Kathy Lamkin

Biography

Since her chilling turn as The Tea Lady in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the versatile and talented Kathy Lamkin has made a habit of stealing movies with mere moments of screen time. Born and raised in Texas, Lamkin was drawn to performing through her school choir. She continued acting at Texas Women's University before eventually settling in Houston. Many people encouraged Kathy on her artistic journey -- while performing with a traveling theater company, owner Barbara Jenkins mentored Kathy making the transition from stage to film; subsequently, Jo Edna Boldin became one of the first casting directors to recognize her unique talent and cast Kathy in films. While in Texas, she remained active in commercials and theatre, and ran her own company, Unicorn School of Acting and later the performing wing, USA Theatre. At the urging of casting director Terry Berland and agent Kristene Wallis, Lamkin made the move to Los Angeles in 2002. Her first TV role in Hollywood was on "Malcolm in the Middle", opposite Jane Kaczmarek. She was extremely grateful to Jane for calling attention to the fact they needed turn around for her close ups. Memorable guest star roles-such as in "Nip/Tuck", where she was required to wear a 200-pound fat suit and the aforementioned "Tea Lady"-followed, leading to a recent run of high-profile screen roles in films such as: In the Valley of Elah, The Heartbreak Kid, and No Country for Old Men, where she's the only character to stand up to Javier Bardem's psychotic killer and live. Kathy's first screen kiss came from Ben Stiller in The Heartbreak Kid; unfortunately, it didn't make the final cut of the film. Kathy's daughter Kati is a film editor in Los Angeles and her son Greg is a police officer, married with two young children. Her husband, Steve, encourages her while working as an aerospace engineer at NASA. Kathy's father was an oil field wildcatter (exploring for undiscovered oil) and her mother was an artist and business woman.