Gorgeous At Every Age: The Evolution Of Desperate Housewives Star Marcia Cross

Marcia Cross has attained a rare status in the hierarchy of Hollywood actors, especially in the world of television. Over the course of a decades-long career, she has appeared in hundreds of TV episodes spanning dozens of popular series. Along the way, she popularized not one but two of the medium's most iconic characters — Dr. Kimberly Shaw from the original "Melrose Place" and, most notably, Bree Van de Kamp from "Desperate Housewives." It's an incredible evolution given Cross' humble beginnings as a timid child growing up in small-town Massachusetts.

Thankfully, she was inspired by her sixth-grade teacher to take the plunge when she was prodded to participate in a stage adaptation of "The Witch of Blackbird Pond." It was an experience that proved to be a revelation for the actor. "She pushed me and out it all came. It felt great," Cross said of the experience in a 2023 Forbes interview. "I thought, I want to do that." Cross continued honing her craft, studying acting at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, and, eventually, becoming one of television's best-known faces. Here are the photos and facts that chronicle the "Desperate Housewives" star's evolution over her years in Tinseltown.

After graduating from Juilliard, it didn't take long for Marcia Cross to begin making her name in show business. In 1984, she landed the role of Liz Corell in the long-running mystery soap opera "The Edge of Night," which aired on ABC at the time. While the series was in its final days after having been a television staple since the mid-1950s, Cross ended up appearing in 75 episodes.

"It was the oldest soap opera in invention. I mean, it had been going on for decades. In fact, it was so old that it was live," Cross said at Series Mania 2023, adding that the camera would move quickly from set to set to keep the show moving as it was broadcast. "It was the end of an era, of a dinosaur. It was dying and I was on the last six months, which was beautiful, because I got to see what that was like." After "The Edge of Night" came to an end, Cross would eventually continue down the soap opera path throughout her career. That said, she was never constrained by it and consistently signed onto projects outside of the genre as well.

Marcia Cross followed up her brief tenure on "The Edge of Night" with appearances in several TV movies, including 1985's "Brass," 1986's "Pros & Cons" (uncredited), and "The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James." In the latter film, Cross was part of a cast that included a gaggle of country music icons, including Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Willie Nelson, and David Allan Coe, to name a few.

In a film that features only a handful of female performers, Cross was one of the top-billed cast members, appearing very briefly as Sarah Hite. However, she does share a love scene with Kristofferson, who starred as Jesse James. "What a perfectly charming assignation. I am about to make love to the most wanted man in America," Hite declares in the scene (via YouTube). "I could step to that window and bugle it to one and all: Jesse James is my lover!"

In addition to "The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James," Cross made multiple appearances on the NBC soap "Another World," an appearance on George A. Romero's syndicated horror anthology "Tales from the Darkside," and in the 1986 TV movie "George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation," before landing another big soap opera role.

Beginning in late 1986, Marcia Cross joined the cast of what was once one of the biggest soap operas on television, ABC's "One Life to Live." Cross was one of a multitude of actors to cut their teeth on the long-running series, joining the likes of Laurence Fishburne, Tommy Lee Jones, Judith Light, Ryan Phillippe, Hayden Panettiere, Nathan Fillion, and others. Cross played Kate Sanders on the show who, as recounted by The Los Angeles Times, could "speak five languages, do karate, and the tango." 

The Marlborough, Massachusetts native finished up her work on "One Life to Live" around 1988, after which she booked guest roles on some of the era's top comedies. In 1989, she appeared in episodes of Showtime's "It's Garry Shandling's Show," ABC's "Who's the Boss?," and NBC's "Cheers." On the latter show, she played Susan Howe — the actor sister of Kirstie Alley's Rebecca Howe — in the episode "Sisterly Love," which sees the sisters team up to teach Sam Malone (Ted Danson) a lesson after he schemes to score dates with both women. "It was almost my first job in Los Angeles, and I was thrown in sort of at the last minute," Cross recalled at Series Mania 2023, while praising Alley's comedic talent. 

Marcia Cross' big breakout came in 1992 — the year she turned 30 — when she joined the cast of the Aaron Spelling's "Melrose Place." What began as a recurring role as the unhinged Dr. Kimberly Shaw during the show's first two seasons eventually morphed into a main cast promotion and a five-season, 100-plus-episode run on the Fox network's popular primetime soap opera for Cross. It was during this run that Cross was at the center of what would become not only one of the most memorable moments in series history but one of the zaniest moments in 1990s television, period. 

