Ed Harris and Amy Madigan Have Been Married for Over 40 Years — Inside Their Rare Hollywood Love Story
Ed Harris and Amy Madigan have a rare, long-lasting Hollywood marriage.
The pair met in the early ‘80s, got married while filming a movie together and have remained each other’s biggest champions ever since. “We’re really good supporters of each other and always have been,” Madigan said in 2026.
When asked in another interview how her husband, who currently stars in the newTaylor Sheridanseries Dutton Ranch, reacted to her sinister character in the 2025 horror movieWeapons — for which she was then just nominated for an Oscar — she shared, “He loved it. He’s known me a long time and he saw all the parts of myself melded into Aunt Gladys. So, I have a very supportive family, my daughter also, so I’m very lucky.” About six weeks later, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Here’s everything to know about Harris and Madigan’s marriage, including how they met.
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Are Ed Harris and Amy Madigan a couple?
Yes, and they’ve been together for a very long time, especially by Hollywood standards. When asked about the secret to their successful relationship, Madigan once said they “don’t have” one.
“We just love each other and we work really hard at that and in our work,” she told People earlier this year.
How long have Ed Harris and Amy Madigan been together?
The couple have been together for more than 40 years. Nodding to their many decades together at the 2026 Oscars, Madigan gave her husband a sweet shoutout while accepting the award for Best Supporting Actress, calling him “my beloved Ed, who’s been with me forever, and that’s a long ass time.”
She added, “None of this would mean anything if he wasn’t by my side.”
Related: Amy Madigan Reveals the One Aunt Gladys Trait She Wishes She Had
How did Ed Harris and Amy Madigan meet?
The pair met in Los Angeles in 1980, before either were major stars. Harris caught Madigan’s first, when she saw him in a production of Sam Shepard and Patti Smith’s Cowboy Mouth.
“It was like something you see in a movie or hear in a song,” she told Life in 1985 (via People). “I just thought — ‘Well, there he is.’ It was obvious to me that I’d see him again.”
The following year, they starred in a play by Edward Allan Baker called “what’s so beautiful about a sunset over prairie avenue,” and by 1983, while filming Places in the Heart, they were married.
When did Ed Harris and Amy Madigan get married?
The pair tied the knot on Nov. 21, 1983.
Do Ed Harris and Amy Madigan have kids?
Yes. Harris and Madigan share one daughter, Lily Dolores Harris, who was born in 1993. The couple kept their only child out of the spotlight for most of her life, but she eventually followed in her parents’ footsteps as an actor.
Rather than jump right into auditioning, however, she attended Reed College, where she earned a B.A. in English, then enrolled in the American Conservatory Theater’s MFA acting program. She made her acting debut in 2021, with a guest role in an episode of Chicago Med.
Related: Amy Madigan Once Made This Unexpected Comment About ‘Uncle Buck’ Co-Star John Candy
Who did Ed Harris and Amy Madigan refuse to applaud at the Oscars?
One of the couple’s most talked-about public moments came during the 1999 Academy Awards, when they famously refused to applaud director Elia Kazan as he accepted an honorary Oscar.
Kazan’s legacy has kicked up controversy because he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 and named former colleagues suspected of Communist ties during the Hollywood blacklist era.
Television cameras caught Harris and Madigan sitting stone-faced while much of the audience gave Kazan a standing ovation.
Years later, Madigan explained the decision, telling the New York Times, “There was no way we were going to do that. No way.”
“My father, who’s not with us anymore, he was a political analyst and a journalist and he was working on Capitol Hill when McCarthyism was going on and it really, really affected him deeply,” Madigan continued. “And yeah, that whole thing was really bringing it back to me. I was like, ‘Nope.'”
Have Ed Harris and Amy Madigan acted together?
Many times.
Over the years, the couple have appeared together in projects including Places in the Heart, Alamo Bay, Gone Baby Gone and the stage production of The Jacksonian.
Madigan also appeared in Pollock, which Harris directed and starred in as painter Jackson Pollock. The film earned Harris an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
“We’re different people,” she said of their acting styles. “But about the important things we are very like. We prepare differently, and we rehearse differently, but it just works for us.”
Whether they’re sharing the screen or not, they always have each other’s back, professionally. Speaking with the New York Times, Madigan shared that for years before she landed Weapons her husband “repeatedly” told her that she’d get another break in career if she’d just sit tight.
“He said, ‘Something’s going to happen and it’s going to be a very different situation for you,’” she shared. He turned out to be right.
Next: Everything to Know About the ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff ‘Dutton Ranch,’ Starring Ed Harris
This story was originally published by Parade on May 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
