Marcia Anne Cross (born March 25, 1962) is an American actress. She acted in daytime soap operas such as The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live before moving to primetime television with a recurring role on Knots Landing. From 1992 to 1997, she starred as Kimberly Shaw on Melrose Place. Cross played the role of the housewife Bree Van de Kamp on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives (2004–12), for which she was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She had a recurring role as President Claire Haas on the ABC series Quantico. Early life Cross was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and is of English and Irish descent. She is one of three daughters of Janet, a teacher, and Mark J Cross (1923–2021), a personnel manager. Cross was raised Catholic. She graduated from Marlborough High School in 1980 and received a half-scholarship to Juilliard. She completed college in 1984 earning a B.F.A. in Acting. Cross returned to school in 1997 receiving a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2003. Career Cross began her television career in 1984 on the soap opera The Edge of Night, playing the recurring role of Liz Correll. Afterwards, she relocated from New York to Los Angeles, and soon landed roles in television movies such as The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, co-starring with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. In 1986, she joined the cast of the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, where she played the role of Kate Sanders, until 1987. She followed this with guest-starring roles on primetime shows such as Who's the Boss?, Quantum Leap, Knots Landing and Cheers. In 1992, Cross was cast as Dr. Kimberly Shaw in the Fox primetime soap opera Melrose Place. She left in the fifth season. She also appeared on the episodes of sitcoms, such as Seinfeld, Boy Meets World, Ally McBeal, Spin City and The King of Queens. Her dramatic roles include appearances on CSI, Strong Medicine, Profiler and Touched by an Angel. Her film credits include independent movies Bad Influence (1990), Always Say Goodbye (1996), Just Peck (2009) and Bringing Up Bobby (2011). In 2003, Cross spent a season co-starring as Linda Abbott on WB's series Everwood. In 2004, Cross starred as