This critically acclaimed TV and stage performer's occasional films have been offbeat and of mixed quality. A fresh-faced, sandy-haired actress, Winningham made her TV debut at 16 singing on the infamous "The Gong Show", but copped a bigger break when her senior class performance as Maria in "The Sound of Music" impressed Hollywood agent Meyer Mishkin. The TV Western series "The Young Pioneers" (1978) lasted only three episodes, but Winningham made a favorable impression in the TV-movie "Special Olympics/A Special Kind of Love" (CBS, 1978), and two years later won an Emmy for her delicately nuanced work as the free-spirited daughter of a farmer caught between her father and a city man in the stirring "Amber Waves" (ABC, 1980). An intense performer adept at conveying a tough rusticity and the sensitivity beneath, Winningham followed with a stunning performance in "Off the Minnesota Strip" (ABC, 1980) as a NY teen prostitute who returns to her small-town family.
Winningham made her feature debut in "One-Trick Pony" (1980) and was especially effective in "Threshold" (1981), as the first recipient of an artificial heart. Later feature roles, though, were either routine supporting parts ("Nobody's Fool" 1986, "Hard Promises" 1992), in films completely unworthy of her ("Turner and Hooch" 1989) or a combination of both ("St. Elmo's Fire" 1985). Winningham shone in the role of Mattie, the common-law wife of "Wyatt Earp" (1984) opposite Kevin Costner, and she had one of her best roles as a successful folk-rock singer coping with her sister's jealousy and addictions in "Georgia" (1995). The latter reunited her with the screenwriter Barbara Turner, who had penned two of Winningham's more successful TV-movies, "Freedom" (ABC, 1981) and "Eye on the Sparrow" (NBC, 1987).
Winningham has fared considerably better in her mainstay, the TV-movie, the restless aspects of her acting persona well-suited to the passionate Justine in "The Thorn Birds" (ABC, 1983), a recreation of the blind and deaf heroine of "Helen Keller--The Miracle Continues" (syndicated, 1984), the daughter of deaf parents longing to make a life on her own in the justly acclaimed "Love Is Never Silent" (NBC, 1985) and the undercover investigator torn in her loyalties in "Love and Lies" (ABC, 1990).
Family
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Daughter: Calla Louise Mapel. born c. 1987
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Son: Hap Atticus Mapel. born on September 13, 1988
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Son: Jack Walter Mapel. born on April 15, 1985
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Son: Paddy Mapel. born on September 30, 1983
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Son: Riley Sam Mapel. born on November 7, 1981
Significant Others
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Companion: Val Kilmer. dated for three years while in high school
Education
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Chatsworth High School, Chatsworth, California
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Teenage Drama Workshop of the California State University, Northridge, Northridge, California
Milestones
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1971 Stage debut at age 12 in Hansel and Gretel with the Teenage Drama Workshop at California State University (date approximate)
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1976 First appeared on TV at age 16 singing on The Gong Show (date approximate)
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1977 Played the leading role of Maria in her senior class production of The Sound of Music ; was seen by agent Meyer Mishkin, who signed her as a client (date approximate)
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1978 TV series debut as Nettie Peters on the short-lived ABC period drama, The Young Pioneers
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1978 TV-movie debut in Special Olympics/A Special Kind of Love
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1980 Film acting debut in One Trick Pony
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1981 Sang in the TV-movie, Freedom , in which she also starred
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1985 Returned to features after four years to join a group of young actors dubbed the Brat Pack for St. Elmo s Fire
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1992 Released first album, What Might Be
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1995 Earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as Jennifer Jason Leigh s sister in Georgia
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1997 Co-starred as Lurleen Wallace in the TNT biopic George Wallace
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1998 Had recurring role of a pathological liar on ER (NBC)
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2001 Co-starred with Felicity Huffman in the based-on-fact Lifetime TV-movie Snap Decision , playing a mother whose children are taken from her after a photographer friend photographs them and is then charged with child pornography
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2001 Played the mother in the Pasadena Playhouse staging of Side Man
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2002 Guest-starred on an episode of the HBO drama Six Feet Under
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2003 Cast on the short-lived CBS series The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire
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2004 Guest-starred on an episode of NBC s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ; received an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series
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Grew up in the San Fernando Valley in California
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Landed episodic guest roles on shows like Starsky and Hutch , Family and James at 15
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Performed with Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Company for two seasons while in high school