Mary Steenburgen, Actress and Songwriter, Celebrates Her Birthday

Her character on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is celebrating a renaissance of sorts, and now actress Mary Steenburgen is about to fete a major milestone of her very own.

Happy Birthday, Mary Steenburgen!

And that’s because she was born on February 8, 1953, in Newport, Arkansas, which means that this multi-talented star is turning 68 years old today! Steenburgen’s longed for acting career finally came to fruition when she suitably impressed Jack Nicholson while standing inside the reception room of Paramount’s New York office.

She was cast as the female lead in his second directorial effort, Goin’ South (1978), and though the film wasn’t the blockbuster it was expected to be, Steenburgen’s subsequent work, especially her turn as Lynda Dummar, the role which netted her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the biopic Melvin and Howard (1980), resulted in rave reviews and commercial success.

Her other film credits include Cross Creek (1983), Ron Howard’s Parenthood (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), a project she undertook at the insistence of her children, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Nixon (1995), Elf (2003) and Step Brothers (2008).

Steenburgen has also appeared in a plethora of television programs, including the mini-series Tender Is the Night (1985) and shows such as Joan of Arcadia (2003-2005), 30 Rock (2012-2013), Justified (2014-2015), The Last Man on Earth (2015-2018), and Zoey’s Extraordinary Play List (2020-Present). Steenburgen also reprised her Back to the Future character via the same-titled animated spinoff (1991-1992).

In 2007, after undergoing minor surgery on her arm, Steenburgen awoke from her anesthetic-induced slumber having developed musicophilia – a neurological condition that results in a sudden, abnormal craving for music and/or increased interest and responsiveness to musical sound.

As a result, Steenburgen took lessons in various musical instruments and began composing songs. Many of her resulting compositions have been recorded by Nashville based artists, and one of them, titled Glasgow, was featured prominently in the film Wild Rose (2018).

Steenburgen was married to Malcolm McDowell, a co-star in her second motion picture, Time After Time (1978), from September 1980 to 1990. They had two children together: Lilly (born January 22, 1981), and Charlie (born July 10, 1983).

She has been married to Ted Danson, whom she met on the set of the film Pontiac Moon, since October 7, 1995. She is the stepmother to Danson’s two daughters from his previous marriage to producer Cassandra “Casey” Coates.

She and Danson have collaborated on a number of film and TV projects, including the 1996 mini-series adaption of Gulliver’s Travels, the sitcom Ink (1996-1997) — a send-up to the classic screwball dramady His Girl Friday, and the comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2017) and Bored to Death (2011).

Entertainment Hub would like to wish Mary Steenburgen a very happy birthday, and you can too by clicking on the Twitter link below.