Although she's given many great performances in film and tv, her Star-Making Role came in the form of FX's Elmore Leonard series Justified, where she earned critical acclaim as the complex yet terrifying drug kingpin and criminal matriarch, Mags Bennett. The role won her numerous awards including an Emmy and a Critics' Choice Television Award; her appearance in Season 2 is widely regarded as a series high point.
No relation to
Ann Dowd, beyond being actors who came to prominence in 2010s TV shows.
Tropes
- Adam Westing: She plays herself as a semi-sane criminal in BoJack Horseman.
Film Roles
- 1990 Days of Thunder as Donna
- 1991 The Rocketeer as Millie
- 1992 Lorenzo's Oil as Wendy Gimble
- 1993 The Firm as Nina Huff
- 1994 Nobody's Fool as Birdy
- 1995 Dead Man Walking as Sister Colleen
- 1996 Ghosts of Mississippi as Clara Mayfield
- 1998 Practical Magic as Linda Bennett
- 1999 Ride with the Devil as Wilma Brown
- 2000 28 Days as Betty
- 2002 The Hours as Mrs. Latch
- 2004 Million Dollar Baby as Earline Fitzgerald
- 2007 Walk Hard as Ma Cox
- 2009 Orphan as Dr. Browning
- 2009 Hannah Montana The Movie as Ruby
- 2010 Secretariat as Elizabeth Hamm
- 2013 Beautiful Creatures as Aunt Del
- 2013 August: Osage County as Mattie Fae Aiken
- 2016 The Hollars as Sally Hollar
- 2023 Cocaine Bear as Liz
Television Roles
- 1999 Homicide: Life on the Street as Verna Henderson
- 2002 The Laramie Project as Trish Steger
- 2005 Medium as Catherine
- 2006 Dexter as Camilla Figg
- 2007-2008 The Riches as Nina Burns
- 2009-2010 Mercy as Nurse Klowden
- 2011 Justified as Mags Bennett
- 2011-2012 A Gifted Man as Rita Perkins-Hall
- 2013-2015 The Millers as Carol Miller
- 2013-2017 The Americans as Claudia
- 2014-2020 BoJack Horseman as Character Actress Margo Martindale
- 2015-2016 The Good Wife as Ruth Eastman
- 2018-present The Good Fight as Ruth Eastman
- 2015-2019 Sneaky Pete as Audrey Bernhardt
- 2017-2021 DuckTales (2017) as Ma Beagle
- 2020 Mrs. America as Representative Bella Abzug
- 2020-present Your Honor as Senator Elizabeth Guthrie
- 2021 Infinity Train as Judge Morpho
- 2021 Impeachment: American Crime Story as Lucianne Goldberg
- 2022 The Watcher as Big Mo
- 2023 Mrs. Davis as Mother Superior
