Patricia Clarkson was born in Louisiana in New Orleans city. She is a daughter of Jackie Clarkson who was a council woman and a New Orleans politician together with Arthur Clarkson, who was a school administrator. His father is Arthur Clarkson and he is a school administrator who was a worker in Department of Medicine at Louisiana State University. She was born together with four sisters. She did drama with Fordham University and she graduated Summa Cum Laude and got the masters of Fine arts from Yale School of Drama. This was before she made the first appearance in the movie The Untouchables of 1987.

Patricia Clarkson published Natural Resource Defense Council in the response of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the post was in OnEarth magazine. She released also a public service announcement where she talks about her experience while growing up in the New Orleans. The two pieces were releases in 2010. Patricia Clarkson was never married and she does not have any child. She was in relationship with Campbell Scott since 2002 and 2004 but they parted ways but they are still good friends.

Patricia Clarkson had some credits in Broadway Theater and they include the roles in Eastern Standard and The House of Blue Leaves.  She appeared in many supporting roles in the high profile films in her early career. She played for the first time in the movie when she was 27 years old and she was a wife of Kevin Costner in the role of Elliot Ness, in the movie The Untouchables. She played in the Dead Pool, Everybody’s All-American and Rocket Gibraltar. She was a star of Alex Haley’s Queen which is a miniseries and Davis Rules, a television series.

Many times, she played a character actor and not as a leading woman. She appeared in different major roles like in the Green Mile, Lars and the Real Girl, Good Night and Good Luck, Far From Heaven and The Green Mile. She had a breakthrough role when she played in High Art and she portrayed Greta who was a former model, a drug addict and a lesbian. She got many reviews because of this role and she said that acting is her life and it is the only thing she can do well. In the 2002, she started to play in the role of Sarah O’ Connor as Aunt Sara in the Six Feet Under for HBO.