Patricia Heaton booking

Heaton was born in Bay Village, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of well-known Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Chuck Heaton. Her mother died when she was a small child. She moved to New York City to study with drama teacher William Esper after graduating from Ohio State University.

Heaton made her Broadway debut in the musical “Don’t Get God Started,” after which she and fellow students created Stage Three, an off-Broadway acting troupe. When they brought one of their productions to Los Angeles, Heaton caught the eye of a casting director for the ABC drama “thirtysomething,” in which she played an oncologist, leading to three appearances on the series.

She was featured in three unsuccessful sitcoms – “Room for Two” (1992) with Linda Lavin, “Someone Like Me” (1994), and “Women of the House” (1995) with Delta Burke – before landing the plum role of beleaguered wife, mother, and in-law Debra Barone in “Everybody Loves Raymond” (1996 – 2005) with Ray Romano, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Monica Horan. Heaton won an Emmy for Leading Actress in a Comedy Series in 1999 for her portrayal of Debra.

Heaton currently stars in ABC’s “The Middle” as Frankie Heck. The series features a working-class family of five, the Hecks, living in middle America in a mid-sized city in the American midwest state of Indiana.

Heaton’s television movies include “Shattered Dreams,” “Miracle in the Woods,” “A Town Without Christmas,” and the remake of Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” with Jeff Daniels for TNT. Her feature films include “Memoirs of an Invisible Man,” “Beethoven,” and “Space Jam.”

Heaton is a pro-life activist and is the honorary chairperson of Feminists for Life, a nonsectarian, nonpartisan organization (whose members include Jane Sullivan Roberts, wife of John G. Roberts, Jr.) opposed to domestic violence, child abuse, infanticide, and, especially, abortion. She is an active Republican.

Her memoir, “Motherhood and Hollywood — How to Get a Job Like Mine,” was published in 2002. Heaton has been married to British businessman David Hunt II since 1990. The couple has four sons and divides their time between Los Angeles and England, where they own a country estate.