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. Heaton's mother died of an aneurysm when the actress was 12. The fourth of five children, Heaton was raised as a devout 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.

Career

While attending 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.

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.

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 to 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's feature films include Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Beethoven (1992), The New Age (1994), and Space Jam (1996).

Heaton was featured in three short-lived sitcoms—Room for Two, Someone Like Me and Women of the House—before landing the role of Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. She was nominated in each of the series' last seven seasons for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2000 and 2001. With her win in 2000, she became the first of the cast members on the show to win an Emmy. 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 co-starred with Kelsey Grammer in Back to You, a situation comedy on Fox. The show was canceled in May 2008.

Heaton appeared on the season seven of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where she helped build a home for a firefighter and his family.

Heaton's television movies include Shattered Dreams (1990), 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, The Engagement Ring (2005), Heaton also played former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, in the 2006 ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11, and 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.

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).

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

Since September 2009, she has starred in the ABC comedy The Middle.

In 2011, Heaton was ranked at No. 24 on the TV Guide Network special, Funniest Women on TV.

In October 2015, Heaton began hosting Patricia Heaton Parties, a cooking show on The Food Network. The program showcases party friendly foods and home entertaining tips. The show won a Daytime Emmy in 2016 for Outstanding Culinary Program

She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 22, 2012. The star is located at 6533 Hollywood Blvd. in front of The Hudson Apartments.

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.

Personal life

Heaton has been married to British actor David Hunt since 1990. They have four sons and they divide their time between Los Angeles and Cambridge, England. Her memoir, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine, was published by Villard Books in 2002.

Hunt is Heaton's second husband. After her divorce from her first husband, she went through a self-described “Protestant wilderness”. As of June 2017, Heaton's first marriage has been annulled by the Catholic Church, and she is presently a practicing Catholic.

Heaton has been open about having plastic surgery; citing having a tummy-tuck and a breast reduction after undergoing four Caesarean sections.

Political and social advocacy

Heaton is a consistent life ethicist and is vocally 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 is registered Republican. However, Heaton openly supports gay rights, and has publicly stated that she is not against same-sex marriage.

Although a Republican, Heaton voiced her disapproval of then presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2016, stating "If he’s the nominee then it won’t be my party".

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 aired at the same time as Michael J. Fox's advertisement supporting the amendment. Appearing with Heaton were actor Jim Caviezel, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan, Seattle Mariner Mike Sweeney, and St. Louis Rams/Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner. Following a public outcry, Heaton later said she regretted doing the ad and sent an apology to Fox, saying she was unaware of Fox's ad. Fox accepted her apology and later stated, "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 the law requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. Following criticism for her remarks, Heaton apologized days later.