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IMDbPro

Bonnie Bedelia

  • Actress
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,000207
Bonnie Bedelia
The story of a man who returns home on Christmas to settle his estranged mother's estate. Once there, he discovers a diary that may hold secrets to his own past and of a beautiful young woman on a mysterious journey of her own.
Play trailer2:47
The Noel Diary (2022)
19 Videos
92 Photos
The native New Yorker was born Bonnie Bedelia Culkin on March 25, 1948, the daughter of Phillip Harley Culkin, a journalist, and Marian Ethel Wagner Culkin, a writer and editor. Trained in ballet, her parents guided all of the children at one time or another into acting (which included Kit Culkin, Terry Culkin and Candace Culkin). Bonnie herself attended Quintano School for Young Professionals in New York at one point and Bonnie and Kit went on to appear on the local stage and TV. Brother Kit would later be known more for siring a handful of talented child actors and/or stars (Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, and the rest).

It was Bonnie who was first spotted among the other acting siblings by a talent scout who happened to catch her in a school production of "Tom Sawyer", and encouraged her. She made her professional debut at age 9 in a 1957 North Jersey Playhouse production of "Dr. Praetorius" and then was handed a full scholarship to study at George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. But the acting bug had bitten and after dancing in only four productions (including playing the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker"), she decided to hang up her ballet slippers. She proceeded to study at both the HB Studio and Actors Studio in New York.

Bonnie nabbed a five-year role as young teen "Sandy Porter" in the New York-based daytime soap Love of Life (1951) starting in 1961. During that time, she took her first Broadway bow in "Isle of Children", a show that lasted but a week in March of 1962. She was also a replacement in the established hit comedy "Enter Laughing", a year later. After appearing in the stage play "The Playroom" in 1965, she earned strong reviews for her touching performance in "My Sweet Charlie", for which she won the 1967 Theatre World Award for "promising new artist". In it, she played a pregnant young Southern girl on the lam with a black lawyer. Patty Duke recreated the role a few years later on TV and captured an Emmy.

Films beckoned at this point and Bonnie made her debut lending topnotch support in The Gypsy Moths (1969) which reunited From Here to Eternity (1953) stars Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. She earned even better marks in her next two films, one performance simply haunting and the other one hilarious. Once again playing pregnant and once again delivering a touching pathos, she played the dirt-poor marathon dancer who pitches songs for pennies and the almost-mother of Bruce Dern's child in the superb, award-winning, Depression-era drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). On the other end of the acting spectrum, she played the lovable bride-to-be in the side-splitting comedy classic Lovers and Other Strangers (1970).

By this time, Bonnie had started concentrating on family values. She married scriptwriter Ken Luber on April 24, 1969, and bore him a son, Yuri, the following year. The time off to focus on motherhood (she had second son, Jonah Luber, in 1976) proved detrimental to her rising star. The remaining decade was uneventful at best, despite some fine showings in a splattering of TV-movies. Her big comeback came again on the movie trail in the early 1980s when she absolutely nailed the role of race car driver Shirley Muldowney in Heart Like a Wheel (1983). She was surprisingly overlooked at Oscar time, however, despite the praise she received. Despite respected work in subsequent movies such as Violets Are Blue... (1986), The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988), Presumed Innocent (1990) and a running role as Bruce Willis's put-upon wife in Die Hard (1988) and its sequel, she found better and more frequent parts on TV. She found her niche in TV-movies with social themes and tugged at more hearts in Switched at Birth (1991), A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992), Any Mother's Son (1997) and To Live Again (1998).

In a change of pace, Bonnie joined the ensemble cast of the low-budget cult comedy Sordid Lives (2000), as "Latrelle", a homophobic woman dealing with her mother's death, the imprisonment of her gay brother and her own son's "coming out". The movie evolved into the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series (2008) which reunited her with original cast members Leslie Jordan and Olivia Newton-John. She repeated her role again in still another film -- A Very Sordid Wedding (2017)

More recent independent movie credits include Berkeley (2005), Broken Links (2016), The Scent of Rain & Lightning (2017), A Stone in the Water (2019). She also managed a few regular TV series roles: The Division (2001) as a police captain, and Parenthood (2010) as a family matriarch opposite Craig T. Nelson.

