Frances McDormand is an American film, stage, and television actress. Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her role as Marge Gunderson in Fargo. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and was adopted by a Canadian couple Noreen, a registered nurse and receptionist, and Vernon, a Disciples of Christ pastor.

Frances McDormand has a sister, Dorothy, who is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and chaplain, as well as two other siblings, all of whom were adopted by Noreen and Vernon, who had no biological children.

As her father specialized in restoring congregations, he frequently moved their family, and they lived in several small towns in Illinois, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, before settling in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area town of Monessen, where Frances McDormand graduated from high school in 1975.

Frances McDormand attended Bethany College, West Virginia, and earned a B.A. in Theater in 1979. In 1982, Frances McDormand earned an M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Drama. She was roommates with Holly Hunter at the time. Frances McDormand first professional acting job was in Trinidad and Tobago, performing in a play written by poet Derek Walcott.