Margaret Colin

Margaret Colin is an American actress born on May 26, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York City, who was raised in Baldwin, New York, on Long Island. Of Irish descent, she grew up in a large Catholic family and graduated from Baldwin Senior High School in 1976 before attending Hofstra University.

Colin launched her acting career in soap operas, first appearing on The Edge of Night as an heiress and former terrorist whose character survived seven murder attempts and ultimately married her stepbrother — all within seven months. She then moved to As the World Turns, where she originated the role of Margo Montgomery, a character that would endure on the show for nearly 30 years. It was on that series that she met actor Justin Deas, who played her character's love interest Tom Hughes; the two married in January 1988 and have two sons, Sam and Joe. Colin is also stepmother to a daughter from Deas's first marriage. The family relocated to Upper Montclair, New Jersey, in the late 1990s.

Her film work spans several decades and includes Something Wild (1986), Three Men and a Baby (1987), The Butcher's Wife (1991), The Devil's Own (1997), Unfaithful (2002), and First Daughter (2004). Among her most recognized film roles is White House Communications Director Constance Spano in the science fiction blockbuster Independence Day (1996).

On television, Colin appeared in primetime series including Foley Square, Leg Work, and early episodes of Chicago Hope. In 1999 she played Lisa Wiseman on Now and Again alongside Eric Close and Dennis Haysbert. A 2003 episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit titled "Tortured" featured her as a mother and bakery owner arrested for abetting a murder. From 2007 to 2012, she recurred as Eleanor Waldorf, mother of Blair Waldorf, across the first five seasons of the teen drama Gossip Girl. Beginning in 2017, she appeared throughout the sixth season of the HBO comedy series Veep as fictional CBS News anchor Jane McCabe, reprising the role in the seventh season premiere and the series finale. Along with the Veep ensemble, Colin received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Colin's Broadway career spans from 1997 to 2026 and earned her a Theatre World Award in 1998. Her stage credits include Old Acquaintance, Jackie, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The 24 Hour Plays 2004, Arcadia, and the 2018 revival of Carousel, in which she played Mrs. Mullin. Her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie: An American Life stands among her notable stage performances. During the Broadway run of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 2003, Colin smoked throughout the second act and dedicated that performance to Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a pointed response to the state's smoking ban; she gave up smoking after the production closed.

Colin is an anti-abortion activist and served as honorary co-chair of Feminists for Life. She is also an honorary board member of Feminists for Nonviolent Choices.