Marcia Anne Cross is an American television actress, best known for her roles as Bree Van de Kamp on the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and as Dr. Kimberly Shaw on the Fox soap opera 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 parents raised her in the Roman Catholic religion. She grew up with sisters Susan , a teacher, and Ellen , a singer and songwriter. Raised in Marlborough, she graduated from Marlborough High School in 1980. Having received a half... scholarship to Juilliard at the age of 17, she moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study at the school where she graduated in 1984. Cross returned to school in 1997 to earn a master's degree in psychology, which she received from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2003. 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.
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