Dale Dickey, born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1961, is a character actress whose face and voice have become shorthand for a certain kind of hardened, working-class American. She had a breakthrough late in her career with Winter’s Bone (2010) as the terrifying Merab, and has since done sharp work in Iron Man 3 (2013), Hell or High Water (2016) and the Netflix series Bright Lights, small parts that stay with viewers. She finally received a leading role in the indie A Love Song (2022), which earned some of the year’s best notices for an American independent performance. Her presence is often what makes a scene feel true, and directors return to her precisely for that reason. Read more