Daughter of a law professor at Northwestern University, she moved with her family to Los Angeles when he transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles for which she earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She has continued performing on stage between film assignments rather than concentrate on being a film star.
Her younger sister Cammie McGovern is a novelist, whose latest novel [2006] is "Eye Contact."
Dropped out of college when she was studying acting at The Juilliard School in order to accept the ingnue role in Ordinary People .
As a young actress on the New York stage, McGovern was required in one play to pray over some candles that were set on a bed. Realizing that the bed had caught fire halfway through her monologue, McGovern kept talking while trying to pat out the flames. She thought she had the situation pretty well under control, when firefighters suddenly arrived onstage to clear the theater.
Was engaged to Sean Penn after falling in love on the set of Racing with the Moon .
Has a brother, William Montgomery McGovern, "Monty" who is a professor of mathematics.
Sings and plays guitar in her own band "Sadie and the Hotheads".
Has lived in West London since 1992.
Daughter of Katie and Bill McGovern.
Has two daughters named Matilda (b. July 1993) and Grace Curtis (b. 1998).
Counts Henry James and Edith Wharton among her favorite authors.
(April 2006) Now lives in England, UK
(January 2011) Is appearing in the British series "Downton Abbey" which is presently showing on PBS in the USA.
Recently appeared on British television in a situation comedy written by her husband Simon Curtis.
(January 2009) Appeared opposite Richard Dreyfuss and David Suchet in the disastrous production of Complicit directed by Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic.
Her band "Sadie and the Hotheads" (formed 2007) opened for Sting at the Montreux Jazz Festival Switzerland (July 16th, 2013).
Met husband-to-be Simon Curtis on "Performance" {Tales from Hollywood (#2.1)} , an episode of the popular BBC TV series "Performance" , where Curtis was a producer.
She has Scottish, English, and more distant German, ancestry.
Can be seen in The Making of Amadeus , uncredited. In footage from her screen tests (in costume, apparently testing for the role of Constanze) her face has been blurred but her name can be read clearly on handwritten lists of actors that appear onscreen in a shooting log.
On careers other than acting: "I probably would have become a,veterinarian, or I might have lived on a ranch somewhere and raised,horses, or I might have become more serious about painting, or I might,have worked in a Burger King. ",Honestly, I am always shocked when I see myself in the mirror because I,feel exactly the same as I did when I was 18 getting off the plane to,go to Juilliard in New York.
There is nothing in my life where I view myself as a 1920s person.
I turned down the opportunity to be in some films that went on to be,blockbusters.
My job now is to work hard and learn all I can.
I just find it fascinating, like everybody, to be in a different life.
Most people grow up dreaming of going to Hollywood and some of them work,and work and work and finally end up in Hollywood.
We lack rituals in this modern world.
In London, I take the Tube everywhere.
To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.
I love having the opportunity to explore a part for a great length of,time, really get deeper and deeper into it, because you only have a,chance to do that once or twice in a career.
My father was an academic, an eccentric. He was a lecturer.
My family were all into classical music, and I found that very,intimidating.
I have a terrible sense of direction.
Well, when I moved to England I was making a lot of personal adjustments,because I was getting married and starting a family, that sort of,thing.
Well, I have a band, "Sadie and the Hotheads", and we have an album that,is already out that is available on our website.
Now we have to contend with overstimulation and too many opportunities,all the time, and too many decisions all the time.
I had reconciled myself to being happily out to pasture, a bit.
