Martha Plimpton

Martha Plimpton has won one Emmy, been nominated for three Tonys without winning one, and appeared in an adventure film from 1985 that people still ask her about. In September 2025 she told People that she has seen The Goonies once and that is enough for her [6]. Four decades into a career that has moved between film, television and the stage, she is working on the second season of an HBO crime drama in Philadelphia [5].

Born into acting in New York

Plimpton was born on 16 November 1970 in New York City [3] [1]. Her parents are the actors Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton [3]. She is an American actress, and the Television Academy lists New York as her birthplace [1]. She turned 54 in 2024 and People gave her age as 54 in September 2025 [6]. As of 9 November 2026 she is 55 and turns 56 on 16 November.

She began acting at eight, after the composer Elizabeth Swados enrolled her in an actors' workshop [3]. At ten she had a small part in Rollover (1981), a film directed by Alan J. Pakula [3] [2]. She also appeared in a series of Calvin Klein commercials as a child [3].

The break: The River Rat and The Goonies

Her first substantial film role came in The River Rat in 1984 [3]. A year later came The Goonies (1985), the adventure film for which most people still know her [3] [6]. It was directed by Richard Donner, who has since died [6].

Plimpton has a plain relationship with it. She says she has seen it once, and that is enough [6]. She did, however, join other cast members for a panel at Awesome Con in April 2025, where the sequel in development with Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus came up [6]. Her own forecast was dry: "The Goonies 2, whether we're in it or not" would get made, and fans would see it [6].

She met River Phoenix on the set of The Mosquito Coast in 1986 [7]. Running on Empty followed in 1988 [3]. Rewatching Parenthood (1989) recently, she called it "a really lovely movie" [6].

Career timeline

• 1981: film debut in Rollover [3].
• 1984: The River Rat, her first substantial film role [3].
• 1985: The Goonies [3].
• 1986: The Mosquito Coast, where she met River Phoenix [7].
• 1988: Stars and Bars and Running on Empty [3].
• 1996: Chicago stage debut with Steppenwolf in The Libertine [3].
• 1998: Steppenwolf ensemble member, a company that received the National Medal of Arts that year [3] [1] [2].
• 2001: directing debut with Absolution at Steppenwolf [1].
• 2002: Emmy nomination for a guest role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit [1].
• 2004: Broadway debut in Sixteen Wounded [10].
• 2006 to 2007: The Coast of Utopia on Broadway [10].
• 2008 and 2009: Top Girls and Pal Joey, with Tony nominations [10].
• 2011: Raising Hope on Fox, her lead role [2].
• 2012: Emmy win for The Good Wife [9].
• 2014: A Delicate Balance on Broadway [10].
• 2025: Here We Are in London and Task on HBO [8] [6].

The stage: Steppenwolf and Broadway

Plimpton has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble in Chicago since 1998 [1]. Her Chicago debut was The Libertine in 1996, opposite John Malkovich [3] [1]. At Steppenwolf she also appeared in The Glass Menagerie and The Playboy of the Western World, and she directed Absolution [2]. In March 2011 the company made her the guest of honour at its Women in the Arts luncheon, where artistic director Martha Lavey interviewed her [2].

Her New York stage work is long. She won an Obie Award for Hobson's Choice at the Atlantic Theater Company [1]. Her Broadway debut was Sixteen Wounded in 2004, playing Nora [10]. In 2006 she played Neasa in Shining City for Manhattan Theatre Club [10].

Tom Stoppard's three-part The Coast of Utopia followed in 2006 and 2007, with Plimpton as Varenka and then Natasha Tuchkov [10]. The nine-hour trilogy brought her a Tony nomination for featured actress in a play, plus a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award [10] [2]. She played Imogen in Cymbeline at Lincoln Center (2007) [10], and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park [2].

Top Girls (2008, Manhattan Theatre Club) gave her a second Tony nomination, and Pal Joey (2008 Roundabout revival, as Gladys Bumps) a third, in 2009 [10]. She appeared in Top Girls with Marisa Tomei and in Pal Joey with Stockard Channing [2] [1]. Her most recent Broadway role before the 2019 coverage was Julia in A Delicate Balance in 2014 [10] [11]. She also played in Sweat in London [11].

