates another Emmy nomination in 2000.

Kathy Bates played physical therapist Helena Mahoney in HBO's Warm Springs, a film about which future president?

Franklin Roosevelt, played by Kenneth Branagh, went to the Georgia resort seeking relief from polio. Bates's Helena Mahoney comes to work there after reading a newspaper interview he gave.

In Netflix's sitcom Disjointed, Kathy Bates's character hires her newly graduated son to help run what kind of business?

A cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles is her character's business after decades of campaigning for legalization. Chuck Lorre co-created the comedy.

In CBS's Matlock, Kathy Bates's Matty secretly joins a law firm to expose who hid the dangers of which drugs?

Opioids killed the daughter of her character, who is really a wealthy retired lawyer named Madeline Kingston posing as a widow short of money.

Kathy Bates was born the youngest of three daughters of a mechanical engineer in which Tennessee city?

Memphis is where she graduated early from White Station High School in 1965; five years later she left for New York to try her luck as an actress.

Kathy Bates studied theater and joined the Alpha Delta Pi sorority at which Texas college, graduating in 1969?

Southern Methodist University is where she studied theater until 1969, and within a year she had moved to New York to pursue an acting career.

While struggling for stage work, Kathy Bates was once a cashier at which New York City cultural landmark?

The Museum of Modern Art was one of several odd jobs she took between minor stage roles. She has said more than one casting agent told her she was not attractive enough to succeed.

By which playful first name was Kathy Bates credited in her first film, Miloš Forman's 1971 comedy Taking Off?

Bobo Bates is the name in the credits, where she appears as a singer at an audition. She used the same billing with a touring theater company in 1973.

Kathy Bates's great-great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant to New Orleans, served as doctor to which US president?

Andrew Jackson's doctor was one notable ancestor, and her grandfather Finis L. Bates, a lawyer and author, was another.

Kathy Bates testified to Congress in 2019 seeking research funds for which condition she developed after cancer surgery?

Lymphedema affects both her arms, a result of her double mastectomy. She asked Congress to set up a national commission on lymphatic disease research.

Kathy Bates used which social media platform in 2012 to reveal that she had been treated for breast cancer?

Twitter carried the news that she had been diagnosed two months earlier and had already had a double mastectomy. It was her second cancer, after an ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2003.

Kathy Bates earned a Tony nomination in 1983 for which Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Marsha Norman?

'night, Mother is a two-hander set over one evening in the house a daughter shares with her elderly mother. Bates played the daughter, Jessie, and the production ran for more than a year.

Which director, fresh from Popeye, cast Kathy Bates with Cher in a 1982 Broadway play and its film version?

Robert Altman staged Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean on Broadway, then filmed it the same year with the same cast, Bates playing Stella Mae.

Kathy Bates voiced Bitsy in the 2006 film of Charlotte's Web, but what kind of farm animal is Bitsy?

A cow called Bitsy shares the barn with her sister Betsy, who is voiced by Reba McEntire. Oprah Winfrey and Steve Buscemi are among the other animal voices.