Anecdotes

Once lived in an apartment with Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel, and Holly Hunter.

Her performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996) is ranked #27 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

She wears the wedding ring that originally was worn by her husband Joel Coen's first wife, a brief marriage that had ended in divorce in the late 1970s. She explained that she was being practical, and that the ring shouldn't be wasted.

Was the third and youngest child adopted by her minister father, Vernon McDormand, and his wife, Noreen.

Has one son, Pedro McDormand Coen, adopted from Paraguay in 1994.

Is the 1st actress to have won 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. She won for her work on the films Fargo (1996) and 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017).

Shared an apartment in the Bronx with Holly Hunter in the early 1980s until they moved in with Joel Coen, Ethan Coen and Sam Raimi into a house in Los Angeles.

Her Oscar-winning role, as Marge Gunderson in the film Fargo (1996), was ranked #33 in the American Film Institute's Heroes list in their 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.

In 2015 she became the 23rd performer to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony). She won the 1997 Best Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996), the 2011 Best Leading Actress in a Play Tony for "Good People," and the 2015 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy for Olive Kitteridge (2014).

Her role in 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017) was written specifically for her.

Is one of 17 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony). The others, in chronological order, are Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley Booth, Liza Minnelli, Rita Moreno, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith, Ellen Burstyn, Helen Mirren, Jessica Lange,Viola Davis and Glenda Jackson.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1988 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire".

According to a 2017 New York Times profile, McDormand was the last of nine children to be adopted and/or fostered by Noreen and Vernon McDormand. She was adopted at the age of 1; her birth name was Cynthia Ann Smith.

Won a Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play in 2011. She was awarded for her performance in the play "Good People".

During her ecstatic Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech for 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017), McDormand mentioned the term "inclusion rider" that left many scratching their heads. Apparently "inclusion rider" is a clause that an actor can insist be included in his/her contract that requires cast and crew on a particular film to meet a certain level of diversity. The concept was discussed in a 2016 "TED" talk by Stacy Smith in which she determined that casting was not representative of the population, suggesting that an "equity clause" or an "inclusion rider" could be part of the solution.

As of 2013, she is one of six women who has received a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and the only one to have actually won, for a performance directed by her spouse--in McDormand's case, for Fargo (1996), directed by Joel Coen. The other five are Elisabeth Bergner for Escape Me Never (1935), directed by Paul Czinner; Joanne Woodward for Rachel, Rachel (1968), directed by Paul Newman; Jean Simmons for The Happy Ending (1969), directed by Richard Brooks; Gena Rowlands for Une femme sous influence (1974) & for Gloria (1980), both directed by John Cassavetes; and Julie Andrews for Victor/Victoria (1982), directed by Blake Edwards. Melina Mercouri received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Jamais le dimanche (1960), directed by her future husband Jules Dassin, but Mercouri and Dassin weren't yet married at the time of the nomination.

She has appeared in five films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Mississippi Burning (1988), Fargo (1996), 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017), Nomadland (2020) and Women Talking (2022). Nomadland won in the category.

Both of her adoptive parents were born in Canada. Her father, The Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister, was from Nova Scotia. Her mother, Noreen Eloise (Nickleson) McDormand, a housewife and nurse, was from Ontario.

Second actress, after Katharine Hepburn, to win three Oscars for Best Leading Actress. She won for Fargo (1996), 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017) and Nomadland (2020). She also won for producing the latter.

Is one of 15 actresses to win the Critic's Choice Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and Oscar in the same year, winning for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). The others to achieve this are Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich (2000), Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain (2003), Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005), Helen Mirren for The Queen (2006), Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls (2006), Kate Winslet for The Reader (2008), Mo'Nique for Precious (2009), Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010), Octavia Spencer for The Help (2011), Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables (2012), Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine (2013), Patricia Arquette for Boyhood (2014), Julianne Moore for Still Alice (2014) and Allison Janney in I, Tonya.

Having been nominated for Nomadland, she becomes the third actress (7th actor overall) to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in 5 different decades (Mississippi Burning 1988, Fargo 1996, Almost Famous 2000, North Country 2005, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri 2017, and Nomadland 2020). Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep are the others.

Graduated from Bethany College, in Bethany, West Virginia, with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Theater in 1979. She graduated from Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, with a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1982.

Was listed as a potential nominee on the 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballot. She was listed as a suggestion in the Worst Supporting Actress category for her performance in the film Æon Flux (2005). However, she failed to receive a nomination. (Had she gotten the nomination, she would have been one of the few to be nominated for both Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, for L'affaire Josey Aimes (2005), and Worst Supporting Actress at the Razzies in the same year.)

As of 2021, she has won the award each of the three times she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but lost it every time she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Raised in Monessen, Pennsylvania.

The longest she has gone without an Oscar nomination is the 12 years between L'affaire Josey Aimes (2005) and 3 Billboards : Les Panneaux de la vengeance (2017).

Was jury president of the Berlin Film Festival, 2004.

Was the 111th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996) at The 69th Annual Academy Awards (1997) on March 24, 1997.

Co-starred with Charlize Theron in two films during the same year (Æon Flux (2005) and L'affaire Josey Aimes (2005)).

Sister-in-law of Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke.

She has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Fargo (1996).

Is one of 13 actresses to have won a Best Actress Oscar for playing a character who is pregnant at some point during the film, hers being for Fargo (1996). The others are Helen Hayes for La faute de Madeleine Claudet (1931), Luise Rainer for La terre chinoise (1937), Vivien Leigh for Autant en emporte le vent (1939), Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle (1940), Olivia de Havilland for À chacun son destin (1946), Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda, l'enfant du silence (1948), Anna Magnani for La rose tatouée (1955), Julie Christie for Darling chérie (1965), Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968), Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), Sissy Spacek for Nashville Lady (1980), Jessica Chastain for Dans les yeux de Tammy Faye (2021).

Is one of 25 actresses who have received an Academy Award for their performance in a comedy, hers being for Fargo (1996). The others, in chronological order, are Claudette Colbert (New York - Miami (1934)), Loretta Young (Ma femme est un grand homme (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Comment l'esprit vient aux femmes (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Vacances romaines (1953)), Goldie Hawn (Fleur de cactus (1969)), Glenda Jackson (Une maîtresse dans les bras, une femme sur le dos (1973)), Lee Grant (Shampoo (1975)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Maggie Smith (California Hôtel (1978)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin et Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Olympia Dukakis (Éclair de lune (1987)), Cher (Éclair de lune (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Miss Daisy et son chauffeur (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (Fisher King - Le roi pêcheur (1991)), Marisa Tomei (Mon cousin Vinny (1992)), Dianne Wiest (Coups de feu sur Broadway (1994)), Mira Sorvino (Maudite Aphrodite (1995)), Helen Hunt (Pour le pire et pour le meilleur (1997)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), and Jennifer Lawrence (Happiness Therapy (2012)).

Frequently appears in Coen Brother films and Wes Anderson films.

Friends with Tom Hanks.