麻豆约拍

Journalist Nina Myskow presents this two part series on singer Linda Ronstadt and actress Mary Steenburgen - two very talented women, celebrated and creative, independent and determined. An unexpected turn of events caused them both to re-evaluate their lives and changed their outlook and future forever.

In Part Two - Award winning actress Mary Steenburgen looks back at the day her life changed.

Growing up in small town Arkansas, Mary moved to New York to study acting. She got her big break when she was discovered by Jack Nicholson in the reception room of Paramount's New York office and was cast as the female lead in his movie, the 1978 Western Goin' South.

Lead parts in Melvin and Howard, Parenthood, Dirty Girl, The Help, Last Vegas followed and Mary is currently starring in the TV sitcom The Last Man On Earth.

Happily married to actor Ted Danson, a mum, step mum and grandmother, Mary's life changed ten years ago when she went under general anesthetic for a routine operation. When she woke, she began to hear music and that music accompanied her everywhere. Mary describes it as if a previously untapped part of her brain had somehow been opened.

She began to write down the music that only she could hear. Encouraged to go to Nashville, she began writing with the likes of Melissa Manchester, Lori McKenna, Barry Dean, John Osborne, Lucie Silvas, Andrew Dorff, Nathan Chapman, and Matraca Berg. The result is a recording studio in Nashville, an album, the respect of her fellow song writers, a raft of songs and a whole new career at the age of 64.

Mary found a new voice through music.