Maura Tierney
Maura Therese Tierney (born February 3, 1965)[2] is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on the sitcom NewsRadio (1995–1999), Abby Lockhart on the medical drama ER (1999–2009), and Helen Solloway on the mystery drama The Affair (2014–2019), the last of which won her a Golden Globe Award.
Maura Tierney
Actress
1987–present
Tierney has also appeared in numerous films, including Primal Fear (1996), Liar Liar (1997), Primary Colors (1998), Forces of Nature (1999), Insomnia (2002), Baby Mama (2008), Beautiful Boy (2018), The Report (2019), and The Iron Claw (2023).
Early life[edit]
Tierney was born and raised in the Hyde Park neighborhood[3] of Boston, Massachusetts, the eldest of three children in an Irish American Catholic family.[4] Her mother Pat (née James) is a real estate broker, while her father, the late Joseph M. Tierney, was a prominent Boston politician who served on the Boston City Council for 15 years.[5]
Tierney attended Mount Alvernia Academy Elementary School and Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, Massachusetts, where she studied drama, which led to her appearance at the Boston Globe Drama Festival.[3] After graduation, she attended New York University, where she majored first in dance and then in drama.[6]
Personal life[edit]
In 1992, Tierney met actor-director Billy Morrissette,[28][29][30] on the first day he arrived in Los Angeles,[31] at the revolving lounge[32] of the Hollywood Holiday Inn, and they married on February 1, 1993.[33] Morrissette directed, and both he and Tierney appear in, the 2001 film Scotland, PA.[34] She filed for divorce in 2006 due to irreconcilable differences.[35]
On February 1, 2009, Tierney officiated at the wedding of her friend and former ER co-star Parminder Nagra to photographer James Stenson.[36]
Tierney had surgery to remove a tumor from her breast in 2009.[37] She had been cast in Parenthood but schedule conflicts with her cancer treatments led her to leave and she was replaced by Lauren Graham.[38] Tierney finished treatment and returned to work in a stage play in 2010.[39]