'''Patricia Helen Heaton''' (born March 4, 1958 in Bay Village, Ohio) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress best known for playing Debra Barone on the CBS television sitcom ''
Everybody Loves Raymond'' (1996-2005), and for being nominated for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy Series for this role 6 years in a row (1999-2005), and winning twice in a row, once in 2000, and again in 2001.
Biography
Heaton was born the second youngest of 5 children in an Irish American Catholic family, and raised Roman Catholic in Bay Village, Ohio, 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 The Ohio State University with a B.A. in drama in 1980. Her eldest sister, Sharon, is a Roman Catholic (Dominican) nun and second-grade teacher at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Virginia, and another sister, Alice Cartwright, the second oldest child, lives in Nashville and is married with three grown children, one of whom has ambitions to be an actress. Michael Heaton, the only boy, is the "Minister of Culture" columnist for ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'', and a writer for the paper's Friday Magazine. He's married and has three young daughters. Patricia is the second youngest, followed by Frances ("Franny"), the youngest, who works in the activities department at Harborside Healthcare in Westlake, Ohio.
Career
Heaton made her only Broadway appearance in the chorus of the flop ''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''' on ''
Everybody Loves Raymond'' (1996 - 2005) with Ray Romano, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Monica Horan. She was nominated in each of the series' last seven seasons for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy, winning the award twice. She has also collected two Viewers for Quality Television awards and a Screen Actors Guild trophy for her work on the series.
Heaton's television movies include ''Shattered Dreams'', ''Miracle in the Woods'', ''A Town Without Christmas'', as well as the
