Soaps to Success

Background:

Marcia Cross may have come to our attention by playing the role of Dr. Kimberly Shaw on Fox's hit series Melrose Place but that is only one fraction of her credited "show and tell." A dedicated Yoga fan and sponsor of Children United Nations, this beautiful and talented actress has dealt with those over-dramatic soap opera roles (Kate Sanders in One Life to Live, Tanya in Another World for starters), to funny man Jerry Seinfeld's main squeeze in Seinfeld (The Slicer episode), to Bree Van De Kamp in TV's sizzling series Desperate Housewives.

It's little wonder Marcia is carving out her niche in entertainment. Familiar with theatre, television and film, Marcia has been acting for over 20 years, paying her dues and fine-tuning her craft. She is finally reaping the rewards with oodles of nominations for her role in Desperate Housewives.

When leaving her character of Dr. Linda Abbott in TV's Everwood for character Bree, some felt she was making a career mistake. Looks like Cross knows exactly what's best for her.

Massachusetts Marcia

Childhood and Family:

Born and raised in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Marcia Cross is the daughter of parents Mark and Janet, and the sister of siblings Susan and Ellen.

Marcia holds a Master's degree in psychology from L.A.'s Antioch University and studied at The Juilliard School, New York, New York as well.

On August 30, 1993, Marcia's longtime partner, actor Richard Jordan (born July 19, 1938) died of a brain tumor. Marcia has not dated anyone seriously since his death.

Hitches and Hold-ups

Career:

On July 27, 1984 Marcia Cross stepped into paleontologist Liz Correll's shoes on sappy soap The Edge of Night and stayed there until December 28, 1984 when her character was seen hitchhiking out of Monticello with character Preacher Emerson. 20 years later she hit the prime time (and big time) as the "the Martha Stewart on steroids whose family is about to mutiny," (quote from ABC), Bree Van De Kamp in Desperate Housewives.

Those 20 years of "hitchhiking" has kept Marcia busy. Some of the stops along the way included a "hold-up" with Jesse and Frank in TV's The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986), until she was sucked back into daytime drama as Kate Sanders in One Life to Live. Again with the soaps as Marcia played Tanya in Another World. Marcia continued to travel through some "forgotten roles" and found her way back to the series in Knots Landing (1991-1992) and Melrose Place (1992-1993, 1994-1997).

In 1993 Marcia suffered a tragic personal loss when her longtime companion, actor Richard Jordan (Francis 7, Sandman in Logan's Run, Jean Valjean in Les Miserables) died of a brain tumor and in 1997 Marcia left Melrose Place to get her Masters Degree in psychology.

A career with ups and downs, good roles and bad, Marcia seems to have fit into her latest niche with solid roots. TV's Desperate Housewives, with it's satirical poke at suburban housewives, is hot and Marcia is smack-dab planted in the middle of it.