Kathy Bates Biography

Date of Birth:28 June 1948, 

Place of Birth:Memphis, Tennessee, USA 

Birth Name:Kathleen Doyle Bates 

Nickname:Bobo 

Height:5' 3" (1.60 m) 

Poor Kathy Bates was forever losing out when her award-winning stage characters transferred to the screen. Unphotogenic and unattractive by Hollywood standards, she faced disappointment after disappointment as younger, prettier or more established stars usurped her New York stage triumphs in their adaptations to film. First Sissy Spacek takes on her potent role as the suicidal Jessie Cates in 'night, Mother (1986), then Michelle Pfeiffer seizes the moment to play her dumpy lover character in Frankie and Johnny (1991). It would take Oscar glory to finally rectify the injustice.

Kathleen Doyle Bates was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters born to Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer, and his homemaker wife Bertye Talbot. Kathy's great-great Irish grandfather, who emigrated to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor. Kathy Bates discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders. Kathy Bates scored a tour-de-farce performance alongside Christopher Walken at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre in Lanford Wilson's world premiere of "Lemon Sky" in 1970 -- but she also had a foreshadowing of the heartbreak to come when the successful show relocated to New York's off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre without Kathy. Walken wound up winning a Drama Desk award.

By the mid-to-late 1970s Kathy was trotting the boards frequently as a rising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. Kathy Bates appeared in "Casserole" and "A Quality of Mercy" (both 1975) before earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in "Vanities". Kathy Bates took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980's "Goodbye Fidel," which lasted only six performances. Kathy Bates then went directly into replacement mode when she joined the cast of the already-established and highly successful "Fifth of July" in 1981.

Kathy made a false start in films with Taking Off (1971), in which she was billed as "Bobo Bates". She didn't film again until Straight Time (1978), starring Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not substantial enough to cause a stir. Things turned hopeful, however, when Kathy and the rest of the female ensemble were given the chance to play their respective Broadway parts in the film version of Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). It was a juicy role for Kathy and film audiences finally started noticing the now 34-year-old.