Early life and education

Potts was born in Nashville, Tennessee, as the third daughter of Powell Grisette Potts and Dorothy Harris (née Billingslea) Potts. Her older sisters are: Mary Eleanor (Potts) Hovious, and Elizabeth Grissette ("Dollie") Potts. They grew up in Franklin, Kentucky, where she graduated from Franklin-Simpson High School.

She received a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree (in theater arts) from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. At the age of 21, Potts was the victim of a car accident which left nearly every bone below her waist broken.

Career

Potts made her debut on the big screen in 1978 in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy film Corvette Summer, with Mark Hamill. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1979 for her role in the film. In 1982 she won Genie Awards for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress for her role in the film Heartaches, about a young woman, married to a stock car racer and carrying his friend's child. In 1980, she played Edith Bedelmeyer, a woman who shared an attic apartment with three other women (played by Georgia Engel, Lorna Patterson and Francine Tacker) on the short-lived comedy series, Goodtime Girls.

Potts played receptionist Janine Melnitz in the Ghostbusters film series and then achieved fame as the pragmatic interior designer Mary Jo Shively on the CBS television sitcom Designing Women (1986-1993), and has had a wide variety of prominent roles in both television and film. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1994 for role as Dana Palladino on Love & War (1993-1995). Other notable roles include Mary Elizabeth (O'Brien) Sims on the Lifetime Television drama series Any Day Now (1998-2002), for which she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, the voice of Little Bo Peep in the first two Toy Story films, a supporting role in John Hughes's Pretty in Pink as well as guest-starring roles on such CBS's television series as Magnum, P.I., Joan of Arcadia, Close to Home, Two and a Half Men and ABC' Men in Trees, Ugly Betty and Boston Legal. She played a recurring role as Sophie Devere in the NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2005 to 2009.

Potts has done work on audio books, including as the narrator and heroine of Larry McMurtry's Telegraph Days. She starred in the film version of McMurtry's Texasville, a sequel to The Last Picture Show. She made her Broadway debut upon joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, succeeding Hope Davis in the role.

In 2012, Potts starred as Elizabeth "Gigi" Stopper in ABC's Comedy-drama series GCB, with Leslie Bibb, Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Aspen, Miriam Shor and Marisol Nichols. She says she based her portrayal of the character on Dixie Carter, adding, "Were she still alive, the role would have been hers and should have been." Potts also played a leading role in the 2012 Hallmark Channel original musical movie The Music Teacher, about a high school music teacher who is on the brink of losing her beloved school music program because of district budget cuts. In an effort to spare the program, Daley's former students band together to stage a musical to raise money to keep the program alive.

In March 2013, Potts signed for the lead role of the ABC comedy-drama pilot Murder in Manhattan about mother and daughter who team up as amateur sleuths. ABC later looked for a cable network to distribute the series, opting not to air it on network television. In late 2013, it was announced that Potts would join Diane Paulus' critically acclaimed revival of Pippin beginning January 21, 2014. She replaced Tony award nominee Tovah Feldshuh in the role of Pippin's grandmother Berthe. This marked her first appearance in a Broadway musical.

