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Name: Kate Mulgrew
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Date of Birth:
April 29, 1955
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Place of Birth:
Not available
Mini-bio:
The daughter of a contractor father and an artist mother, Kate Mulgrew was the second oldest of eight children. At 18, Mulgrew headed to New York to study acting with Stella Adler. She spent a gruelin... read moreg year or so pounding on casting-agency doors and making ends meet as a waitress and model. Then, on the same day in 1975, she landed two plum roles: Emily Webb in a stage revival of Our Town, and Mary Ryan on the new ABC TV soap opera Ryan's Hope. Four years later, she was tapped to play Kate Columbo, the previously never-seen wife of dishevelled TV detective Columbo (Peter Falk), on the prime-time series Mrs. Columbo, later retitled Kate Loves a Mystery. Columbo himself would never be seen on Mrs. Columbo; for that matter, few viewers saw Kate Mulgrew, since the rather ill-conceived series never built up much of an audience. Despite this setback, the actress persevered, starring in the 1981 miniseries The Manions of America and appearing in such theatrical features as A Stranger is Watching (1982), Remo Williams (1985) and Throw Mama from the Train (1987). She went on to co-star with James Garner in the short-lived weekly Man of the People (1991), and in 1995 joined the ever-growing "Star Trek" family as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek Voyager (she replaced Genevieve Bujold, who dropped out of the role in the middle of filming the first episode). Her significant TV guest appearances include a Boston councilwoman who carries on a torrid romance with Sam Malone (Ted Danson) in a 1986 episode of Cheers, and an alcoholic broadcast journalist on a 1992 installment of Murphy Brown; this last-named performance earned her a Tracey Humanitarian Award. Throughout her film and TV career, she has periodically returned to the stage, most recently in an all-star Broadway revival of Peter Schaffer's Black Comedy. In recognition of twenty years' worth of "artistic contributions," Kate Mulgrew was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Seton Hall University. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Kate Mulgrew mini-bio: Katherine Kiernan "Kate" Mulgrew is a Golden
Globe-nominated American actress, most famous for her role as Captain
Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager and as Mary Ryan on Ryan's
Hope. She was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and is the second oldest of
eight siblings.
At the age of 17, Mulgrew left home and traveled to New York City to
study acting. While at New York University, Mulgrew was accepted into
Stella Adler's Conservatory. At the end of her junior year, she left
the university to commit herself full time to her craft.
Kate Mulgrew has performed in over 23 plays, 9 movies, 30 television
shows, 6 audio books, and 1 television documentary. One of her first
roles on television was of older daughter Mary Ryan on the soap opera
Ryan's Hope. She would become a fan favorite and would be associated
with the show long after it was canceled.
Her television roles include Murphy Brown, Cheers, Mrs. Columbo (also known as
Kate Loves a Mystery among other titles), and Star Trek: Voyager. Something of a Katharine Hepburn lookalike, she continues to star in
a one-woman play called Tea at Five, a monologue reminiscence based
on Hepburn's memoir Me: Stories of My Life. Tea at Five is also
available as an audio recording.
Kate Mulgrew won the Saturn Award for "Best TV Actress" in 1998 and
the Golden Satellite Award for "Best Actress in a TV series drama" in
1998. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for "Best Dramatic
Actress" in 1979.
