Jayne Atkinson may not be the most recognizable name on the planet, but she’s certainly one of its most familiar faces. Through the course of her career, the prolific actress has played some of TV’s best-loved characters, from BAU Section Chief Erin Strauss in the CBS drama Criminal Minds, to Karen Hayes on 24, to United States Vice President Teresa Hurst in Madam Secretary, to U.S. Secretary of State Catherine Durant in House of Cards. If the name is now starting to ring a bell, read on to discover more.
1. She was born in England
Atkinson may have spent most of her life in the States, but she was actually born in Dorset, England. The actress spent the first 9 years of her life in the UK until her family upped sticks to move to the US, where they eventually settled in North Miami Beach, Florida. Atkinson spent her youth at Pine Crest School, where she proved popular enough with her classmates to be elected Homecoming Queen in 1977. After graduating, she took her BS at Northwestern University before studying for her MFA at the Yale Drama School.
2. She began her career on stage
After performing intermittently in regional theatre during her time at Yale University, Atkinson got her first break as a professional when she landed a part in the off-Broadway production of Bloody Poetry in the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1987. That same year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Her performance in both productions was good enough to catch the eye of numerous stage directors, and the work quickly began to line up, with parts in Henry VIII, Tru, and The Art of Success following in quick succession.
3. She’s a multi-award winner
Atkinson earned her first award (a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play) in 1996. Since then, she’s swept the board at most major awards ceremonies, both in recognition of her outstanding stage work and equally well-received television and film performances. To date, she’s racked up a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 1999 production of Rain Man at the Roundabout Theatre Company, an Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Enchanted April (2003), a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the made-for-TV movie Our Town, and another Tony Award for Blithe Spirit.
4. She’s appeared with her husband on House of Cards
In 1989, Atkinson met her now-husband, the actor Michael Gill, on the set of a production of The Heiress at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. Years later, they’d get their chance to act alongside each other again on the House of Cards, on which Gill played President Garrett Walker and Atkinson played Secretary of State Catherine Durant.
5. Her film debut was on Free Willy
After several years of concentrating largely on her stage work (with a few pieces for TV thrown in for good measure), Atkinson made her film debut as Annie Greenwood in 1993s Free Willy. She reprised the role again in 1995 in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, and has since gone on to enjoy roles in Our Town (2003), The Village (2004), Syriana (2005), 12 and Holding (2006), Recount (2008), and Handsome Henry (2009).
6. Politics, espionage, and crime are her stock trade
Outside of the theatre, Atkinson is best known for her TV work, where she seems to have made a habit of choosing roles in shows centered on the murky worlds of politics, espionage, and crime. In 2002, for example, she played the character of Dr. Claire Snyder in an episode of Law and Order. Between 2006 and 2007, she played Karen Hayes in 30 episodes of 24. 2007 saw her land the role of Erin Strauss in Criminal Minds, while in 2008, she made appearances in both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order. Perception (2012), House of Cards (2013-2018), The Good Wife (2016), and Madam Secretary (2018) complete the roundup.
7. She’s active in charitable causes
As well as supporting the educational theater company, Fringe Benefits, and the international medical assistance foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Atkinson is active in Running Start, a nonprofit run by Susannah Welford that offers a mentorship program to young women looking to run for office. “I think in the media, in television and in movies, you just see a lot of women being very mean to each other,” she told Rogers Revue about her involvement. “I think Susannah is doing an amazing job and I’m very proud to be part of it.”
8. She’s starring in a one-woman play
It takes a very special kind of actress to have the stage presence and charisma to carry off a one-person play, but Atkinson is clearly just such an actress. Since summer, she’s been hard at work giving life to the late Texas governor, Anne Richards, in the one-woman production of “Anne”. As Atkinson is used to playing fictionalized characters, depicting a real-life person came with an altogether new set of challenges. “It is challenging to play a real-life person because you want to do her justice. I want to have her accent and her walk and the way she presents herself, but I think what I’m going for as well is her spirit,” Atkinson told Broadway World. “Kristen Van Ginhoven [Ann’s Director] and I talked about it and it sort of comes through me and that’s going to affect the version of her, but I have been told that I’m doing really well, especially by people who have known her or worked with her.”
9. She’s one of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ biggest inspirations
When Julia Louis-Dreyfus (then a student of Northwestern) saw Atkinson perform the “quality of mercy is not strained” monologue as Portia in The Merchant of Venice, she was so blown away she still remembers it to this day. When the Seinfeld star accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last fall, she followed her speech by performing the same monologue, only this time, in the style of Elaine Benes. “It was all born out of admiration for Jayne back in the day,” she explained later of her decision. “For me, Jayne’s performance at Northwestern represented the pinnacle of quality drama.”
10. She doesn’t chase the limelight
Despite having enjoyed amazing critical acclaim throughout the course of her career and appeared on some of the biggest TV shows of the past few years, Atkinson is still far from being a household name… and that’s exactly the way she likes it. “It takes a lot to be a Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to be constantly in the limelight. It’s enough what I have,” she says.
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