Academy Award winner KATHY BATES (Roberta Hertzel) initially earned her reputation as an actress of infinite range in the theatre. An Obie Award winner for her performance as Frankie in the original off-Broadway production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Bates also received the Los Angeles Drama Critics award for Best Actress in the Mark Taper Forum Production of the play. She garnered a Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of the suicidal daughter in Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning 'night, Mother, and she won the Dramalogue Award. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Bates attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas and worked in regional theatre in Washington, D.C., and at Actors Theatre in Louisville. Her first major play in New York was Vanities. She subsequently appeared in an impressive lineup of productions including Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (a role she reprised in Robert Altman's film adaptation), Fifth of July and Curse of the Starving Class (another role she reprised for film). She also starred as the South African Schoolteacher Elsa