Annie Potts's Real Name: Anne Hampton Potts

Quick answer: Annie Potts was born Anne Hampton Potts on October 28, 1952, in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up on a farm in Franklin, Kentucky. Annie is a familiar form of Anne. She is known for playing Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women, Janine in Ghostbusters, Meemaw on Young Sheldon, and the voice of Bo Peep in the Toy Story films (Library of Congress; Kentucky Monthly).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Potts, Annie." Its fullest citation reads "Annie Potts; Anne Hampton Potts; American actress, voice actress; b. Oct. 28, 1952 in Nashville, Tenn.; grew up in Franklin, Ky.; BFA from Stephens College." It adds that her signature roles include Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women (1986–93) and Bo Peep in the Toy Story films. One older LOC citation gives 1957, but the fuller entry uses 1952.

In a Kentucky Monthly profile, Potts said her parents sent her to a summer camp with a drama program and that a regional arts program near Franklin and Bowling Green gave her real stage experience. "The bug bit me so hard," she said, recalling that she read every play in the library. She grew up on a 200-acre farm and later said her Kentucky upbringing gave her "a real cast of characters to draw from" for the Southern women she often plays. She earned her theater degree at Stephens College in Missouri.

In 1973 she was badly injured when a car driven by drunk drivers hit the vehicle she was in. While recovering in New Mexico, she auditioned on a walker for the graduate program at the California Institute of the Arts and was accepted on the spot.

Career highlights

Potts made her name on screen in the late 1970s and early '80s. In Ghostbusters (1984), she played the receptionist Janine alongside Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, and she told Kentucky Monthly that the cast often improvised. She also appeared in Pretty in Pink (1986).

In 1986 she joined the CBS sitcom Designing Women as Mary Jo Shively, staying until 1993. She described the show as a showcase for "smart professional women who were feminine and feminist." She later starred in Love & War and Any Day Now.

Pixar cast her as Bo Peep in Toy Story (1995). She returned for Toy Story 4 (2019), which Variety noted gave the porcelain shepherdess a far bigger, more independent role. Potts told Variety she was "gobsmacked" when she saw the film. On television she played Meemaw on Young Sheldon (2017–24), a character she called a composite of her mother, sisters, and aunts, and she joined Fox's Best Medicine, based on Doc Martin.

Name notes for searchers

Anne is her given first name, Hampton her middle name, and Potts her family surname. She has always worked as Annie Potts.