Cara Buono

An intense, unaffected, sloe-eyed Italian American player of television, stage, and film, Cara Buono never lacked determination. The product of a working-class Bronx household, she was determined to become an actor during adolescence, then broke into show business at age 12 (ca. 1983) and used a succession of roles, including Broadway and small screen assignments, to generate a steady income, support herself, and ultimately put herself through Columbia University in an astonishing three years. Buono made an admirable (albeit low-profile) debut in director Stephen Gyllenhaal's ambitious and vastly underrated psychological drama Waterland (as a student in the early '70s). Subsequent films varied enormously in quality, as did the scope of her roles; from a turn as an illegal immigrant daughter in the critically excoriated buddy comedy The Cowboy Way (1994), to a bit part in the critically worshipped Noah Baumbach seriocomedy Kicking and Screaming (1995). Subsequent highlights of Buono's career included a key supporting role in director Brad Anderson's wry romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and a portrayal of Bruce Banner's mother, Edith, in director Ang Lee's unevenly received superhero opus Hulk (2003). In the years to follow, Buono shifted her focus to television with a season-long role as Grace Foster on Third Watch and a portrayal of Anna Turner in Season Six of The Dead Zone. She also co-starred opposite Jason Cottle in the occult horror thriller Cthulhu, adapted from a story by H.P. Lovecraft. In 2010 Buono had a major part in Let Me In, the American remake of the vampire film Let the Right One In, and she played psychiatrist Faye Miller, one of Don Draper's many girlfriends during the fourth season of the award-winning AMC series Mad Men. Two years later she was in the drama Drew Peterson: Untouchable.