Bess Armstrong

Elizabeth Key Armstrong was born on December 11, 1953, in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Louise Allen (née Parlange), who taught at Bryn Mawr, and Alexander Armstrong, an English teacher at the Gilman School. Her grandfather was Alexander Armstrong, Attorney General of Maryland. She graduated from Brown University with a BA degree in 1975.

Armstrong's professional acting career began in 1975 with the Off-Off Broadway debut, Harmony House. Then, in 1977, Armstrong made her television debut as Julia Peters on the CBS sitcom, On Our Own. In 1978 Armstrong starred opposite Richard Thomas in her first TV-movie, Getting Married. Also in 1978, she starred in the TV movie "How to Pick Up Girls!" with Desi Arnaz Jr. She co-starred again with Richard Thomas in a 1981 stage production in Seattle of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, from which a video was made for HBO broadcast that year. Armstrong continued to make several films for both the big and small screens in the 1980s, among them High Road to China opposite Tom Selleck; Jaws 3-D with Dennis Quaid; Alan Alda's The Four Seasons; the TV miniseries Lace; and Nothing in Common, starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason. The 1990s brought Armstrong to her best-known role, playing Patty Chase on the series My So-Called Life. She later starred in several television films. In 2000, she appeared on the NBC sitcom Frasier, in the episode "Mary Christmas." In 2008, Armstrong played Penelope Kendall on ABC's Boston Legal. Armstrong remains active in films, television, and the stage. She had a recurring role in the Showtime series House of Lies as Julianne Hotschragar. She also appeared in Castle, Mad Men, NCIS, S.W.A.T., and Grey's Anatomy.

Armstrong married John Fiedler, an executive at Columbia Pictures, on April 12, 1986. In July 1986, Armstrong gave birth to a daughter with an underdeveloped brain. Her daughter lived for five and a half months. In 1991, Armstrong shared the experience in The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion.