Cara Buono

Born in The Bronx New York Buono was raised in a bluecollar family and decided at an early age to make acting her lifes ambition At 11 she showed her connection to her familys work ethic by answering a casting call ad for Harvey Fiersteins Spookhouse and landing the role without any assistance from her family or other adults Buono began landing roles on television and the New York stage while in her teens and early twenties and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination as a young victim of sexual abuse in Abby My Love 1991 CBS 1991 which aired as part of the CBS Schoolbreak Special 1984 She soon graduated to minor roles in Stephen Gyllenhaals Waterland 1992 with Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke as an illegal immigrant in The Cowboy Way 1994 with Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland and in Noah Baumbachs muchloved indie comedy Kicking and Screaming 1995 which reunited her with her Abby My Love costar Josh Hamilton While cultivating her acting career Buono also graduated from Columbia University with a double major in English and political science in 1995 which she earned in just three years After graduation Buono concentrated largely on character roles in independent films and on television She was the wife and confidante of prison guard Robert Sean Leonard who served as an earpiece for monstrous 1930s criminal Carl Panzram James Woods in Killer A Journal of Murder 1995 before playing an accidentprone opera singer in love with a young man Gibson Frazier with JazzEra affectations in the offbeat Man of the Century 1999 She soon added behindthecamera credits to her expanding resume including writerdirector on the short Baggage 1997 with Liev Schreiber and Minnie Driver and served as coproducer and star of the comedy Two Ninas 1999 about a pair of similarly monikered women Buono and Amanda Peet who fell for a very unlucky man She continues to write and cowrote When the Cats Away 1999 with Brad Anderson and wrote an adaptation of F Scott Fitzgeralds first novel This Side of Paradise Buonos screen credits grew more obscure at the launch of the new millennium art house and film festival circles saw the lesbian drama Chutney Popcorn 1999 Attention Shoppers 2000 Happy Accidents 2000 with Marisa Tomei and Vincent DOnofrio She soon turned to television for wider exposure and earned it through supporting roles on high profile series like Third Watch 1999 and The Sopranos 1999 In 2007 she joined the cast of the cult favorite The Dead Zone 2002 USA 20022007 as Sheriff Anna Turner who investigated the death of her predecessor Chris Bruno During this period Buono maintained her screen career in features as varied as Ang Lees Hulk 2003 playing David Banners mother who was killed by his geneticallyinduced rage and Beer League 2006 and Artie Langes hapless layabout love interest In 2010 she appeared as the divorced mother of Kodi SmitMcPhee in Let Me In 2010 the criticallypraised American remake of the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In 2008 That same year she landed her most widely seen roletodate on Mad Men 2007 playing Dr Faye Miller For her efforts Buono received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2011