Last night, "American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy announced via Twitter that actress Lily Rabe will return for season 3 of the show, set to premiere in October. Murphy said, "So talented, love her!" And he's certainly not alone in that sentiment.
Rabe played a minor role in season one, Nora Montgomery, for whom Murder House was built. When her husband (Matt Ross), a doctor to the Hollywood stars, developed a drug habit and could no longer afford their lifestyle, she induced him to perform abortions, at that time illegal, in the basement. A disgruntled man learned Dr. Montgomery had aborted his unborn child. In an act of vengeance, he kidnapped and dismembered the Montgomery's toddler son Thaddeus. Which left Nora sadly childless, a fact that Tate (Evan Peters) attempted to remedy several times, doing whatever necessary to procure her a child, often with dire consequences.
In the show's second season, Asylum, Rabe played the central part of Sister Mary Eunice, second in command to Sister Jude, who ran Briarcliff. Initially the most innocent of young women, during an exorcism in the second episode, Satan's spirit possessed Mary Eunice. Rabe's talent shone as she adeptly let glimmers of her former virtuosity appear between more pervasive moments of true evil. Unable to rid herself of the malevolent spirit, towards season's end, she begged the Monsignor (Joseph Fiennes) to end her life, and he obliged.
30-year-old Rabe is the daughter of Academy Award nominated actress Jill Clayburgh ("An Unmarried Woman") and playwright David Rabe. She performed on Broadway and in minor roles in film and television, before achieving fame playing Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" in a 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production, with Al Pacino as Shylock. She achieved the Best Leading Actress Tony Award nomination.
Rabe is the fourth actor announced as returning for the anthology show's third season after Jessica Lange, Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson. All four appeared in both seasons. Talks are also ongoing to get Taissa Farmiga back. Farmiga starred as Violet Harmon in Murder House but did not appear in Asylum. The setting and plot for season three have not yet been revealed, although Murphy has dropped hints and fans have been speculating.
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