Oscar Winner, TV Lawyer Once Spent Time in Kentucky — Here’s Why

Just for the heck of it, I decided to look in on the new CBS legal drama Matlock the other night. I wanted to see how they would work the "reboot" gimmick. Even though the creator of the original series starring Andy Griffith gets a mention in the opening credits, I'm not sure it's a reboot in the true sense of the word.

For one thing, when Madeline Matlock, played by Oscar winner Kathy Bates, introduces herself to a table full of legal eagles, she references the original series. "...just like the TV show," she says. The episode finishes with a pretty cool twist, but that is all I will say.

Bates has announced that this will be her last gig. She's got things to do and people to see and she's closer to 80 than she is 70, hard as that is to believe. And now that she's about to wrap it all up, I thought we'd take look back at the beginning of her career...when she spent time in Louisville.

Why Did Kathy Bates Spend Time in Louisville?

No, this Memphis native wasn't in Derby City comparing two large southern cities. No, she was working. When I casually looked up her resume while watching Matlock the other night, I saw that she had a lead role in the premiere performance of the play Crimes of the Heart at Actors Theater of Louisville. She was Lenny, a role played by Diane Keaton in the 1986 film adaptation. Written by Beth Henley, the play had been submitted to several regional theaters before being into an Actors Theater competition.

The next thing you know, an unknown southern girl looking ahead to a career on the stage--I'm not sure if she was thinking of anything beyond that at the time--made her mark right here in Kentucky.

And now, after many memorable characters--not the least of which was Misery's Annie Wilkes which won her the gold statue--Kathy Bates will call it quits once her days as Madeline Matlock come to a close.