Patricia Heaton Bio

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Patricia Helen Heaton (born March 4, 1958) is an American actress, comedienne, producer and model, best known for portraying Debra Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996 to 2005, for which she won two Emmy Awards. In 2007, she made a return to sitcom television opposite Kelsey Grammer in the Fox comedy series Back to You, which was canceled in 2008. She currently stars as Frankie Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle.

Patricia Heaton: Early life

Patricia Heaton was born in Bay Village, Ohio, the daughter of Patricia (née Hurd) and Chuck Heaton, who was a sportswriter for the Plain Dealer. She was raised as a devout Roman Catholic.

Heaton has three sisters, Sharon, Alice, and Frances, and one brother, Michael, who is the "Minister of Culture" columnist for the Plain Dealer and a writer for the paper's Friday Magazine.

Patricia Heaton: Career

While attending the Ohio State University, she became a sister of Delta Gamma Sorority. She later graduated with a B.A. in drama. In 1980, Heaton moved to New York City to study with drama teacher William Esper.

Patricia Heaton - Theater

Heaton made her first Broadway appearance in the chorus of Don't Get God Started (1987), after which she and fellow students created Stage Three, an Off-Broadway acting troupe.

In January 2007, Heaton returned to the stage to co-star with Tony Shalhoub in the Off-Broadway play The Scene at Second Stage Theater in New York City. For this performance, Heaton was nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress category for the 22nd Lucille Lortel Awards.

Patricia Heaton - Television

When Stage Three brought one of their productions to Los Angeles, Heaton caught the eye of a casting director for the ABC drama Thirtysomething. She was cast as an oncologist, leading to six appearances on the series from 1989-1991. Other TV guest appearances include: Alien Nation (1989), Matlock (1990), Party of Five (1996), The King of Queens (1999), and Danny Phantom (2004).

Heaton was featured in three short-lived sitcoms - Room for Two (1992) with Linda Lavin, Someone Like Me (1994), and Women of the House (1995) with Delta Burke and Terri Garr - before landing her signature role of beleaguered wife, mother, and in-law Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005) with Ray Romano, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Monica Horan. She was nominated in each of the series' last seven seasons for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy, winning the award twice. She has also collected two Viewers for Quality Television awards and a Screen Actors Guild trophy for her work on the series.

Starting September 2007, Heaton began to co-star with Kelsey Grammer in Back to You, a new situation comedy on Fox. The show was canceled in May 2008.

Heaton appeared on the season 7 premiere of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where she helped build a home for a firefighter and his family. More recently, she has been seen in the ABC comedy The Middle. She starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Front of the Class, based on the real story of a mother, Ellen Cohen, dealing with a son, Brad Cohen, who has Tourette Syndrome, in 2008.

In 2011, Heaton was ranked #24 on the TV Guide Network special, Funniest Women on TV.

She will get her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

Patricia Heaton - Film

Heaton's television movies include Shattered Dreams (1990), Front of the Class (2008)], Miracle in the Woods (1997), A Town Without Christmas (2001), as well as the remake of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (2004) with Jeff Daniels, and The Engagement Ring (2005), both for TNT.

Heaton also played former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, in the 2006 ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11. Her feature films include Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Beethoven (1992), The New Age (1994), and Space Jam (1996).

Heaton was the producer for the 2005 documentary The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania, which was directed by her husband. She was also one of the producers of the William Wilberforce drama Amazing Grace (2006).

Patricia Heaton - Other credits

In 2003, Heaton appeared in a series of television and radio commercials as spokesperson for the various incarnations of the grocery chain Albertsons, such as Acme, Jewel and Shaw's. Heaton also was featured on the cover of the company's 2003 and 2004 annual reports. In 2007, Albertsons created the Crazy About Food slogan/campaign and Heaton's association with the company ended. She has also appeared in advertisements for Pantene hair-care products.

Patricia Heaton: Personal life

Heaton has been married to British actor David Hunt since 1990; it is her second marriage. Her first marriage (1984-1987) ended in divorce. The couple have four sons: Samuel David (b. September 1993); John Basil (b. May 1995); Joseph Charles (b. 2 June 1997); and Daniel Patrick (b. January 20, 1999). They divide their time between Los Angeles and Buckinghamshire, where they own a house, as well as a house in her hometown of Bay Village. Her memoir, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine, was published by Villard Books in 2002. Although she and her family attend a Presbyterian Church, Heaton says she is still a Catholic.

Patricia Heaton - Political and social advocacy

Heaton is a consistent life ethicist and is supportive of pro-life groups and causes, opposing abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty. Heaton's advocacy became particularly visible during the debate regarding the Terri Schiavo case. In addition, Heaton is Honorary Chair of Feminists for Life, an organization which opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research and supports other pro-life causes on the basis of feminism.

She supports gay rights and birth control, and has publicly stated that she is not against gay marriage.

Patricia Heaton and family in Indianapolis 500 Parade, May 2008.

Heaton's name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (17 August 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

In October 2006, Heaton appeared in a commercial opposing a Missouri state constitutional amendment concerning embryonic stem cell research, which subsequently passed. The advertisement was a response to the election of Democratic Senate hopeful Claire McCaskill and ran at about the same time as Michael J. Fox's advertisement supporting the amendment. Appearing with Heaton were actor Jim Caviezel, pitcher Jeff Suppan, then of the St. Louis Cardinals, Mike Sweeney of the Seattle Mariners and quarterback Kurt Warner, formerly of the St. Louis Rams and the Arizona Cardinals. Following a public outcry, Heaton later said she regretted doing the ad and sent an apology to Fox, claiming she wasn't aware of Fox's ad before she did hers. Fox accepted her apology and later stated that "If we can have a healthy dialogue about issues that people see differently, that's marvelous."

On February 29, 2012, Heaton made several negative public remarks against Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke; joining the controversy surrounding requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. Following criticism for her remarks, Heaton apologized days later.

She is a Republican.

Patricia Heaton: Emmy Awards

Heaton won two Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy Awards for her work in Everybody Loves Raymond:

She has been nominated for five others for the same series: