Kate Burton earned her bachelor's degree in Russian studies and European history at Brown University in Rhode Island, where she was also on the board of Production Workshop, one of the university's student theater groups. She furthered her education by studying at Yale University School of Drama, she graduated in 1983. In 2007, she was given an honorary doctorate from Brown University. Kate's debut film appearance was an uncredited role in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), she then appeared in what would be her first film appearance since her initial debut, the 1980s favorite Big Trouble in Little China (1986). With over 70 film and television appearances under her belt, we should acknowledge her chilling and emotionally gripping performances in Empire Falls (2005) as Cindy Whiting, a permanently disabled but sweet woman with a positive attitude, and Meredith Grey's Alzheimer's-stricken mother in Grey's Anatomy (2005). Show less «