Personal life

Potts is the mother of three sons, Clay (with third husband Scott Senechal, born 1981), and two with James Hayman: James (called Doc, born 1992), and Harry (born 1996). She is a Board Member of Stephens College, and has been instrumental in fundraising efforts for the college for many years.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	Corvette Summer	Vanessa
	King of the Gypsies	Persa
1981	Heartaches	Bonnie Howard
1984	Ghostbusters	Janine Melnitz
	Crimes of Passion	Amy Grady
1986	Pretty in Pink	Iona
	Jumpin' Jack Flash	Liz Carlson
1987	The Man Who Fell to Earth	Louise
1988	Pass the Ammo	Darla
1988	She's Having a Baby	Herself	Cameo
1989	Who's Harry Crumb?	Helen Downing
	Ghostbusters II	Janine Melnitz
1990	Texasville	Karla Jackson
1992	Breaking the Rules	Mary Klinglitch
1995	Toy Story	Bo Peep	Voice role
1999	Toy Story 2	Bo Peep	Voice role
2004	Elvis Has Left the Building	Shirl
2007	The Sunday Man	Mrs. Culp	Short film
2014	Chu and Blossom	Unknown
2015	As Good As You	Dr. Laura Berg
2016	Ghostbusters	Hotel clerk	Cameo; in post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Black Market Baby	Linda Cleary	TV movie
1977	Busting Loose	Helene	3 episodes
1978	Family	Caddy Wilde	Episode: "Magic"
1979	Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers	Flatbed Annie	Movie
1979	Visions	Ellen	Episode: "Ladies in Waiting"
1980	Goodtime Girls	Edith Bedelmeyer	13 episodes
1982	Something So Right	Sunday	Movie
	Bayou Romance	Lily	Movie
1983	Cowboy	D.G.	Movie
1983	Remington Steele	Annie Carpenter	Episode: "Steele Crazy After All These Years"
1984	Why Me?	Daria	Movie
	It Came Upon the Midnight Clear	Cindy Mills	Movie
1985	The Twilight Zone	Cathy Lowery	Episode: "Wordplay"
1983-1986	Magnum, P.I.	Tracy Spencer	2 episodes
1987	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Kathy Sanders	"My Dissident Mom"
	Amazing Stories	Mrs. Bev Binford	Episode: "The Family Dog"
1986-1993	Designing Women	Mary Jo Shively	163 episodes
1993-1995	Love & War	Dana Palladino	44 episodes
1995	Her Deadly Rival	Kris Lansford	Movie
1996-1997	Dangerous Minds	LouAnne Johnson	17 episodes
1997	Over the Top	Hadley Martin	12 episodes
1998	Hercules	Syrinx the Muse	Episode: "Hercules and the Muse of Dance"
1999	Johnny Bravo	Wrangler	1 episode
1998-2002	Any Day Now	Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims	88 episodes
2003	Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story	Julie Posey	Movie
2004	Huff	Doris Johnson	4 episodes
2004-2005	Joan of Arcadia	Lieutenant Lucy Preston	11 episodes
2005	Close to Home	Dr. Marla Dodds	Episode: "Divine Directions"
2007	Men in Trees	Mary Alice O'Donnell	4 episodes
2008	Ugly Betty	Linda	Episode: "Zero Worship"
	Boston Legal	Joy Espenson	Episode: "The Bad Seed"
	Queen Sized	Joan Baker	Movie
2005-2009	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sophie Devere	4 episodes
2009	Two and a Half Men	Lenore	Episode: "Mmm, Fish. Yum."
2010	Freshman Father	Dorothy Downs	Movie
	Marry Me	Vivienne Carter	Miniseries
2010	Fish Hooks	Nurse Fishington (voice)	Disney Channel; episode: "Principal Bea"
2011	Five	Charlotte's Mom	Movie
2012	The Music Teacher	Alyson Daley	Movie
2012	GCB	Gigi Stopper	10 episodes
	Animal Practice	Virginia Coleman	2 episodes
2013-present	The Fosters	Sharon Foster	Recurring role (8 episodes)
2013	Grey's Anatomy	Joyce	Episode: "Map of You"
2015	NCIS: New Orleans	Olivia Brody	Episode: "Broken Hearted"
2015-present	Chicago Med	Helen Manning	Recurring role

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Ghostbusters: The Video Game	Janine Melnitz
2010	Toy Story 3: The Video Game	Bo Peep

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009-10	God of Carnage	Annette
2014	Pippin	Berthe

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
1978	Golden Globe Awards	New Star of the Year - Actress	Corvette Summer	Nominated
1981	Genie Awards	Best Performance by a Foreign Actress	Heartaches	Won
1994	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	Love & War	Nominated
1998/99	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series	Any Day Now	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]