Marcia Cross

Marcia Anne Cross (born March 25, 1962) is an American television actress best known for her role as Bree Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives as well as Dr. Kimberly Shaw on Melrose Place. Cross is of English descent and was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the daughter of Janet, a teacher, and Mark Cross, a personnel manager. Her sister is singer/songwriter, Ellen Cross. Her parents raised her in the Roman Catholic religion. Cross graduated from the Juilliard School in New York, and earned a master's degree in psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles. She began her television career in 1984 on the soap opera The Edge of Night. She then moved from New York to Los Angeles, and soon landed roles in television movies such as The Last Days of Frank and Jessie James, co-starring with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. In 1986 she joined the cast of the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live, where she played Kate Sanders, until 1987. In 1991, Cross guest-starred on the 13th season of Knots Landing as the wife of Pierce Lawton (Bruce Greenwood). She spent a lot of her screen-time on the show confronting Paige Matheson, played by her future Desperate Housewives co-star Nicollette Sheridan.  On September 6, 2006, she announced that she was pregnant and due in April 2007 and on September 20 she revealed that she was expecting twins. On January 11, 2007, Cross was placed on precautionary bedrest until their delivery, requiring her to suspend her Desperate Housewives acting duties. Cross did not want to give up working, even bringing the entire cast and crew to her home to shoot some scenes in her very own bedroom. On February 20, 2007, Cross gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Eden and Savannah at a Los Angeles hospital, shortly before Cross' 45th birthday.