A comely, red-haired leading lady with an open-faced, forceful manner, Marg Helgenberger began on the small screen as the feisty rookie police officer Siobhan Ryan on ABC’s Irish-flavored daytime soap, “Ryan’s Hope”. After some primetime guest spots, she landed a regular role supporting Margot Kidder and James Reid on the short-lived CBS series about two former con artists, “Shell Game” (1987). She fared better with her second series, winning an Emmy for the provocative Vietnam War drama, “China Beach” (1988-91). As K.C., a prostitute who attaches herself to a M.A.S.H. unit in Vietnam, Helgenberger brought forthright feminist insights to her brash, hard-bitten character. Though she would have a recurring role as George Clooney’s love interest on NBC’s popular medical drama “ER” in 1996, she had to wait for her return as a series regular until the Las Vegas-set “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS, 2000- ). Cast as senior forensics investigator Catherine Willows, who tries to balance work and motherhood, the actress enjoyed a meaty role that earned her an Emmy nomination in its first season.
After making her feature debut as an all-night answering service operator in the mediocre anthology thriller “After Midnight”, Helgenberger had a small role in Steven Spielberg’s engaging fantasy “Always” (both 1989). But her bread-and-butter through the 90s were TV-movies and miniseries, many of which were made for the Lifetime Channel: “Death Dreams” (1991), “A Friend in Need” segment of “The Hidden Room” series (1991), “Lie Down with the Lions” (1994), “Giving Up the Ghost” (1998), and “Keys to Her Past” (1999) to name a few. Though “Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers” (ABC, 1993) was not one of the better made-for-TV King adaptations, “Peacemaker” (PBS, 1991) was a thoughtful drama of life in the nuclear 1950s, and the CBS drama “In Sickness and in Health” (1992) offered her the plum role of Mickey, the lusty caretaker who befriends her charge (Lesley Ann Warren) suffering from multiple sclerosis, only to betray that trust by sleeping with her husband (Tom Skerritt). Her leading role in “The Cowboy Way” (1994) offered Helgenberger some feature exposure, as did “Species” (1995) and its regrettable 1998 sequel “Species II”, “My Fellow American” (1996) and “Fire Down Below” (1997), but nothing about her work in these films would erase perceptions of her as a TV actress.
With Tom Hanks’ “I’ll Be Waiting” (1993) segment of the “Fallen Angels” series, Helgenberger began an association with Showtime which would include Peter Weller’s “Partners” (1994, from the “Directed By” series), “Conundrum” (1996), “Elmore Leonard’s Gold Coast” (1997), “Thanks of a Grateful Nation” (1998) and “Happy Face Murders” (1999). Excellent as the sex-starved widow of “Gold Coast”, in which she rejoined Weller, she delivered arguably her best performance as the sister of a veteran felled by Gulf War Syndrome in the critically-acclaimed “Thanks of a Grateful Nation”. She was equally terrific in NBC’s “Murder Live!” (1997) as shallow talk-show host Pia Postman and “Perfect Town, Perfect Murder” (2000), a thoughtful CBS miniseries look into the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. That year also found her in her biggest feature success to date, playing the woman whose medical condition leads Julia Roberts to uncover evidence of corporate wrongdoing in Steven Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich”. She appeared next in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama by PaulWeitz, “In Good Company†(2004), in which she played the pregnant wife of a recently demoted executive (Dennis Quad).
