Mary-Louise Parker celebrity profile

Parker starred in the 1991 movie with Mary Stuart Masterson playing her best friend, but in the original story - from Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel - their characters were lovers.Parker's been described by some writers as "the long-suffering girl next door," best known for her appearances in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Boys on the Side (1995).

MARY-LOUISE PARKER begged the director of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES not to censor the film's lesbian plotline, believing it to be a crucial part of the story.

She's also known for her stage work, and she's won major theater awards for her performances in Prelude to a Kiss (1990), How I Learned To Drive (1996) and Proof (2000).

In 2000, Parker starred as a grief-stricken, troubled young woman in Proof, which premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club before moving to Broadway by year's end. Mary-Louise won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance.

Parker joined the cast of NBC's The West Wing that fall, playing seductive lobbyist Amy Gardner, and earned an Emmy nomination in 2002 for the role. That same year, she played wife Bonnie Hanssen in the made-for-TV movie Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002), and was featured in Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, with Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton.