Patricia Heaton

Patricia Heaton (born March 4, 1958) is an American actress, comedienne, producer and model, best known for portraying Debra Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996 to 2005, for which she won two Emmy Awards.

In 2007, she made a return to sitcom television opposite Kelsey Grammer in the Fox comedy series Back to You, which was canceled in 2008. She currently stars as Frankie Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle.

Patricia was the second youngest of three children born to Patricia and Chuck Heaton (1918-2008), who was a well-known Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter. She spent her grade school years attending St. Raphael Elementary School in Bay Village. She was 12 when her mother died.

Heaton has three sisters, Sharon, Alice, and Frances, and one brother, Michael, who is the "Minister of Culture" columnist for the Plain Dealer and a writer for the paper's Friday Magazine.

Patricia Heaton Personal life

Heaton has been married to British actor David Hunt since 1990. The couple have four sons: Sam (b. 1993); John Basil (b. 1995); Joseph Charles (b. 1997); and Daniel Patrick (b. January 20, 1999). They divide their time between Los Angeles and England, where they own a country estate. Her memoir, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine, was published by Villard Books in 2002.

Heaton was once quoted as saying "once a Catholic, always a Catholic;" and, although she now attends an Evangelical Presbyterian Church with Hunt and their children, she has neither left the Catholic church nor converted to Presbyterianism.

Heaton's eldest sister, Sharon, is a Dominican nun and a special assistant to the Aquinas College (Tennessee) Teacher Education Program.

Patricia Heaton Career

While attending Ohio State University, she became a sister of Delta Gamma Sorority, and later graduated with a B.A. in drama. In 1980, Heaton moved to New York City to study with drama teacher William Esper.

Patricia Heaton Theater

Heaton made her first Broadway appearance in the chorus of the Don't Get God Started (1987), after which she and fellow students created Stage Three, an off-Broadway acting troupe.

In January 2007, Heaton returned to the stage to co-star with Tony Shalhoub in the off-Broadway play The Scene at Second Stage Theater in New York City. For this performance, Heaton was nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress category for the 22nd Lucille Lortel Awards.

Patricia Heaton Television

When Stage Three brought one of their productions to Los Angeles, Heaton caught the eye of a casting director for the ABC drama thirtysomething. She was cast as an oncologist, leading to six appearances on the series from 1989-1991. Other TV guest appearances include: Alien Nation (1989), Matlock (1990), Party of Five (1996), The King of Queens (1999), and Danny Phantom (2004).

Heaton was featured in three short-lived sitcoms—Room for Two (1992) with Linda Lavin, Someone Like Me (1994), and Women of the House (1995) with Delta Burke and Terri Garr - before landing the plum role of beleaguered wife, mother, and in-law Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996 - 2005) with Ray Romano, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Monica Horan. She was nominated in each of the series' last seven seasons for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy, winning the award twice. She has also collected two Viewers For Quality Television awards and a Screen Actors Guild trophy for her work on the series.

Starting September 2007, Heaton began to co-star with Kelsey Grammer in Back to You, a new situation comedy on FOX.

The show was canceled on May 9, 2008.

She recently appeared on the Rachel Ray Show and announced that she is planning to shoot a pilot for a new comedy. The new comedy is about a midwest family, title "Middle", casting is not complete at this time. She has a new made-for-TV Hallmark Hall-of-Fame movie, "Front of the Class" coming out Sunday, December 7, 2008 on CBS Channel based on the real story of a mother Ellen Cohen, dealing with a son, Brad Cohen, who has Tourette's Syndrome.

Patricia Heaton Film

Heaton's television movies include Shattered Dreams (1990), Miracle in the Woods (1997), A Town Without Christmas (2001), as well as the remake of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (2004) with Jeff Daniels, and The Engagement Ring (2005), both for TNT.

Heaton also played former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, in the 2006 ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11. Her feature films include Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Beethoven (1992), The New Age (1994), and Space Jam (1996).

Heaton was the producer for the 2005 documentary The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania, which was directed by her husband.

Patricia Heaton Other credits

In 2003, Heaton appeared in a series of television and radio commercials as spokesperson for the various incarnations of the grocery chain Albertsons, such as Acme, Jewel and Shaw's. In 2007, Albertsons created the Crazy About Food slogan/campaign and Heaton's association with the company ended. She has also appeared in advertisements for Pantene hair-care products.

In Fall 2009 Patricia will star in the New t.v show The middle.