Anna Gunn

Actor

• Born: August 11, 1968
• Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio

Contribution: Anna Gunn is an actor best known for her role as Skyler White on the award-winning AMC series Breaking Bad. She previously appeared in the HBO series Deadwood and in several films and stage productions.

Background

Anna Gunn was born on August 11, 1968, in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has credited her family’s trips to the opera with fueling her acting desires as a child. She attended Santa Fe Preparatory School and then Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she majored in theater before graduating in 1990.

While still in college, Gunn landed her first major acting role, playing Lucy Lockit in a production of The Beggar’s Opera at the Court Theatre in Chicago. She then traveled between Chicago and New York, attending auditions and searching for her big break.

Career

After a few minor television roles, Gunn landed a regular role on the Fox series Down the Shore, which premiered in 1992. The show aired for only two seasons, however, and Gunn found herself again looking for work. She had guest roles in several popular television shows, including Seinfeld in 1993 and NYPD Blue in 1994. In 1995, she acted in a stage production of Hysteria at the Mark Taper Forum and also had her first starring film role, appearing in Without Evidence alongside Angelina Jolie.

In the late 1990s, Gunn landed recurring roles on the television series Murder One (1995–97) and The Practice (1997–2004). She made her Broadway debut in 1996 in The Rehearsal at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City. For the next few years, Gunn struggled to find permanent work, appearing in small roles on several television shows, including Chicago Hope in 1996 and ER, Judging Amy, and The Drew Carey Show in 1999, and films such as Santa Fe (1997), Enemy of the State (1998), Lost Souls (2000), and Nobody’s Baby (2001). In 1999, she starred as Isabella in Sir Peter Hall’s production of Measure for Measure at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

After Gunn made a brief appearance on the HBO (Home Box Office) series Six Feet Under in 2004, producer David Milch, whom Gunn had worked with on NYPD Blue, cast her in the HBO series Deadwood, which had begun airing in March 2004. On the show, Gunn played Martha Bullock, the wife of town sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant). She appeared on Deadwood from early 2005 until the series ended in 2006. The entire Deadwood cast was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series in 2007.

After Deadwood, Gunn did not stay out of work for long. Following a guest appearance on the television series Boston Legal in 2007, she found a regular role on the new AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–13). On the show, she plays Skyler White, the wife of lead character Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer who gets into the drug business as a way to make money to support his family after his impending death. The show became hugely popular, garnering legions of fans and receiving numerous awards and nominations. Gunn’s performance in the role earned her a nomination for the Saturn Award for best actress on television in 2010 and 2013 and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and win for outstanding supporting actress in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

During her time on Breaking Bad, Gunn also starred in the world premieres of Donald Margulies’s Time Stands Still in 2009 and Alan Alda’s Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2011 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. In 2010, she made guest appearances in the television shows Law & Order and Lie to Me, and she starred in the television movie Secrets of Eden in 2012. Gunn also appeared in the independent films Red State (2011), Sassy Pants (2012), and Little Red Wagon (2012).Breaking Bad’s fifth and final season finished airing in 2013. Also in 2013, Gunn filmed a pilot for a new Bravo television series called Rita, in which she played the title role, but the series was not picked up by the network.

Following the end of Breaking Bad, Gunn played a detective in the 2014 television miniseries Gracepoint and had a recurring role in the crime drama series Shades of Blue in 2017. She also appeared in several films, including the drama Equity (2016); the biographical drama Sully (2016), depicting the story of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who safely landed his damaged plane in the Hudson River after both engines were disabled, saving the lives of every passenger on board; and the comedy Being Frank (2018), about a man whose son discovers he has a second family. In 2019, Gunn reprised her role in the television movie Deadwood: The Movie, a continuation of the television series.

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, Gunn appeared on the large and small screens with regularity. She had roles in several Apple TV series, including Physical (2022) and Sugar (2024). She noted while promoting these shows that she had previously been on the receiving end of a great deal of hatred for her work on Breaking Bad because people loved to hate her character, but as the years passed, people increasingly said how much they appreciated her work on the series.

Impact

Gunn has garnered critical acclaim for her complex and sensitive performances on both stage and screen. Having taken on such diverse roles as Martha Bullock on Deadwood, Skyler White on Breaking Bad, and Marie Curie in Radiance, she has proven her talent and versatility as an actor.

Personal Life

Gunn was previously married to Scottish real estate broker Alastair Duncan. Together, they have two daughters, Emma, born in 2001, and Eila Rose, born in 2006.

Bibliography

Gunn, Anna. “Breaking Bad’s Skyler White: What’s Really Cooking in New Mexico.” Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 21 June 2013. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Gunn, Anna. “Emmy Awards: Breaking Bad Actress and Nominee Anna Gunn on Bryan Cranston’s Strange Advice.” Interview by Sandra Gonzalez. Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly, 19 July 2012. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Gunn, Anna. “Q&A: Breaking Bad Star Anna Gunn on Skyler’s Suffering.” Interview by Sean T. Collins. Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 30 July 2012. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Haithman, Diane. “Anna Gunn’s Many Angles.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2009. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Stedman, Alex. "Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn Says Fans Have Grown Kinder to Skyler White Over the Years." IGN, 23 Apr. 2024, www.ign.com/articles/breaking-bads-anna-gunn-says-fans-have-grown-kinder-to-skyler-white-over-the-years. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.