Marg Helgenberger
Marg Helgenberger is an actor, born 1958.
Marg Helgenberger came out of daytime television, four years on Ryan's Hope as Siobhan Ryan from 1982 to 1986, and then landed one of the best-written dramas of its era. China Beach, which ran from 1988 to 1991, gave her K.C. Koloski and won her the 1990 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. It remains the most interesting thing on her resume: a hard, transactional character in a series with no interest in making her likeable.
The 1990s poured the same quality into genre films. She is the scientist who keeps her nerve in Species and its sequel, and Alison Sinclair in Bad Boys, and the note she plays best is poise with something abrasive underneath. Erin Brockovich gave her a small part as Donna Jensen that she makes land in very little time, and Mr. Brooks later cast her as Emma Brooks, married to the title character.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation then took thirteen years, from 2000 to 2013, as Catherine Willows, and that is the role the reputation is built on. She returned for the television film Immortality in 2015, and again for the second and third seasons of CSI: Vegas between 2022 and 2024. Between those, Under the Dome, Intelligence and All Rise kept her in network drama.
Movies (18)
- Bad Boys (1995)
- Erin Brockovich (2000)
- Species II (1998)
- Species (1995)
- A Dog's Journey (2019)
- Mr. Brooks (2007)
- Always (1989)
- Fire Down Below (1997)
- Wonder Woman (2009)
- In Good Company (2004)
- Almost Friends (2017)
- After Midnight (1989)
- Just Looking (1995)
- The Cowboy Way (1994)
- The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
- This Changes Everything (2019)
- Columbus Day (2008)
- Inflammable (1995)
TV (10)
Where to start with Marg Helgenberger
Hunt down China Beach. It has never been the easiest show to find, which is the main reason it is not her signature, and K.C. is the character the series is least sentimental about and the best thing in it.
If you want the famous version, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a procedural you can enter almost anywhere; Catherine Willows has the most life outside the case of the week, and the early seasons are the good ones. CSI: Vegas brings her back for two seasons and is a better revival than most.
For films, Species is trashy and enjoyable and she is the only person in it playing a real human being, Erin Brockovich gives her a small part with weight, and Mr. Brooks is the strange late thriller worth a look. Always is the Spielberg curiosity.