Kristin Rudrüd

Kristin Rudrüd, born May 23, 1955, is an American actress whose work spans theater, film, and television. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, she completed both her grade school and high school education there before enrolling at Minnesota State University Moorhead. She subsequently pursued acting training in London, then returned briefly to Fargo before relocating to New York City to pursue a professional career on stage.

In New York, Rudrüd secured a role in the Broadway production of Amadeus, which marked her Broadway debut in 1980. During this period she also participated in a Public Theater reading of Othello that featured Al Pacino in the lead role.

Following her time in New York, Rudrüd returned to Fargo and transitioned into film work. Her most prominent screen credit came in 1996, when Joel and Ethan Coen cast her as Jean Lundegaard, the doomed wife of William H. Macy's character, in their black comedy film Fargo. She subsequently appeared in the 1998 short film Frog and Wombat as Mrs. Reverend Walker, and in the short film A Psychic Mom, which she had made earlier in 1993, playing Judy Banning. That same short received a Best of the Fest award at the Rochester International Film Festival. In 1998 she also appeared in Pleasantville, playing Mary, a film that again featured Macy. The following year she appeared in Drop Dead Gorgeous as Connie Rudrüd, the Pork Products Lady, and in 2001 she played Gloria Swanson in Herman U.S.A.

Rudrüd's television credits include appearances on Chicago Hope and All My Children. In 2023, she returned to the world of the Coen brothers' Fargo through the fifth season of the FX television series. In the seventh episode, titled "Linda," her likeness as Jean Lundegaard appears photographically within a character's dreamscape sequence.

Rudrüd is married, has a daughter, and continues to reside in Fargo, North Dakota.