1967–1980: Career beginnings

Daly's first Broadway role was in 1967 in a short-lived play, That Summer, That Fall.^[7][9][10]

Daly appeared in John and Mary (1969), Angel Unchained (1970), Play It as It Lays (1972), and The Adulteress.^[7][9] She was cast as Inspector Harry Callahan's first female partner, Kate Moore, in the 1976 Dirty Harry film The Enforcer.^[7] The film was critically panned, though a box office success. Daly's performance divided critics, with some calling it too "mannered" for film,^[7] while others praised the strength she brought to the role.^[11] The concept of a male/female police partnership was later used as the basis for the television show Hunter.^[12]

1981–2005: Breakthrough and stardom

Daly appeared in the CBS police-procedural crime drama Cagney & Lacey as Mary Beth Lacey, the married working mother. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series four times, in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, and was a nominee in 1986 and 1987.^[13][14] Between co-star Sharon Gless and her, they won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series six years in a row.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988, Daly appeared on the Dolly Parton TV variety show Dolly, and sang (at her request) a duet with Parton. Broadway producer Barry Brown saw the show and, impressed by Daly's performance, decided to mount a revival of the musical Gypsy with Daly in the lead role of Rose.^[15] Cagney & Lacey had finished airing, and Daly agreed. In April 1989, the Daly-helmed Gypsy revival began a 14-city U.S. tour; it was then presented on Broadway in November 1989.^[16] This production was the second revival of the show to play Broadway (the first was in 1974 with Angela Lansbury). Daly won the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Gypsy.^[17] Daly left Gypsy in July 1990, with Linda Lavin playing Rose, and returned in April 1991 through closing in July 1991.

In 1991, Daly guest-starred on her brother Tim's series Wings, playing a woman who dates Brian Hackett (Steven Weber), brother of Tim's character Joe. She appeared in the Broadway revival of The Seagull in 1992 as Madame Arkadina.^[7][18] She appeared as Sally Adams in the City Center Encores! staged concert of Call Me Madam in February 1995.^[19] In regional theatre, she played Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Los Angeles, in April 1997.^[20]

She appeared as social worker Maxine Gray, who was also the mother to the show's title character on the CBS drama Judging Amy, which ran from 1999 to 2005. Addressing a conference of the National Association of Social Workers in 2000, Daly said she had learned from social workers and social work texts to improve her portrayal of her character, and she added: "I take from you because you are the ones dealing with all the bad institutions of our society: institutionalized poverty, institutionalized racism, institutionalized cynicism."^[21] Daly appeared in the Lifetime television film Undercover Christmas in 2003 titled Undercover Christmas, as Anne Cunningham.^[22] Among her later television roles, Daly reunited with Cagney & Lacey costar Sharon Gless in a 2010 guest role on the series Burn Notice.

2006–present: Return to Broadway

She appeared on Broadway in the David Lindsay-Abaire play Rabbit Hole (2006) portraying the mother of the play's protagonist, played by Cynthia Nixon.^[23] For her performance she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In January 2008, she played the role of Mother in the world premiere production of Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I at the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey.^[24] In 2009, she appeared in the original cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore.^[25] Daly performed a cabaret act, Second Time Around, in January 2010 at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, New York City. She had previously performed at Feinstein's in May 2009.^[26]

During this time she took several roles in television including taking on the role of portraying Mabel Dodge Luhan in the Lifetime movie Georgia O'Keefe acting alongside Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen. She also guest starred as Carolyn Shepherd in a 2009 episode of the ABC medical drama series Grey's Anatomy and Tina in the 2010 episode of the USA Network series Burn Notice. She starred as Maria Callas in the Terrence McNally play Master Class at the Manhattan Theater Club on Broadway, from June 14, 2011 (previews) to September 4, 2011.^[4] For her performance she was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Play. Daly reprised her role as Maria Callas in the West End production of Master Class, which opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on February 7, 2012 (after previews from January 21) in a limited engagement to April 28, 2012.^[5] She had a guest starring role as an imperious teacher Mrs. Plank in 2014 episode "Won't You Be Our Neighbor" from the ABC sitcom Modern Family. She originated the role of Judy Steinberg in It Shoulda Been You, at the George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, New Jersey, which ran from October 4 to November 6, 2011.^[27] The musical ran on Broadway in 2015.

She took supporting roles in the independent film Hello, My Name Is Doris starring Sally Field, the romantic comedy film Basmati Blues (2017) with Brie Larson and played Anne Marie Hoag in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). She had a minor role in the Coen Brothers anthology Western film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018). That same year she had a leading role in the Patrick Wang films A Bread Factory Part 1 & 2 (2018). In the fall of that year Daly joined the cast of the revival of the Murphy Brown series, playing the character of Phyllis, who runs the bar which Murphy and her coworkers often patronize. She also guest starred in Grey's Anatomy in 2019, Madam Secretary in 2019, and Mom in 2021. In 2024 Daly was set to return to Broadway in a revival of John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt opposite Liev Schreiber;^[28] however, she withdrew from the production after being hospitalized.^[29]

Film

Television

Theatre