From mama to murderer

THE GREAT Kathy Bates has been nominated for four Oscars (winning once), 14 Emmys (winning twice) and eight Golden Globes (two wins). She brings steely authenticity to every performance. Here are five of her best.

1. MISERY (1990)

As Annie Wilkes (pictured right), a crazed fan nursing her favourite novelist back to “health” after he crashes near her mountain home, Bates actually manages to make us care about one of cinema’s most maniacal villains and deservedly took home the Best Actress Oscar. Her performance as the title character in another Stephen King adaptation, Dolores Claiborne, was somewhat dismissed at the time as a Misery wannabe, but is pretty impressive in its own right.

2. THE WATERBOY (1998)

Bates gave good Southern in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), but delivered the accent of her career as Adam Sandler’s Godfearing, gator-rastling, bayou-bred Mama in this Louisiana-set comedy, in which she famously refers to anything she opposes as “the devil!” Bates tends to be underrecognised for her comedic abilities and this is arguably the funniest she’s ever been.

3. ABOUT SCHMIDT (2002)

Bates received her third Oscar nomination (following one in 1999 for her lively turn in the political dramedy Primary Colours) for her supporting performance in this Alexander Payne comedy. She plays the kooky mother of Jack Nicholson’s daughter’s fiance, who memorably attempts to seduce Jack in a spa pool.

4. AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN (2013)

Bates has excelled as a number of different characters across multiple seasons of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series and she clearly has a kindred spirit in Murphy, for whom she also played actor Joan Blondell in Feud: Bette and Joan. But she was never more chilling than in AHS’ third season as Marie Delphine LaLaurie, a cruel real-life New Orleans socialite who tortured and murdered her slaves.

5. SIX FEET UNDER (2003-05)

The character isn’t a million miles away from the one she played in About Schmidt but there’s an exuberance to Bates’ performance in this acclaimed drama series that must be celebrated. She played the freespirited Bettina, who helped her friend Ruth (the matriarch of the series, played by Frances Conroy) break free of her humdrum widow-who-lives-in-a-funeralhome existence.