Kathy Bates has had an amazing acting career. She was brilliant in blockbuster hit films like Titanic and Misery, for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award in 1991. At 76, Bates recently revealed that she plans to bring down the curtain on her career - that is, after she finishes her current project, a reboot of the TV series Matlock. It will air on CBS starting on Sunday, September 22.
The drama's initial go-round starred Andy Griffith as an unpretentious lawyer. It aired from 1986 to 1995. If any actress is qualified to follow in the beloved Griffith's footsteps, it's Kathy Bates.
As she told The New York Times, "This is my last dance." She'll make it a great one for sure.
Bates Is A True Survivor
She Made It Through Cancer Twice, Plus Professional Ups And Downs
Kathy Bates has seen it all. She weathered cancer twice (ovarian and breast), and has experienced numerous peaks and valleys as an actress, as anyone with a career as lengthy as hers would. Maybe that is why the role of Madeline Matlock appealed to her. Playing a scrappy, gritty older woman who fights tooth and nail for justice and has an ingrained sense of right and wrong is a perfect fit for Bates.
One thing is clear from the get-go. Kathy Bates will act this role to the hilt. She will leave nothing on the table.
'Matlock' Was A Natural Fit For Kathy Bates
She Seemed To Gravitate To The Juicy Legal Role
"Everything I've prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it," she told the Times. "And it's exhausting." Our guess is that Bates is okay with being physically and emotionally wrung out when it comes to her craft. Not okay to be less than her very best. It's just who she is.
And not easy for Bates to let go of acting for good. She reportedly said to the Times, "It was the only thing I've had, ever."
Her fans will have plenty of her superb TV appearances and wonderful films to feast upon when she retires.
