Actress Kathy Bates, center, gets kissed by Shirley MacLaine, left, and Billy Bob Thornton after she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES—US actress Kathy Bates, best known for her portrayal of an obsessed fan in “Misery,” accepted a star on Tuesday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and dedicated the honor to a young girl battling an illness.
The 68-year-old actress spoke emotionally at the ceremony, recounting how she believed her career was over several years ago until she was offered a role on the series “American Horror Story.”
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She said the award-winning show created by Ryan Murphy had “literally brought me back to life,” coming at a time when she was dealing with health issues and the cancellation of her NBC show “Harry’s Law.”
She also recalled her big breakout in Hollywood at age 42 thanks to her memorable Oscar-winning performance as a deranged nurse obsessed with an author played by James Caan in the 1990 film “Misery,” based on the Stephen King novel.
“Sixty years ago I stood not far from this very spot with my beloved aunt Lee,” she recalled, speaking in front of the TLC Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. “We were going to see ‘The King and I.’ And then 34 years later I came back to this very theatre with another king by the name of Stephen with a movie called ‘Misery’ that changed my life.”
Shirley MacLaine and Billy Bob Thornton — who will share the screen with Bates in the upcoming “Bad Santa 2” — also spoke at the ceremony praising Bates for her talent and charity work.
“She is the type of actor who is not only loved by the public, the fans and the critics but also actors who know how good she is and what she can do,” Thornton said.
“I’m gonna keep this short and tell you that if I could be a woman, I’d be Kathy Bates.”
The actress who has survived both ovarian and breast cancer dedicated her star on Tuesday to an eight-year-old girl named Emma, whom she said was like her battling lymphedema, a condition often associated with cancer patients and which causes swelling of the limbs.
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