Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and fashion model. She made her film debut in 1984's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, before receiving critical acclaim for her role in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), for which she won Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama. She also received Golden Globe Award nominations for her performances in Green Card (1990) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

MacDowell starred in Groundhog Day (1993), Short Cuts (1993), Michael (1996), and Multiplicity (1996). She had roles in a number of less successful movies, including The End of Violence (1997), The Muse (1999) and Town & Country (2001). She later went on to star in a number of independent films, and to play supporting parts in movies such as Beauty Shop (2005), Footloose (2011), and Magic Mike XXL (2015). She received critical acclaim for the 2017 drama film Love After Love.^[1][2]

MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein Inc. and has been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal since 1986, celebrating 30 years with the company in 2016.^[3]

MacDowell was born in Gaffney, South Carolina, the daughter of Pauline "Paula" Johnston (née Oswald), a music teacher, and Marion St. Pierre MacDowell, a lumber executive.^[4] Her ancestry includes English, French, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh.^[5][6] Her family owned an Antebellum period summer house in Arden, North Carolina, which has since been made into a bed-and-breakfast named the Blake House Inn. Graffiti from her childhood visits are preserved in an upstairs bedroom closet. Her mother was an alcoholic and her parents divorced when she was six years old.^[7][8] When she was eight, her father remarried to the former Mary Frances Stone; this union lasted until his death. Her mother died prematurely at the age of 53.^[9] She attended Winthrop University for two years before moving briefly to Columbia, South Carolina. She was initially spotted by a rep from Wilhelmina Models while on a trip to Los Angeles, and later signed with Elite Model Management in New York City in 1978.^[10]

In the early 1980s, MacDowell modelled for Vogue magazine and appeared in ad campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent, Vassarette, Armani perfume, Sabeth-Row, Mink International, Anne Klein and Bill Blass. A series of billboards in Times Square and national television commercials for Calvin Klein drew attention to her and led to her 1984 film debut in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, a role in which her lines were dubbed by Glenn Close because her Southern accent was too pronounced for her to play the role of an Englishwoman.^[11] In 1985, she had a supporting part as a doctor in St. Elmo's Fire.

MacDowell studied method acting with teachers from the Actors Studio, in addition to working privately with the renowned coach Harold Guskin.^[10] Four years later, director Steven Soderbergh cast her in the independent film Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). Her performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, several other award nominations and led to a series of starring roles in films such as Green Card, The Object of Beauty, and Short Cuts. In the 1990s, MacDowell achieved stardom due to the box office success of director Harold Ramis's 1993 comedy, Groundhog Day, and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), opposite Hugh Grant.

Since 1986, MacDowell has appeared in print and television advertisements for the cosmetic and haircare company L'Oréal. In later years, she has acted primarily on television and in independent films.^[10] In 2012, she co-starred in the short-lived ABC Family series Jane by Design.^[12] From 2013 to 2015, she starred in the Hallmark Channel family series Cedar Cove. In 2019, she starred in the BBC sitcom Cuckoo.

MacDowell's mother was an alcoholic, and MacDowell cared for her from an early age.^[13]

She married rancher and fellow former model Paul Qualley in 1986. The two met while both were posing for Gap ads. They had a son, Justin (born 1986), and two daughters, Rainey (born 1990), named Miss Golden Globe 2012,^[14] and Sarah Margaret Qualley (born 1994), an actress. They divorced in 1999.^[15] Following her divorce from Qualley, she was in a year-long affair with actor Dennis Quaid. She was married to businessman Rhett Hartzog from November 10, 2001, until their divorce in October 2004.^[15]

As of 2013, MacDowell resides in Marina del Rey, California.^[16]