"And so much of my life has been about returning home and longing for home, wanting my children to know about my roots. And I thought I can't be the only one to feel this way so I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore." -- Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as Teddy Reed on the American TV series Sisters (1991—96) and as Lily Manning on Once and Again (1999—2002).
In July 2010, CBS announced that Ward would appear as a lead character in the seventh season of the crime series NY.
"And so I was doing that and starving and somebody said you should model and I ran when they told me how much money you could make and I did a television commercial the first job.""As for ABC you can't take it personally. We had three good years.""Billy Campbell who is... I... truly one of the most talented actors today.""For example, when my mother died, the people who showed up just to put an apron on to cook, people who really do the right thing, so to speak, as my momma would always say to show that they care, a sense of community that we've lost so much in our country.""For me, Los Angeles, New York, where I don't know my neighbors, where people don't necessarily care if they know their neighbors, I'm missing things that truly fed my soul when I was younger, the exchanges between people, the caring and the shared history with people.""However, most of my part, I play a pediatrician, and most of my role had to do with being in another place, staying at the hospital and trying to save kids and stay until people could come. So, it was more based on reality.""I always carry Evian bottle and sunscreen.""I had an art teacher who's the reason I got there in high school who encouraged me to go to Alabama. That's where she had gone and kept raving over their art department.""I have a strong belief in God... I find religion to be a very personal thing... I am also very spiritual.""I have decided not to do the spa. Too time consuming.""I haven't heard anything about a reunion show for Sisters. But if the script was good I would do it.""I think things like food, the food of the south is sort of the common tie that binds us all, Black and White, the sense memories. It's a very particular part of the country.""I use products from my dermatologist but the best things you can do for your skin, are not smoke always use sunscreen and drink a lot of water.""I would consider a half hour sitcom if the script was good.""If I wasn't an actress I would run a fortune 500 company.""It's about, I did talk about my life in broad strokes and what home meant to me in order to really explore the subject of home and can you go back and what that means for people in that sense of community that we've lost.""Most of the press is sent to my publicist so I do see most of what is written about me.""My kids enjoy the Disney program, Lizzy McGuire.""No not at all... it is rare for shows to make it as long as Once and Again... It was a pretty good run.""Oh, definitely and I talk about all the things that I really needed to make me happy at that point in time were outside of Mississippi, and now all the things that I need to make me happy are back there.""Well I started studying to help me with these commercial auditions and I just loved it.""Which is a wonderful irony, I have property there. I go back every chance I get. One of the main reasons I actually wrote the book, agreed to write it having never wanted to do that in my life, very intimidating by the way to write a book.""Yes and our obsession with youth in our culture and how we, women lie about their age after 35 obsessively and no one wants to let anyone know they're getting older, et cetera.""You do become very close like a family but because you see each other for such an intense period of time on the set everyday. You really don't end up socializing that much."
Ward was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the oldest of four children of Annie Kate (née Boswell), a housewife who died of ovarian cancer on February 12, 2002, and Granberry Holland "G.H." Ward, Jr., an electrical engineer who died on January 13, 2009. She has a younger sister, Jenna, and two brothers, Brock and Granberry (Berry) III.
Ward attended the University of Alabama, where she performed as one of the Crimson Tide cheerleaders, was homecoming queen, joined Chi Omega sorority, and double-majored in art and advertising.
While working in New York City as a storyboard artist for multimedia presentations, the 5'7" (170 cm) Ward began modeling to supplement her income. She was recruited by the Wilhelmina agency and was soon featured in television commercials promoting Maybelline cosmetics. Ward eventually moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the Burt Reynolds vehicle, The Man Who Loved Women, released in 1983. Her first regular role in a television drama series (as a beautiful socialite on Emerald Point, NAS) followed in the same year. Ward subsequently played variations on the same character in films and television guest spots throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite Tom Hanks in 1986's Nothing in Common. This pattern persisted until she aggressively pursued and won the role of the bohemian alcoholic Teddy Reed on Sisters, for which she received her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994.
Ward won a CableACE Award for her portrayal of the late television journalist Jessica Savitch in the 1995 TV movie Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. But capitalizing on her accolades proved difficult as they coincided with a surge in films and programming marketed primarily at teenagers.
At the age of 39 Ward was passed over for a Bond girl role, learning that even though then-Bond Pierce Brosnan was 42, the casting director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago". In response, she developed and produced a documentary, The Changing Face of Beauty, about American obsession with youth and its effect on women. Later on, Ward would voice the part of former model turned villain Page Monroe in an episode (Calendar Girl) of The New Batman/Superman Adventures.
Ward succeeded actress Candice Bergen as commercial spokesperson for Sprint's long distance telephone service from 1999 until 2002, when landline long distance promotions fell out of favor. She also appeared on Frasier as supermodel/zoologist Kelly Easterbrook in the fifth season opener ("Frasier's Imaginary Friend"). When she read for the role of Lily Brooks Manning on the series Once and Again, its creators (Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of thirtysomething fame) initially deemed Ward "too beautiful" for the average single mother to identify with. After landing the part, she received her second lead actress Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for her efforts.
In 2004, she played the role of a private investigator, Bobbi Bacha of Blue Moon Investigations, in the TV movie Suburban Madness, the story of a dentist who ran over her cheating orthodontist husband with her Mercedes. The same year, she also appeared in the hit movie The Day After Tomorrow. In 2005, she began a recurring role in the Fox dramatic series House as Stacy Warner, the hospital's former attorney, who also happens to be the ex-partner of the protagonist, Dr. Gregory House (played by British actor Hugh Laurie). The Stacy Warner character has since been written off the show.
Ward was originally offered both the role of Megan Donner on Miami and Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, but turned both down. The parts later went to Kim Delaney and Teri Hatcher, respectively. Ward said she did not want another lead role in an hour-long series due to the time away from her family it would require. She developed and produced a pilot for a half-hour situation comedy (in which she would also star) for CBS' 2006 season but it was not selected by the network for its roster.
In July 2010, Ward signed on to appear in the crime series NY, in the role of "an experienced investigator from Washington, D.C. named Jo Danville, whose work is driven by her empathy for the victim".
Since May 23, 1992, Ward has been married to Howard Sherman. They have two children, Austin (born 1994) and Anabella (born 1998).
After meeting two foster children during a holiday trip home to Mississippi in 1997, Ward decided to meet a broader need for abused and neglected children by initiating and partially funding the creation of an emergency shelter for those awaiting placement in foster homes. Housed on a property once used as a Masonic owned and operated orphanage, the Hope Village for Children opened in Ward's home town of Meridian in January 2002 and is intended to serve as a pilot for a nationwide network of similar shelters. Hope Village currently has a capacity for 44 residents and serves an average of 200 children per year.
A business district portion of 22nd Avenue in Meridian (from 6th Street to the Interstate 20 highway interchange) has reportedly been named the "Sela Ward Parkway" in Ward's honor. Google Maps
In 2002, Ward published her autobiography, Homesick: A Memoir, through HarperCollins' ReganBooks imprint.
