Marcia Cross Shares Rare Selfie After 64 and Desperate Housewives
Marcia Cross pulled desperate housewives back into view with a rare selfie from a first-class flight. The 64-year-old actress has largely stayed out of the spotlight in recent years, so the photo stood out immediately. It also revived attention on the performer best known as Bree Van de Kamp.
Cross and Bree Van de Kamp
Cross was cast as Bree Van de Kamp in 2004, and Desperate Housewives ran for eight seasons until 2012. On the show, she played a perfectionist suburban homemaker whose life slowly unraveled, which made Bree one of the series’ most recognizable roles and still the part most people associate with her.
That long run matters here because Cross has not taken another major long-running role since Quantico. She played President Claire Haas from 2015 to 2017, so the selfie briefly interrupted a quieter stretch in a career that once moved from one high-profile TV job to another.
1992 to 2018
Cross’s television résumé stretches well before Desperate Housewives. She joined Melrose Place as Dr. Kimberly Shaw in 1992 and stayed until 1997, after earlier appearances in soap operas including The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live, plus guest spots on Cheers, Seinfeld, Quantum Leap, Ally McBeal, and Spin City.
In speaking about Melrose Place, Cross described the storyline as “insane,” pointing to a hidden brain tumor and blowing up an apartment complex as examples of how far the series went. She later told a different story about Hollywood’s limits, saying, “I always assumed that after Desperate Housewives, there will be a third act. It has not happened yet. That’s the double-edged sword of being an ‘icon.’ Everybody thinks you are that character and by the time they forget about it, you are not on anybody’s list anymore.”
Quantico and After
Cross also appeared in Law & Order: SVU after Desperate Housewives ended, then returned to a major network role with Quantico. She revealed in 2018 that she had been treated for anal cancer and later entered remission, and she has said working in Hollywood later in life can be difficult, especially for women over 60.
The selfie does not signal a new project or a return to series television, but it does do something more immediate: it reminds the business that a familiar TV name can still move attention with a single post. For readers, that means Cross remains part of the Desperate Housewives conversation even without a new long-running role attached to her name.
