Virginia Madsen

After Madsen's parents divorced in the late 1960s, when the children were young, her mother left a career in finance to pursue a career in the arts, encouraged by film critic Roger Ebert.

Madsen's siblings are Michael Madsen, an actor, and Cheryl Madsen, an entrepreneur.

Her paternal grandparents were Danish, and her mother has Irish and distant Native American ancestry.

Madsen is a graduate of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.

Madsen later attended the Ted Liss Acting Studio in Chicago, and Harand Camp Adult Theater Seminar in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Of her experience with Liss, she said: "I had wanted to join his class since I was 12. It was well worth the wait because I don't think I could have got that sort of training anywhere else, especially in the United States ... I always wanted to make a real career out of acting."

Virginia Gayle Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress.

She is the recipient of two Critics' Choice Awards, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for one Academy Award and one Golden Globe Award.

Madsen made her film debut in 1983 with a small part in Class.

Her breakout role came the following year when she played Princess Irulan in David Lynch's Dune.

Madsen made her acting debut at age 22, in a bit part where she landed her role as Lisa in the comedy film Class (1983).

She next appeared in Kenny Loggins' music video for "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" from the Footloose soundtrack.

She portrayed a cellist named Madeline in Electric Dreams (1984).

She was cast as Princess Irulan in David Lynch's science fiction epic Dune (1984).

In 1985, she starred as Boris (Vincent Spano)'s romantic interest Barbara in the film Creator, which also starred Peter O'Toole.

Madsen first became popular with audiences in 1986 with her portrayal of a Catholic school girl who fell in love with a boy from a prison camp in Duncan Gibbons' Fire with Fire.

As beauty queen Dixie Lee Boxx, she was the love interest of minor league baseball manager Cecil "Stud" Cantrell (William Petersen) in the HBO original film Long Gone (1987).

That same year she also appeared in the music video for "I Found Someone" by Cher.

She played a secretary named Allison Rowe in the comedy film Hot to Trot (1988).

In 1988, Madsen appeared as Maddie Hayes' cousin in the fifth and final season of the ABC drama series Moonlighting.

She has since made various television appearances, including Star Trek: Voyager, CSI: Miami, Dawson's Creek, The Practice, Frasier, and other television series.

Outside film, Madsen has played recurring roles on Moonlighting (1989), Frasier (1998), American Dreams (2002–2003), Monk (2009), The Event (2011), Hell on Wheels (2012), Witches of East End (2013–2014), and Designated Survivor (2016–2017).

After a string of parts in teen films, comedies and thrillers of varying commercial success, Madsen received critical acclaim and a Saturn Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of grad student Helen Lyle in Candyman (1992).

She also starred as Helen Lyle in the horror film Candyman (1992).

Other notable film appearances during this period included The Prophecy (1995), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and The Rainmaker (1997).

She appeared in a small role in the Francis Ford Coppola drama The Rainmaker (1997) alongside Matt Damon and Claire Danes.

Film critic Roger Ebert said that Madsen had a "strong scene", while reviewer James Berardinelli noted that "the supporting cast is solid, with turns from . . . Virginia Madsen as a witness for the plaintiff".

She was also co-host of the long-running television series Unsolved Mysteries in 1999, during the show's eleventh season (which was also the second and final season on CBS).

She starred alongside Ray Liotta in the short-lived CBS crime drama series Smith.

For her portrayal of waitress Maya Randall in Sideways (2004), Madsen was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Madsen delivered a critically acclaimed performance in Sideways (2004), directed by Alexander Payne.

Her role catapulted her onto the Hollywood A-list.

Her first major role after Sideways was opposite Harrison Ford in Firewall.

She later appeared in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, in a key role as the angel.

Subsequent credits include A Prairie Home Companion (2006), The Number 23 (2007), The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), Joy (2015), and Lola (2024).

She co-starred alongside Jim Carrey in The Number 23 and Billy Bob Thornton in The Astronaut Farmer; both films were released in North America on February 23, 2007.

She voiced Queen Hippolyta, mother of Wonder Woman, in the animated film Wonder Woman (2009).

Other television credits include American Gothic (2016), The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (2018), and Swamp Thing (2019).

She is married and has one child.

Virginia Gayle Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Elaine (née Melson), who became an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author, and Calvin Christian Madsen, a firefighter.