Julianna Margulies
Julianna Luisa Margulies (5' 6" (1.68 m) born June 8, 1966) is an American actress.
After several small television roles, Margulies achieved success in her continuing role as Nurse Carol Hathaway on the NBC medical drama ER, for which she won an Emmy Award. After her departure from ER in 2000, Margulies appeared in the 2001 miniseries The Mists of Avalon and voiced the female iguanadon, Neera, in the animated film Dinosaur (2000). In 2009, she took the lead role in the American legal drama The Good Wife on CBS, for which she won a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Margulies, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Spring Valley, New York. Her mother, Francesca (née Gardner), was a ballet dancer and eurythmy teacher, and her father, Paul Margulies, was a writer who wrote the Alka-Seltzer jingle "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is". Her parents are Jewish, descended from immigrants from Austria, Hungary, and Romania. The family lived in Israel for a time before Margulies was born, before moving back to the Upper West Side of New York City.
Margulies attended grade school at Green Meadow Waldorf School and high school at High Mowing School. As a child, she lived in New York, France and England. Margulies obtained a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where she appeared in several campus plays.
Margulies' first movie role was as a prostitute looking to go straight in the Steven Seagal film Out for Justice. In 1994, Margulies was cast in a role in the pilot episode of ER as a character who, despondent over her relationship with George Clooney's character, Doug Ross, attempted suicide. Her character was originally intended to die; however, the producers changed the plot and she went on to play the role of Nurse Carol Hathaway for six years. She won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Drama in 1994, and was nominated for this award every year during her tenure. She is also notable for being the only series regular cast member to win an Emmy Award.
Since her departure, Margulies has worked on stage and screen. On stage she has appeared in a MCC Theater production of Kate Robin's Intrigue With Faye, a Lincoln Center production of Jon Robin Baitz's Ten Unknowns, and The Vagina Monologues. Her film work since ER includes Evelyn with Pierce Brosnan and Ghost Ship with Gabriel Byrne and Ron Eldard. She starred as the protagonist and narrator (Morgaine) in the 2001 TNT miniseries The Mists of Avalon and participated in the 2002 documentary film Searching for Debra Winger. In 2004, she guest-starred in a two-episode arc in season 4 of the hit TV show Scrubs as Neena Broderick, an unscrupulous lawyer who sues Turk and has a brief sexual relationship with J.D. She starred in another miniseries on TNT, The Grid in 2004. In April 2006 she appeared in four episodes of the sixth season of The Sopranos, portraying realtor Julianna Skiff. In August 2006, she appeared in Snakes on a Plane as flight attendant Claire Miller. In December 2006 she played Jennifer Bloom in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room.
In an August 2006 interview with tvguide.com, Margulies said that she was close to accepting an offer to return to ER for a four-episode arc with Noah Wyle that filmed in Hawaii during the 2005-2006 season. However, she decided against it at the last minute. Margulies was again invited to return during ER's final season, but the actress turned down the offer, saying that she felt like she left Carol Hathaway in the perfect place and could not imagine bettering her departure episode. However, in 2009, Margulies returned to ER for one episode during its 15th and final season.
She had a minor role in 2007's The Darwin Awards. One of her more recent series, Canterbury's Law, premiered on Fox on March 10, 2008. She played the title character, Elizabeth Canterbury, a lawyer described as "a tough-minded defense attorney who isn't afraid to push boundaries in order to protect innocent clients." The series was impacted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and was cancelled after 6 episodes.
Margulies currently stars as Alicia Florrick in the CBS series The Good Wife. She plays an attorney returning to legal practice after her husband (played by Chris Noth) resigns as Illinois State's Attorney amidst a sex and corruption scandal. On October 7, 2009, CBS gave the series a full-season pickup, extending the first season from 13 to 22 episodes. In 2009, she received a NYWIFT Muse Award celebrating the achievements of women who work in film and television. On January 17, 2010, Margulies won a Golden Globe award for her role in The Good Wife. On January 23, Margulies won her record third Screen Actors Guild award for a role. Margulies was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Drama Series, her seventh Emmy nomination. On January 30, 2011, she won another Screen Actors Guild award for her role while The Good Wife was once again nominated for best ensemble in a drama show but lost to Boardwalk Empire.
Margulies and attorney Keith Lieberthal were married on November 10, 2007, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Their son, Kieran Lindsay Lieberthal, was born on January 17, 2008.