In the Season 2 episode "The B***h Is Back," Shaw — who had returned after seemingly being killed off in a car accident — reconnected with her former lover, Thomas Calabro's Michael Mancini. After a night of passion, she wakes up and goes to the restroom to attend to a headache, pulling off her red wig to reveal a massive scar underneath. "I was doing 'Twelfth Night' at the Old Globe in San Diego at the time they said Kimberly was coming back ... I remember flying up from San Diego to the set in Oxnard, going from Shakespeare to pulling off a wig to show a scar," Cross said of the big reveal amid the show's 25th anniversary in 2017 (via The Hollywood Reporter). "After that twist, and seeing how people went kooky for it, I realized, 'Oh god, this is real!' I didn't really understand what was going on for a long while until then." Shaw's penchant for the bizarre and disturbing continued throughout the series.

Marcia Cross experienced some of the highest highs of her acting career during the 1990s. In addition to her fan-favorite role on "Melrose Place," she also made guest appearances on popular series such as NBC's "Seinfeld" and "Quantum Leap," CBS' "Murder, She Wrote," and ABC's "Boy Meets World." She played Victoria Broyard on several episodes of the CBS soap "Knots Landing," too. However, this was also a time of great turmoil in Cross' personal life.

On Aug. 30, 1993, Cross' longtime romantic partner, actor Richard Jordan, died at the age of 56 from complications of a brain tumor. Jordan was a veteran actor of the stage and the screen and a Golden Globe winner, who was set to appear in "The Fugitive" that year before his illness forced him to withdraw from the project. Cross credits working on "Melrose Place" with helping her cope with Jordan's death. "I lost somebody in the middle of it," she said at Series Mania in 2023 (via Variety). "Then they called me asking if I wanted to go back. I remember being thrown a lifeline, because I was grieving so terribly. When I look at it now, it's my life in grief."

After her tenure as part of the cast of "Melrose Place" ended with Kimberly Shaw's death — for real, this time — from an aneurysm in the Season 5 episode "The Dead Wives Club," Marcia Cross maintained her small screen presence by guesting on a litany of series. She played Topanga's mother, Rhiannon Lawrence, on multiple episodes of "Boy Meets World," in addition to showing up on series such as ABC's "Spin City," Fox's "Ally McBeal," and CBS' "The King of Queens," among others.

Her next regular role on a major network series came in 2003, when she appeared as Dr. Linda Abbott — the sister of Tom Amandes' Harold Abbott — on the Greg Berlanti-produced WB series "Everwood." It was a role that was far tamer than what fans had come to expect from Cross through her "Melrose Place" work, but one that she gravitated toward nonetheless. "I love 'Everwood.' It was my favorite character I have ever played," she told Out magazine in 2004. "It was the most like me that I have ever played. She's boring. I'm boring. It is what it is, but I was really proud of this work." After showing up in several episodes during Season 2 of "Everwood," Cross finally turned her attention toward the role that would come to define her career.

On October 3, 2004, Marcia Cross made her first-ever appearance as Bree Van de Kamp in the Marc Cherry-created ABC comedy-drama series "Desperate Housewives." The show chronicled the scandalous exploits and hidden dark side of a group of seemingly normal women living on Wisteria Lane, in the fictional locale of Fairview, Eagle State. Cross worked alongside fellow actors Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, and Nicollette Sheridan.

Cross' Van de Kamp was depicted on the show as being the uptight, conservative homemaker and card-carrying NRA member with perfectionist tendencies. The character took some of its cues from Nancy Reagan, and the connection was even shouted on the show. For her efforts on the series, Cross was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and multiple Golden Globes. Meanwhile, "Desperate Housewives" was a massive ratings hit, particularly during earlier seasons — its 2005 Season 1 finale drew over 30 million viewers, per ABC Media Net.

Cross would remain on "Desperate Housewives" for all eight of its seasons through 2012. "I'm still pinching myself, I really am, at my good fortune," Cross said in 2006 of landing her big role on the show (via Today). "I never thought I would live Kimberly Shaw down. So, the fact that I've got another character, very different, under my belt is great."

