‘Desperate Housewives’ Star Was a Massachusetts High School Mascot

Actress Marcia Cross was a famous daytime television star, appearing on several popular soap operas before striking it big in primetime.

Cross was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts on March 25, 1962. Parents Mark and Janet Cross had three daughters, Ellen, Marcia and Susan.

Marcia Cross took to performing at an early age. She studied piano and dance at the Ceil Sharon School of Dance in Marlborough and appeared in a sixth-grade play, The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

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While a student at Marlborough High School, Cross was "the Panther," the school mascot for the Marlborough Panthers, the school's football team.

In a 2021 interview, her mom told the Fifty Plus Advocate, "Marcia worked at Dunkin' Donuts back then starting at 5 a.m. so she would be free Saturday afternoons for the football games."

"She was a great panther," Janet Cross said.

Cross earned a B.F.A. in Acting from Julliard and a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles.

She launched her television career in 1984 with roles in the popular soap operas The Edge of Night, Another World and One Life to Live. She performed in several television movies and appeared in numerous primetime series.

Cross starred as Bree Van de Kamp in the 2004-2012 series Desperate Housewives on ABC, for which she was nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and at least one Primetime Emmy Award.

Cross is married to Tim Mahoney and has fraternal twin daughters conceived through in vitro fertilization in 2007.

In 2018, Cross disclosed she was in remission after receiving treatment for anal cancer.