Mary Margaret Helgenberger (born November 16, 1958) is an American
actress. She began her career in the early 1980s and first came to
attention for playing the role of Siobhan Ryan on the daytime soap
opera Ryan's Hope from 1982 to 1986. She is best known for her roles
as Catherine Willows in the CBS police procedural drama CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation (2000â€"13) and the subsequent TV movie
Immortality (2015) and as K.C. Koloski in the ABC drama China Beach
(1988â€"91), which earned her the 1990 Emmy Award for Outstanding
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.She is also known for roles in
the TV series Under the Dome and Intelligence, and the films Species
(1995), Species II (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), and Mr. Brooks
(2007).Helgenberger was born in Fremont, Nebraska, to Mary Kay (née
Bolte), a nurse, and Hugh Helgenberger, a meat inspector. She was
raised in North Bend, Nebraska, where she graduated from North Bend
Central High School. Helgenberger is of Irish and German descent and
had a Roman Catholic upbringing. She has one older sister named Ann
and a younger brother named Curt. Helgenberger played the French horn
in her high school marching band. Until she went to college,
Helgenberger aspired to be a nurse like her mother, but attended
Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) in
Kearney, Nebraska, then attended Northwestern University's School of
Speech in Evanston, Illinois, (now the School of Communication) and
earned a B.S. degree in speech and drama.
actress. She began her career in the early 1980s and first came to
attention for playing the role of Siobhan Ryan on the daytime soap
opera Ryan's Hope from 1982 to 1986. She is best known for her roles
as Catherine Willows in the CBS police procedural drama CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation (2000â€"13) and the subsequent TV movie
Immortality (2015) and as K.C. Koloski in the ABC drama China Beach
(1988â€"91), which earned her the 1990 Emmy Award for Outstanding
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.She is also known for roles in
the TV series Under the Dome and Intelligence, and the films Species
(1995), Species II (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), and Mr. Brooks
(2007).Helgenberger was born in Fremont, Nebraska, to Mary Kay (née
Bolte), a nurse, and Hugh Helgenberger, a meat inspector. She was
raised in North Bend, Nebraska, where she graduated from North Bend
Central High School. Helgenberger is of Irish and German descent and
had a Roman Catholic upbringing. She has one older sister named Ann
and a younger brother named Curt. Helgenberger played the French horn
in her high school marching band. Until she went to college,
Helgenberger aspired to be a nurse like her mother, but attended
Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) in
Kearney, Nebraska, then attended Northwestern University's School of
Speech in Evanston, Illinois, (now the School of Communication) and
earned a B.S. degree in speech and drama.
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