A talented actress and the wife of director Joel Coen, Frances McDormand is perhaps best known for playing pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo, a role that earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.

The adopted daughter of a minister from the Midwest, McDormand attended the Yale School of Drama. After graduation she briefly lived in a Bronx apartment with former classmate Holly Hunter. When Hunter wasn't available for the lead role in the Coen Brothers' 1985 film Blood Simple, McDormand stepped in and met her future husband, Joel Coen, in the process. She's particularly fond of working with her husband and has done so in films like Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Burn After Reading. McDormand has also had a number of stage roles, including Far Away, The Sisters Rosenzweig, The Swan, and A Streetcar Named Desire, which earned her a Tony nomination in 1988, and she finally won a Tony in 2011 for Good People. [Image via AP]