Tess Harper Biography

Tess Harper is an American actress who is popular for her performance in the film ‘Tender Mercies’ which helped her gain the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Search also for Ted Neeley.

Tess Harper Age

Tess was born on August 15, 1950, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, U.S. She is 68 years old as of 2018.

Tess Harper Parents

Her father’s name is Ed Washman and her mother’s name is Rosemary. Most of her family members were quilt makers and she used to sit on the porch swing and read.

Tess Harper Nationality

Harper holds American citizenship but her ethnicity is unknown.

Tess Harper Married

Tess Harper got married to Ken Harper in 1971 but they couldn’t regularize their relationship and the couple separated with a divorce after 5 years of their married life. As up to to date, she is living happily as a single person. The couple did not welcome any children during their relationship.

Tess Harper Education

Harper joined Arkansas State University-Beebe where she performed in several plays. Then, she graduated with a degree in education from Southwest Missouri State University(now Missouri State University) in Springfield, Missouri.

Tess Harper Net Worth

Harper must have earned a decent amount of money from her career however, she has not revealed her net worth salary and income. According to some online sources, she has an estimated net worth of around $4 million but it has not been confirmed.

Tess Harper Height

She has a height of 5 ft. 5 inches and weighs 56 kg. Tess Harper has blue eyes and blonde hair.

Tess Harper Breaking Bad

She had the recurring role of Mrs. Pinkman on Breaking Bad, appearing in the first three seasons.

Tess Harper Movies

• The Man in the Moon
• Tender Mercies
• No Country for Old Men
• The Jackal
• How to Getaway with Murder
• Fatal Secrets
• The Killing secret
• Burden

Tess Harper Acting Career

Harper began acting in theater productions, dinner theatre, and children’s theatre. She had given up hopes of an acting career and was working for a financial institution in Texas. The institution wanted to produce a TV spot and asked her to be in the spot, which she accepted. In a twist of fate, a casting person with Tender Mercies had to spend the night in Dallas and saw Harper’s spot on TV.

She called Robert Duvall and arranged an audition. Director Bruce Beresford was impressed with Harper and cast her in the lead female role of Rosa Lee, the young widow, and mother who marries country singer Mac Sledge. Beresford said that Harper brought a kind of rural quality to the role without coming across as simple or foolish. He said of Harper, “She walked into the room and even before she spoke, I thought, ‘That’s the girl to play the lead.

Harper did not realize this and recalled shortly after the film’s release After I did the final screen test, I went to see Breaker Morant and started sobbing uncontrollably halfway through it. A friend had to take me home, and I kept crying, ‘You don’t understand! They’re not gonna let me do this part!.

Tender Mercies was Harper’s feature film debut. She later said that she was so excited about the role that she bit her script just to make sure it was real, and she was so nervous that during her first take she feared the filmmakers would “come to their senses and say, ‘We’re sorry, we made a terrible mistake. Duvall, who played the lead role of Mac Sledge, did his best to help Harper in her first film role.

During one scene in which Mac Sledge and Rosa Lee were fighting, Duvall yelled at a make-up artist in front of Harper specifically to make her angry for the scene; Duvall apologized to the make-up artist after the scene was shot. After filming, Duvall said Harper did a very good job, and he felt her rural past in Arkansas helped her in the part. She earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role. Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.

Harper appeared in the TV mini-series Chiefs (1983) and Celebrity (1984), as well as many television movies including Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land(1983) and Reckless Disregard (1985). In 1983, she appeared in the full-length feature Silkwood. In 1986, Harper was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work as Chick Boyle in Crimes of the Heart, which was directed by her Tender Mercies director Bruce Beresford. She later played parts in Ishtar (1987), Far North (1988), The Man in the Moon (1991), The Jackal (1997) and Loggerheads (2005). She also took part in Michael Jackson’s Black Or White (1991) musical minifilm.

Harper had a regular role on the CBS series Christy, from 1994-95. Her roles have frequently been that of a Southern lady, although she had worked to lose her Arkansas accent. She also had a recurring role on another CBS television series, Early Edition, from 1996 to 2000. She portrayed the mother of lead character Gary Hobson. Harper shared a Screen Actors Guild Award (in the Best Ensemble Cast category) with her fellow cast members in the Oscar-winning film No Country for Old Men, in which she played the wife of Tommy Lee Jones.

Tess Harper Now

She recently appeared as Sheila Miller in the television series ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ in 2019, and as Hazel in the film ‘Burden’ in 2018.

Tess Harper Awards

She won Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, won Gold Derby Award in the category Ensemble Cast for ‘No Country for Old Men’ in 2008, nominated or Oscar award in the category Best Actress in a Supporting Role for ‘Crimes of the Heart’ in 1987, and nominated several times in her career.