Christine Jane Baranski

Baranski at the Metropolitan Opera opening in 2008

Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award-winning portrayal as Maryanne Thorpe in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Diane Lockhart in The Good Wife. Prior to her appearances in film and television, Baranski rose to prominence as a Broadway actress, winning two Tony Awards.  Baranski married actor Matthew Cowles in October 1983.  They have two daughters, Isabel (age 27–28) and Lily (age 24–25).

Early life and education

Baranski was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Virginia (née Mazurowski) and Lucien Baranski, who edited a Polish-language newspaper.   She is of Polish descent and her grandparents were actors in the Polish theater.   Baranski attended high school at the Villa Maria Academy in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo.   She then studied at New York City’s Juilliard School (Drama Division Group 3: 1970–1974)  where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.

Film

Baranski has also starred in various roles in films and television. In film, some of her best known roles are as Katherine Archer in The Birdcage, Mary Sunshine in the musical Chicago, Martha May Whovier in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Connie Chasseur in The Ref and as Tanya in the musical Mamma Mia!

Television work

Baranski at the Metropolitan Opera 2010 opening night of Das Rheingold.

Though widely reported to have worked as a child actress under the name “Chris Charney,” Baranski denies ever having appeared on The Brady Bunch, adamant that “the first real TV show” that she worked on was Cybill.

Baranski was featured as Cybill Shepherd‘s hard-drinking friend Maryanne Thorpe in the CBS sitcom Cybill, which ran from 1995 until 1998, during which time she hosted Saturday Night Live and won an Emmy Award as best supporting actress in a comedy series along with three other nominations.

In 1999 Baranski received an Emmy nomination for a guest starring role as an intimidating radio psychiatrist on an episode of the NBC series Frasier. She had an uncredited role in the series Now and Again as the voice of Roger’s overbearing wife Ruth, who was never seen by viewers.

She later appeared in the 2000–2001 sitcom Welcome to New York and, with John Laroquette, in the 2003–2004 NBC sitcom Happy Family. She co-starred with Bernadette Peters in a pilot for an ABC sitcom, Adopted, in 2005, which was not picked up. She also played Faith Clancy, the mother of Jim Clancy in Ghost Whisperer.

She portrayed a librarian named Sonja Umdahl in the episode “Dick and the Single Girl” of the series3rd Rock from the Sun.

She guest starred in The Big Bang Theory as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, an unemotional expert in psychiatry and neuroscience who is the mother of one of the protagonists, Leonard Hofstadter. She appeared in the second season episode entitled “The Maternal Capacitance”, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Due to the popularity of her first appearance, Baranski returned in the third season for the Christmas episode, “The Maternal Congruence” receiving another Emmy nomination.

Since 2009, she has played the role of Diane Lockhart, a top litigator and senior partner of a Chicago law firm on The Good Wife. She was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for an Emmy in both 2010 and 2011.

Besides her work on The Good Wife and the aforementioned guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory, in 2009 Baranski appeared on Ugly Betty as Victoria Hartley, the haughty mother of Betty‘s new boyfriend, and guest starred in episode 4.02 of Psych.