Catherine Bell Biography

A beguiling dark-eyed beauty with a statuesque figure, Catherine Bell rose to prominance on the military-themed television series “JAG” (1995 -2005) as Maj. Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie. Born in London, Bell emigrated to California with her Iranian mother at the age of two and began acting and modeling as a child. After a stint as a fashion model in Japan, Bell first got a foothold in Hollywood as a body double, performing a nude scene for Isabella Rossellini in director Robert Zemeckis’ “Death Becomes Her” (1992). Small roles in TV movies, C-level action flicks, sydicated fare including “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and racy TV series such as HBO’s risque comedy “Dream On” and the erotic cable anthology “Hot Line”–which made great advantage of her enviable physique–followed.

She made her “JAG” debut on an 1996 episode as Lt. Diane Schonke, the love interest of lead character Harm (David James Elliott). After return engagements her character was tragically killed off, but Bell learned that “JAG” producer Don Bellasario was looking for a new regular female lead for the series and wrote Bellasario a letter, suggesting that it would be intirguing if the new character were the spitting image of Harm’s lost love. Bellasario agreed and Bell joined the cast as a new character, Maj. Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie when the show switched networks from NBC to CBS in 1997. She parlayed her visibility and the show’s mainstream popularity–especially with military supporters–into several magazine covers and roles in telepics, ultimately landing a high-profile movie role as the object of Jim Carrey’s lust in the comedy “Bruce Almighty” (2003). When her co-star Elliott announced his attention to leave the show following its tenth season in 2004-2005, producers initially planned to reshape the series around Bell, but the network ultimately pulled the plug on the show.

• Born:
  on 08/14/68 in London, England
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Model

Family

• Grandparents: spoke Farsi

Significant Others

• Husband: . Adam

Education

• University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, pre-med

Milestones

• 1971 Moved to Los Angeles with family (date approximate)
• 1992 Served as Isabella Rossellini’s body double in “Death Becomes Her”
• 1993 Had supporting role in the NBC movie “Mother of the Bride”
• 1995 Feature acting debut “Men of War”
• 1997 Joined cast of “JAG” playing Sarah ‘Mac’ MacKenzie when show moved to CBS
• 1998 Co-starred with Maureen O’Hara in the CBS TV-movie “Cab to Canada”
• 2003 Returned to the big screen in the comedy “Bruce Almighty”
• Spent several months in Japan as a model