Divorced from the father of her two children, she is presently married to third husband (or fourth, depending on your source of reference) actor Michael MacRae, whom she married in 1995.
BornMarch 25, 1948
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornMarch 25, 1948
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,000207
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
    • 3 wins & 5 nominations total

Photos92

Bonnie Bedelia and Michael Rady in A Joyous Christmas (2017)
Bonnie Bedelia in A Joyous Christmas (2017)
Bonnie Bedelia and David Soul in Salem's Lot (1979)
Bonnie Bedelia in Salem's Lot (1979)
Bonnie Bedelia in Salem's Lot (1979)
Bonnie Bedelia in The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988)
Bonnie Bedelia in Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)
Bonnie Bedelia in Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)
Bonnie Bedelia, Caroline Rhea, Beth Grant, and Ann Walker in Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)
Bonnie Bedelia and Mitch Carter in Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)
Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia in Die Hard (1988)
Harrison Ford and Bonnie Bedelia in Presumed Innocent (1990)

Known for

Bruce Willis and Hart Bochner in Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard
8.2
  • Holly Gennaro McClane
  • 1988
Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2 (1990)
Die Hard 2
7.1
  • Holly McClane
  • 1990
Harrison Ford and Greta Scacchi in Presumed Innocent (1990)
Presumed Innocent
6.9
  • Barbara Sabich
  • 1990
Heart Like a Wheel (1983)
Heart Like a Wheel
6.7
  • Shirley Muldowney
  • 1983

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • The Hill
    • Gram
    • Post-production
    • 2023
  • Justin Hartley and Barrett Doss in The Noel Diary (2022)
    The Noel Diary
    • Ellie Foster
    • 2022
  • Life on the Rocks (2021)
    Life on the Rocks
    • Nana
    • Death
    • TV Special
    • 2021
  • Panic (2021)
    Panic
    • Anne McCarthy
    • TV Series
    • 2021
  • VIOLET (2021)
    Violet
    • Aunt Helen
    • 2021
  • A Stone in the Water (2019)
    A Stone in the Water
    • Martha
    • 2019
  • Renée Zellweger, Jane Levy, and Blake Jenner in What/If (2019)
    What/If
    • Margret Denner
    • TV Mini Series
    • 2019
  • Christmas on the Coast (2017)
    Christmas on the Coast
    • Ellie Cassadine
    • 2017
  • Michael Rady and Natalie Knepp in A Joyous Christmas (2017)
    A Joyous Christmas
    • Joy
    • TV Movie
    • 2017
  • Kiefer Sutherland in Designated Survivor (2016)
    Designated Survivor
    • Eva Booker
    • TV Series
    • 2017
  • Bonnie Bedelia, Maggie Grace, and Maika Monroe in The Scent of Rain & Lightning (2017)
    The Scent of Rain & Lightning
    • Annabelle Linder
    • 2017
  • Whoopi Goldberg, Bonnie Bedelia, Caroline Rhea, Dale Dickey, Kirk Geiger, Leslie Jordan, and Emerson Collins in A Very Sordid Wedding (2017)
    A Very Sordid Wedding
    • Latrelle
    • 2017
  • Broken Links (2016)
    Broken Links
    • Melanie
    • 2016
  • Bonnie Bedelia, Craig T. Nelson, Monica Potter, Joy Bryant, Erika Christensen, Lauren Graham, Sam Jaeger, Peter Krause, Mae Whitman, Dax Shepard, Max Burkholder, Miles Heizer, Tyree Brown, Savannah Paige Rae, and Xolo Maridueña in Parenthood (2010)
    Parenthood
    • Camille Braverman
    • TV Series
    • 2010–2015
  • Munchausen (2013)
    Munchausen
    • Mother
    • Short
    • 2013
  • Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)
    Sordid Lives: The Series
    • Latrelle Williamson
    • TV Series
    • 2008

Soundtrack

  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
    They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
    • performer: "The Best Things in Life Are Free" (1927) (uncredited)
    • 1969

Videos20

Official Trailer
Trailer 2:26
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:47
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:14
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:35
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:11
Official Trailer
Trailer: 30th Anniversary Christmas Edition
Trailer 1:28
Trailer: 30th Anniversary Christmas Edition
The Scent Of Rain & Lightning - Trailer
Trailer 2:24
The Scent Of Rain & Lightning - Trailer
A Joyous Christmas
Trailer 0:33
A Joyous Christmas
The Boy Who Could Fly
Trailer 1:40
The Boy Who Could Fly
Sordid Lives
Trailer 2:02
Sordid Lives
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
Trailer 1:22
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
Presumed Innocent
Trailer 1:34
Presumed Innocent

Personal details

Edit
  • Height
    • 5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
  • Born
    • March 25, 1948
    • New York City, New York, USA
  • Spouses
      Michael MacRae1995 - present
  • Children
      Jonah Luber
  • Parents
      Phillip Harley Culkin
  • Relatives
      Kit Culkin(Sibling)
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Article
    • 3 Pictorials
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Aunt of Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Rory Culkin, Shane Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Quinn Culkin.
  • Quotes
    I like to do a movie, to be on it 8, 10 weeks. It evolves as you're working on it. Little things come to you every day. It's a slow process, and when you have to pack it into a short period of time, which you do for television, the experience is not one that I cherish. So if it's going to be television, it's really got to be the right thing.

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