Mariann Mayberry

Mariann Mayberry (May 25, 1965 – August 1, 2017) was an American stage and television actress born in Springfield, Missouri. Her career spanned regional theater, an ensemble membership at one of Chicago's most prominent companies, and multiple Broadway productions between 2001 and 2007.

In 1993, Mayberry joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago as an ensemble member, a position she held for more than two decades. Her work there earned her two Joseph Jefferson Award nominations: one for Actress in a Supporting Role in a Play for Time of My Life, and a second for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for Hysteria, the latter directed by John Malkovich. Among her many Steppenwolf productions were The Geography of Luck, Wrong Turn at Lungfish, As I Lay Dying, The Libertine, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Pain and the Itch, and August: Osage County, the Tracy Letts play that won both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Mayberry's Broadway credits included Ovid's Metamorphoses, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and August: Osage County, the last of which she performed alongside her husband, actor Scott Jaeck, whom she married in 2006. Outside of Steppenwolf, she appeared in productions at the Goodman Theatre, including The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, The Odyssey, and Mirror of the Invisible World, as well as Metamorphoses and Argonautika at Lookingglass Theatre, How I Learned to Drive at Northlight Theater and Alliance Theatre, and Proof at Virginia Stage Company. Her final stage appearance came in 2015 in Grand Concourse, after which she retired from performing.

Her screen work included film and television roles across more than two decades. Television credits included a 2002 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Candy Forrester, a 2006 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Monica Corbett, the television film The Pennsylvania Miners' Story in 2002 as Cathy Hileman, and a 2015 episode of Blue Bloods as Janice Phillips. Film appearances included War of the Worlds in 2005 and Handsome Harry in 2009 as Judy Rheems.

In early 2013, Mayberry was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died on August 1, 2017, at the age of 52, at the home of her sister, Melissa Hollander, in Simsbury, Connecticut. At the time of her death she had been living in New York with Jaeck, her husband of eleven years. The Steppenwolf Theatre cancelled its performance that evening in her honor.