- Also Credited As:
Mary Margaret Helgenberger
- Born:
on 11/16/1958 in Fremont, Nebraska
- Job Titles:
Actor, Meat packing plant worker
Family
- Brother: Curt Helgenberger. born c. 1961; trains quarter horses
- Father: Hugh Helgenberger. died in 1986 of multiple sclerosis
- Mother: Kay Helgenberger. born c. 1936
- Sister: Ann Helgenberger. born c. 1956
- Son: Hugh Howard Rosenberg. born on October 21, 1990
Significant Others
- Husband: Alan Rosenberg. born on October 4, 1951; met when both were acting on the daytime soap opera “Ryan’s Hope” (ABC); became reacquainted in 1986 after his divorce from actor Robin Bartlett; married in 1989
Education
- Kearney State College, Kearney, Nebraska
Milestones
- 1984 Played the role of spunky rookie cop Siobhan Ryan on the ABC daytime drama “Ryan’s Hope”
- 1986 Earliest primetime TV appearances included a guest spot on the detective series “Spenser: For Hire” (ABC)
- 1987 First TV series as a regular, the short-lived CBS comedy-drama, “Shell Game”; played Natalie Thayer
- 1989 Made feature film debut in a leading role as an all-night answering service operator who becomes trapped between a soap opera leading lady and the obsessed fan stalking her in one segment of the horror anthology “After Midnight”; also acted in that year’s “Always”, Steven Spielberg’s updating of the 1943 film “A Guy Named Joe”
- 1990 TV-movie debut, “Blind Vengeance” (USA Network)
- 1991 Acted in the unjustly over-looked feature “Crooked Hearts”
- 1991 First leading role in a TV-movie, “Death Dreams” (Lifetime), as a woman whose near-death experience triggers some peculiar visions
- 1991 Narrated PBS historical documentary, “Not on the Frontline”, about women who served in the Vietnam War
- 1992 Essayed the lusty Mickey who befriends Anita (Lesley Ann Warren) but sleeps with her husband (Tom Skerritt) in “In Sickness and in Health” (CBS)
- 1993 Acted opposite Bruno Kirby in “I’ll Be Waiting”, a segment of Showtime’s “Fallen Angels” directed by Tom Hanks
- 1993 Portrayed a novelist living in a haunted forest in ABC miniseries, “Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers”; fared better as the desirable and ambitious Debbie who seduces Gary Cole to murder for her in the CBS miniseries “When Love Kills : The Seduction of John Hearn”
- 1994 First collaboration with director Peter Weller, “Partners”, a presentation of Showtime’s “Directed By” series; Weller also acted
- 1994 Provided pointless and distracting love interest for Woody Harrelson in “The Cowboy Way”
- 1995 Had small role (blink and you miss her) as a bitchy fed (in a push-up bra, no less) in Michael Bay’s “Bad Boys”
- 1995 Portrayed molecular biologist Laura Baker in “Species”; would later reprise Dr. Baker in sequel bomb, “Species II” (1998)
- 1996 Appeared as James Garner’s book editor in “My Fellow Americans”
- 1996 Played recurring role as a woman involved with George Clooney’s Dr. Doug Ross on “ER”
- 1997 Portrayed sex-starved widow to David Caruso’s small-time crook in the intelligent, well-acted TV-movie “Elmore Leonard’s Gold Coast” (Showtime), directed by Weller
- 1997 Starred as Steven Sagal’s love interest in typical actioner, “Fire Down Below”
- 1997 Turned in terrific performance as Pia Postman, the shallow, vain, heavily made-up talk show host of “Murder Live!”, an NBC movie directed by Roger Spottiswoode
- 1998 Was outstanding as Steven Weber’s irate sister in Showtime’s magnificent miniseries about the elusive Gulf War Syndrome, “Thanks of a Grateful Nation” (Showtime)
- 1999 Starred opposite Ann-Margret in Showtime’s “Happy Face Murders”
- 2000 Had featured role as the woman whose medical condition leads Julia Roberts to uncover the corporate wrongdoer in the hit film “Erin Brockovich
- 2000 Portrayed Patsy Ramsey in CBS miniseries about the killing of Jon Benet Ramsey, “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town”; second TV project with Ann-Margret
- 2000 Returned to series TV as co-star of the fall CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
- 2002 Received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama for her role in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
- 2003 Received an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role on “CSI”
- 2004 Starred opposite Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson in the comedy “In Good Company”
- Grew up in North Bend, Nebraska; worked part-time in a meat packing plant while a teenager
- Played K C Koloski, a heroin-addicted hooker, on the ABC war drama series “China Beach”; won Emmy Award
