Jean Smart

Jean Smart

Jean Elizabeth Smart (born September 13, 1951) is an American actress. After beginning her career in regional theater in the Pacific Northwest, she appeared on Broadway in 1981, as Marlene Dietrich in the biographical play Piaf. Smart was later cast in a leading role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women, which she starred in from 1986 to 1991. Smart was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 2000 Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner, and would go on to receive two Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as Lana Gardener on the NBC sitcom Frasier (2000–01). She won a third Primetime Emmy Award for her starring role as Regina Newley on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who? (2007–09). She also portrayed Martha Logan on the action drama series 24 (2006–07). For her performance as Floyd Gerhardt on Noah Hawley's FX crime series Fargo (2015), she earned a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. From 2017 to 2019, she starred as Melanie Bird in the FX science fiction series Legion, and in 2019, she starred as Laurie Blake (né Juspeczyk) in Watchmen.

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