While "Desperate Housewives" transformed her acting career, Marcia Cross also experienced a transformative event away from the cameras — finding love again. Cross and businessman Tom Mahoney first ignited rumors of a budding romance in March 2005, just as her show was becoming a certified cultural phenomenon. As a financial advisor, Mahoney is one of the few celeb spouses who work regular jobs compared to their famous partners. They got engaged in August of that year and were finally wed in June 2006.

Cross and Mahoney's San Gabriel, California wedding ceremony was followed by a reception attracting 232 guests, including Cross' "Desperate Housewives" castmates Felicity Huffman and husband William H. Macy, Eva Longoria (with then-boyfriend Tony Parker), Doug Savant, as well as series creator Marc Cherry. Notably, not all of her castmates were in attendance, including Teri Hatcher, though this was likely because the "Desperate Housewives" cast simply couldn't stand Hatcher. Fast forward to now and, despite encountering some major health challenges, the couple remains together. Along the way, they started a family that continues to flourish, decades after they first met.

It wasn't long after exchanging their vows that Marcia Cross and Tom Mahoney set about expanding their family unit. However, the "Desperate Housewives" star wasn't sure whether the process would prove fruitful. "In my early 40s, I considered adoption, and I tried getting pregnant on my own through a sperm donor, but neither worked out," she told Health in 2008 (via People). "I had already been through infertility treatments. It's very, very difficult to get pregnant in your 40s. It's costly and tough on your body and your relationship."

So, to give themselves their best shot at success, the couple skipped their honeymoon and proceeded immediately to in vitro fertilization (IVF), joining the many celebs who relied on IVF treatments to have children. After a difficult pregnancy — during which Cross was diagnosed with preeclampsia – she gave birth to twin daughters Eden and Savannah in 2007 at the age of 44. "I was terrified," she told People of welcoming more than one child. "As a mother, being outnumbered is scary." Nonetheless, she has survived being a parent. In 2021, Cross shared a baby picture of her then-teenage daughters in an Instagram post. "These two ... dream come true ... a love like no other. To be, at last, a mother," she wrote in the caption. "And now my babies are teenagers who can tease me for writing this post ... and the mushiness of my heart, and one day, many years from now, understand the profound honor I feel to be their mother."

Marcia Cross' life away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood was deeply impacted when her former partner, Richard Jordan, died after diagnosed with a brain tumor during the early '90s. However, that wouldn't be the last time that she would be impacted by life-threatening health challenges. In 2009, her husband, Tom Mahoney, was diagnosed with what was later revealed to be throat cancer, leaving Cross to care for her husband while also raising twin daughters.

The situation was complicated in 2017, when a routine gynecological check-up revealed that Cross had a medical issue of her own. It was ultimately determined that she had been living with a different form of cancer. Doctors believed that both Cross and her husband had developed their respective cancers as a result of contracting the same strain of human papillomavirus, or HPV. After 28 radiation treatments and two courses of chemotherapy, Cross went into remission. After her previous loss and experiences with cancer, the actor worked to raise awareness for the condition, particularly those linked with HPV. The "Melrose Place" star has since co-founded the HPV Cancers Alliance.

Since her time on "Desperate Housewives" came to an end, Marcia Cross has maintained a presence in Hollywood, most notably appearing as President Claire Haas in several episodes of the ABC drama "Quantico" across the first two seasons during the mid-2010s. She also appeared in episodes of the NBC procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," the Sundance TV drama "This Close," and the YouTube Red mini-series "Youth & Consequences."  

Her screen appearances have been few and far between in the 2020s; however, Cross is primed and ready for her next career boon after years of experiencing the Wisteria Lane afterglow.  "I always assumed that after 'Desperate Housewives' there will be a third act. It has not happened yet. That's the double-edged sword of being an 'icon.' Everybody thinks you are that character and by the time they forget about it, you are not on anybody's list anymore," she said at Series Mania in 2023 (via Variety). That said, the star continues to nab roles in her 60s, and she looks just as captivating on screen as ever. "Knowing what I know about the dangers of sun exposure, I take extra care to protect myself with a large hat, sunglasses, daily UV protection, and of course, an annual screening," she said back in 2007 of her diligent skincare routine (via New Beauty). With Cross' talent and timeless beauty, it seems there are always more projects and opportunities on the horizon.