The Gilded Age Season 3 featured a 66-year-old award-winning actress who can only be classified as a living legend. The Gilded Age Season 3 officially came to an end on Sunday, August 10, on HBO Max, with an episode that put the show's main characters on full display while also gearing up for Season 4, which has already been confirmed by HBO.
The Gilded Age Season 3 included actress Donna Murphy (who has been featured in every season of the show), who had a particularly large role in the finale. The veteran actress has made her mark across film, television, and even Broadway, as she has received nominations for and won some of the most prestigious awards.
During Murphy's early life when she first began to pursue acting, she studied with and was mentored by Stella Adler, a legendary actress who founded the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting. At that institution, Adler taught movie stars such as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and Steve McQueen, so it is safe to say that Murphy learned from the best. Murphy also attended the Lee Strasberg Institute and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
As mentioned, Murphy has won multiple awards across her career. During her time on Broadway, she was nominated for a total of five Tony Awards, which are extremely coveted by Broadway actors. Of those five nominations, she won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical, one for her performance as Fosca in Passion, and another for her role as Anna Leonowens in The King and I. It is also worth noting that she has won awards from the Drama Desk and the Drama League Awards.
While Murphy found great success on Broadway, that is not the only place she has made her mark. Murphy also won a Daytime Emmy for her first television film, which was HBO's Someone Had to be Benny. In the TV realm, she has also appeared in Another World, Law & Order, and Murder One, amongst other projects.
Entertainment fans may also recognize Murphy from her film credits. In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, Murphy played Rosalie Octavius, the wife of Alfred Molina's Otto Octavius. She also played the love interest of Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Insurrection and portrayed Mother Gothel in 2010's Tangled.
Most recently, Murphy has taken her talents back to HBO for The Gilded Age. As mentioned, she played a major role in the dramatic and plot twist-filled Season 3, particularly in the finale, and many fans are already wondering if she will return when Season 4 premieres in the future.
Will Donna Murphy's Mrs. Astor Be in The Gilded Age Season 4?
A lot of drama surrounded Donna Murphy's Mrs. Astor in the Season 3 finale of The Gilded Age. After relinquishing her duties of planning an annual ball to Bertha Russell (find out who the Russells are based on here), it seemed as though Mrs. Astor would not be attending the ball at all, which could have caused even more issues than the family already had.
However, she eventually showed up and seemingly began to mend her relationship with her daughter, Charlotte, which allowed Season 3 to end on a bit of a high note, at least for that particular storyline.
When theorizing about what could happen in Season 4, one would assume that Murphy will return as Mrs. Astor. However, to the delight of many Gilded Age fans, Murphy has already confirmed that she will, in fact, be returning for the show's upcoming installment, and has even revealed what she would like to see out of her character.
In an interview with Broadway World, Murphy explained that she has grown particularly fond of Mrs. Astor as she has gotten the chance to play her across multiple seasons. As for the near future, she hopes "to deepen her and invest in her," and is ultimately "so grateful and excited" that the show is continuing:
"The more I take in, the more of a core sense of who this woman was has grown, and I want to continue to deepen her and invest in her. It's been very exciting, and we're all so grateful and excited to be able to carry on the storytelling."
