The Major Crimes team is back, with Season 4.ย Emmy nominee Mary McDonnell reprises her role as Captain Sharon Raydor, head of the LAPDโs Major Crimes Unit.
In Season 3โs two-part finale, killer Phillip Stroh (Billy Burke) made his return, having been put behind bars in The Closer, the series of which Major Crimes is the spin-off. It was in part thanks to the testimony of Capt. Raydorโs adopted son, Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin), that Stroh was initially put away, and in Season 4โs opening episode, Raydor has to make a fateful decision.
Did You Know?
McDonnell is a classically trained actress from New York whose breakthrough film role came with the 1990 drama Dances with Wolves, after a theatre career of two decades. She was nominated for Academy Awards for both Dances with Wolves and 1992โs Passion Fish.
Other prominent roles include Independence Day (1996), Donnie Darko (2001) and a recurring role inย medical drama ER.
McDonnell also had a turn in the sci-fi genre, playing President Laura Roslin in the Battlestar Galactica mini-series, TV movie and the 2004 - 2009 reprisal series.
The 63-year-old actress is not a newcomer to crime or investigative dramas, however; she first played the role of Sharon Raydor in The Closer from 2009 to 2012, before starring in the showโs spin-off.
Both The Closer and Major Crimes feature a woman as the lead, a significant shift in Hollywood police dramas.