Biography
Raven-haired Julianna Margulies may have become an award-winning TV star on NBC's phenomenally successful
ER in the 1990s, but she was ready to exit the series to pursue movies and theater full time by decade's end. Born in Spring Valley, NY, Margulies spent part of her childhood living abroad before settling back in her hometown for a bohemian life with her free-spirit mother. Though she earned a B.A. in art history from Sarah Lawrence College, Margulies performed in college plays and decided to pursue an acting career. Margulies landed her first movie role in 1991, playing a prostitute in the
Steven Seagal flick
Out for Justice.
With no more movie roles forthcoming, Margulies made a living with theater work and TV guest star stints on
Law and Order and
Homicide in the early '90s. Margulies subsequently landed a role in the pilot for
Michael Crichton's new hospital drama
ER in 1994, but her character was slated for death after that single episode. Due to a positive audience response, however, Margulies' compassionate Nurse Hathaway survived the pilot. During her six seasons on the most popular TV drama of the 1990s, Margulies won the Emmy and the SAG Award and became a perennial nominee. Buoyed by her TV fame, Margulies returned to films during her hiatuses, starring as the would-be victim of
Bill Paxton's Irish con in
Traveler (1996), a POW alongside
Glenn Close and
Cate Blanchett in the ensemble drama
Paradise Road (1997), and as
Matthew McConaughey's girlfriend in
Richard Linklater's Western-esque bank robber saga
The Newton Boys (1998). Continuing to avoid glossy big budget Hollywood fare in favor of a more independent sensibility, Margulies also appeared in
Boaz Yakin's
A Price Above Rubies (1998) and
Gurinder Chadha's multiethnic Thanksgiving tale What's Cooking? (2000). Margulies finally took on a blockbuster of sorts when she voiced one of the pre-historic reptiles in the animated
Dinosaur (2000). Despite an offer that would have made her one of the highest paid actresses on TV, Margulies announced in 2000 that six years of
ER was enough. While Hathaway departed to a future with
George Clooney's Dr. Ross, Margulies moved back to New York to hit the off-Broadway stage with
Donald Sutherland in Ten Unknowns (2001). Margulies returned to the small-screen for the female-centric version of the King Arthur legend
The Mists of Avalon, before appearing in
The Man from Elysian Fields, and opposite
Pierce Brosnan in the drama
Evelyn. After an appearance in the horror film
Ghost Ship, Margulies would not appear in another widely released motion picture until she landed one of the main parts in the 2006 summer phenomenon known simply as
Snakes on a Plane. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide