She played actress Ava Gardner alongside Philip Casnoff as Frank Sinatra in the made-for-TV miniseries Sinatra in 1992. Even so, at the time, living in New York City, Harden had to go back to doing catering jobs “because I didn’t have any money”. Harden appeared in the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing (1990)which is a 1930s mobster drama in which she first gained wide exposure. She also appeared in The Imagemaker (1986), her first movie screen role, in which she played a stage manager. Harden appeared in several television programs, including Simon & Simon, Kojak, and CBS Summer Playhouse throughout the 1980s.
Her first film role was in a 1979 student-produced movie at the University of Texas.
