Born in Milford On-Sea, England, Frances Fisher’s itinerant childhood living in the UK, Columbia, Canada, France, Brazil, Turkey, Italy, Iowa and Texas undoubtedly provided fodder for her thespian career. Fisher started her career at the Barter Theatre in Virginia and has starred in over 30 theatrical productions encompassing experimental, touring, regional, off-off Broadway and off-Broadway. Some of these include Fool for Love, Desire Under the Elms, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ruffian on the Stair, Crackwalker, The Hunter & The Bird, The HitchHikers, Jammed, 1984, Still Life, Elia Kazan’s The Chain, Hay Fever, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Arthur Miller’s last play Finishing the Picture. Her Los Angeles stage credits include The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper Forum with Annette Bening, Alfred Molina and Sarah Poulson; as well as 99-seat theater productions of Three More Sleepless Nights (Drama League Award), Sexy Laundry opposite Paul Ben-Victor and My Child: Mothers of War. Fisher is a member of the Actors Studio, and her first acting teacher was Stella Adler. She credits Sandra Seacat and Cathleen Leslie for classes and coaching.
On the big screen, Fisher has been seen in Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Babyfever, Patty Hearst, Female Perversions, the Academy Award®-winning Unforgiven, True Crime, The Big Tease, The Rising Place, Blue Car, The Kingdom, House of Sand and Fog, Wild America, Laws of Attraction, In the Valley of Elah, Jolene, The Perfect Game, Golf in the Kingdom, Any Day Now, The Roommate, Janie Jones, The Silent Thief, Sedona, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Host. She is perhaps best known for her performance as Kate Winslet’s mother in Titanic, which garnered Fisher a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Ensemble Cast while the film went on to receive 11 Academy Awards®.
On television, Fisher has appeared in the television movies “Mrs. Harris,” “Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter,” in which she starred as Lucille Ball, “The Audrey Hepburn Story,” “Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis,” Hallmark Channel’s “Unleashing Mr. Darcy” and “The Seven Year Hitch,” “The Makeover,” “Portrait of Love,” “Cold Sassy Tree,” “Sudie & Simpson.” She has also had recurring roles in series such as “The Shield,” “Eureka,” “Torchwood: Miracle Day,” “The Killing” and “Masters of Sex.” Additionally, Fisher has had guest starring roles in primetime series including “Law & Order,” “Roseanne,” “The Mentalist,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Childrens Hospital,” “Private Practice,” “CSI” and “Castle” as well as the daytime dramas “The Edge of Night” and “The Guiding Light.”
Most recently, Fisher had a guest role on FX’s “Fargo.” Recent feature credits include Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren and JT Mollner’s Outlaws and Angels, co-starring her daughter, Francesca Eastwood.
