Kathy Bates has been enjoying a richly deserved career renaissance since exploring her potential in various TV shows from “Two and a Half Men,” “Harry’s Law” and, now, “American Horror Story” — winning an Emmy Award in August for her chilling performance as the vindictive, racist socialite Delphine LaLaurie on the Ryan Murphy Gothic anthology series.
This season on “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” Bates is playing circus performer Ethel Darling, the Amazing Bearded Lady, a woman with a past of abuse and suffering. As usual with any Bates performance, she can make you empathize with life’s outcasts, imbuing even the most unfortunate, dangerous people — like Annie Wilkes in “Misery” — with relatable human traits that make them unforgettable.
In honor of her work on “AHS,” we thought a tribute to her best films was in order.
‘Misery’ (1990)
Bates won a Best Actress Oscar for her frightening performance as Annie Wilkes, the kind of fan horror fiction writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan) wishes he hadn’t met. In this adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Annie keeps Paul a prisoner in her snowed-in cabin while he completes his latest novel, “Misery,” breaking his ankles, in the clip below, when he tries to escape.
‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (1991)
Bates plays Evelyn Couch, an unhappy housewife who befriends an elderly lady (Jessica Tandy) in a nursing home and learns to be more assertive in her own life. In this clip, Evelyn has some parking lot road rage when two obnoxious young women steal her space at the Winn Dixie.
‘Dolores Claiborne’ (1995)
Another Stephen King character gave Bates the role she calls her favorite. In this film, a big-city reporter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) travels to the small town where her mother (Bates) has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman whom she works for as a maid. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
‘About Schmidt’ (2002)
Bates was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for a very funny turn as a hippie mom who shares a hot tub with Jack Nicholson when he visits his estranged daughter (Hope Davis) before she makes an unfortunate marriage to the most unlikely prospect (Dermot Mulroney).
‘Midnight in Paris’ (2011)
In Woody Allen’s completely charming homage to Paris, Bates plays writer Gertrude Stein, whose salon was a mecca for the artists and writers of the day such as Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll. In this clip, Hemingway introduces a new acquaintance (Owen Wilson) to Stein, who is having a heated debate about a painting.