I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.

Murray Abraham who had to drop out and was replaced by Kenneth Welsh. The play was later filmed as Frankie and Johnny starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. She graduated from White Station High School and later attended Southern Methodist University where Kathy Bates majored in theatre is a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and graduated in 1969.

She followed this with major roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Dolores Claiborne (1995) before playing a featured role as Molly Brown in Titanic (1997). Her television work has resulted in eleven Emmy Award nominations two of which were for her starring role on the television series Harry's Law and most recently a win for her acclaimed guest appearance on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as the ghost of Charlie Harper a role formerly portrayed by Charlie Sheen. She received a Tony Award nomination for her 1983 performance in the Broadway play 'night Mother.