In 2025 she was in the cast of Here We Are, Stephen Sondheim's final musical, at the National Theatre in London. Performances ran from 23 April to 28 June 2025, with opening night on 8 May [8].

Television: from Raising Hope to Task

Her television career includes a guest role as Claire Rinato on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2002 [1]. Guest appearances on Grey's Anatomy, Fringe, How to Make It in America and The Good Wife followed [2] [1].

Raising Hope on Fox was her lead role in 2011 [2]. It brought an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011 and two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for best actress in a comedy [1].

Her Emmy came in 2012. She won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for playing Patti Nyholm in The Good Wife, over Loretta Devine, Jean Smart, Julia Ormond, Joan Cusack and Uma Thurman [9]. The Television Academy notes that she reprised Patti Nyholm in a season finale [1].

Her recent television work is Task, HBO's crime drama from showrunner Brad Ingelsby, who previously created Mare of Easttown [4]. She plays Kathleen McGinty, an FBI agent, opposite Mark Ruffalo's Tom, a former priest [4]. The series premiered on 7 September 2025 [6]. Of her character, Plimpton said: "She's not slick. She's not calculating." [4]

Best-known work

Year	Title	Role
1981	Rollover (film)	Small part [3]
1985	The Goonies (film)	Role not named in our sources [3]
1988	Running on Empty (film)	Role not named in our sources [3]
1989	Parenthood (film)	Role not named in our sources [6]
2002	Law & Order: SVU (TV)	Claire Rinato [1]
2006 to 2007	The Coast of Utopia (stage)	Varenka, Natasha Tuchkov [10]
2008	Top Girls (stage)	Pope Joan, Angie [10]
2012	The Good Wife (TV, Emmy-winning guest role)	Patti Nyholm [9]
2011	Raising Hope (TV)	Lead role [2]
2008	Pal Joey (stage)	Gladys Bumps [10]
2025	Task (TV)	Kathleen McGinty [4]

The table is a selection, and where the opened sources do not name a role we say so rather than guess. Her film career is large: the Television Academy counts more than 30 credits [1]. Among them are Beautiful Girls, 200 Cigarettes and Pecker [1], and Small Town Murder Songs, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival [2]. She also did voice work in Frozen 2 [11]. In 2019 she joined Fran Kranz's first feature as director, Mass, alongside Reed Birney, Jason Isaacs and Ann Dowd [11].

Awards and nominations

• Emmy Award, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, 2012, The Good Wife (won) [9].
• Emmy nominations: Law & Order: SVU (2002) and Raising Hope (2011) [1].
• Tony Award nominations: The Coast of Utopia (2007), Top Girls (2008), Pal Joey (2009), all without a win [10].
• Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for The Coast of Utopia (2007) [10].
• Obie Award for Hobson's Choice [1].

One web page claims she won a Tony for The Glass Menagerie. The Television Academy, Playbill and Theatre in Chicago list only nominations, so this page does not repeat that claim [1] [11] [2].

Relationships

Plimpton has spoken publicly about one relationship. She and River Phoenix met as teenagers on The Mosquito Coast in 1986, dated for nearly four years and stayed friends afterwards [7]. On Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast Dinner's on Me in 2025 she called him her "first love" [7]. A separate biography also records that she dated Phoenix [3].

Neither a spouse nor children appear on the record in the sources opened for this page. Several websites name husbands and a child, but they contradict each other and cite nothing, so we leave them out. Plimpton has said in a 2025 interview that she has two rescue dogs from Animal Haven in New York, Walter and Jimmy Jazz [4].

What she does now

In October 2026 Plimpton said that filming for the second season of Task was underway in Philadelphia, and that she was "in the middle of it" [5]. She returns as Kathleen McGinty, one of the few cast members back from season one, alongside new additions including Mahershala Ali [5]. No premiere date has been announced [5].

She has spoken about being diagnosed with ADHD fairly recently. She told WNYC the diagnosis helped her understand her work habits, and she now writes lines out longhand on a yellow pad [4]. Away from acting she volunteers with the 52nd Street Project, a nonprofit that pairs inner-city children with professional theatre artists to create original plays [3].

Net worth

We found no net-worth figure for Plimpton from a named outlet such as Forbes or Bloomberg, so we do not give one. Sites that publish an exact number rarely say where it comes from.