A slender, dark-haired beauty with an intelligent demeanor and an attractive alto voice, Jill Hennessy made her Broadway debut as the Puerto Rican wife of the singer in “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” in 1990 and, after a handful of TV appearances, got her break in 1993 when she was cast as assistant district attorney Claire Kincaid on the engrossing NBC police and courtroom drama series “Law & Order”. The show had been running for several seasons, but personnel changes had already occurred, and Hennessy’s coolly confident manner meshed well with those of her more experienced co-stars. That same year, the Canadian actress played her first prominent feature film role, that of Dr. Marie, the mechanized hero’s smart chemist, in the ill-advised sequel, “Robocop 3″. Hennessy later acted smaller supporting roles in the modestly satirical comedy-drama “The Paper” (1994), as Robert Duvall’s daughter. and “I Shot Andy Warhol” (1996), as a reporter.
