Kate Mulgrew

Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955) is an American actress, most famous for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan. She has performed in multiple television shows, theatre productions and movies, she has also earned multiple awards for her acting, including an Obie Award, a Golden Satellite Award and a Saturn Award. She has also been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She is also an active member of the Alzheimer's Association National Advisory Council and the voice of Cleveland's Metro Health System.

Early life
Mulgrew was born in 1955 in Dubuque, Iowa, to Thomas James "T.J." Mulgrew II, a contractor, and Joan Virginia Mulgrew (née Kiernan), an artist and painter, both Catholics of Irish descent. Kate Mulgrew is the second oldest of eight siblings. She attended Walhert High School in Dubuque. Aged 17, she was accepted at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in conjunction with New York University in New York City. Mulgrew left NYU after her junior year, receiving her Associate of Arts degree in 1976.

Career
Her early career included portraying Mary Ryan for two years on the ABC soap Ryan's Hope (1975) She became a fan favorite and is still associated with the show long after its cancellation. Mulgrew remains friends with former co-star Ilene Kristen and presented a special Soap Opera Digest Award to Ryan's Hope creator Claire Labine in 1995. While in Ryan's Hope she also played the role of "Emily" in the American Shakespeare Theatre production of Our Town in Stratford, Connecticut. In 1979, she began playing Kate Columbo in Mrs. Columbo, a series created specifically for her.

In 1993, Mulgrew separated from her husband, Robert H. Egan, with whom she had been married for 12 years. In 1995, the divorce became final, and she was on the verge of having to sell her house and move into an apartment in Westwood when she was called to take the part of Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager. Geneviève Bujold, who had been cast in the role, left two days into filming, stating that a television series work schedule was too demanding. Mulgrew made history in the Star Trek franchise when she became the first female captain as a series regular in a leading role. Voyager was the first show broadcast on the new UPN channel and also the only television show on UPN to run for seven seasons, making it the network's longest running show, and the only show left over from its first year. Mulgrew won the Saturn Award for "Best TV Actress" in 1998 for her performances as Janeway.

Mulgrew also voiced the character of Janeway in the PS2 and PC game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force 2. PC Gamer UK rated the game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force 93% and fans consider this game to be one of the best Trek games of all time.

During Voyager she also played the role of Titania in the animated series, Gargoyles and Victoria Riddler in Riddler's Moon, a made for TV movie. Mulgrew is also one of six Star Trek actors to lend their voice to Star Trek: Captain's Chair, reprising her role as Captain Kathryn Janeway. The others five actors were Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, George Takei, Avery Brooks and Majel Barrett.

Star Trek: Voyager
Mulgrew originally auditioned for the role of the captain, named Nicole Janeway, when Star Trek: Voyager was being cast. She initially sent in a videotaped audition, which she made in New York City in August 1994. However she was unhappy with this audition and auditioned in person a few weeks later. On that same day, Genevieve Bujold was selected to play Janeway over Mulgrew. But Bujold left the role after only two days of filming, due to the demanding production schedule. Mulgrew was the runner-up between the two actresses and eventually was assigned to replace Bujold. After taking the part, she requested the name be changed from Nicole to Kathryn and the producers agreed. Voyager co-creator and executive producer Jeri Taylor states that Mulgrew "had an ineffable quality that put her ahead of the pack. She has proven to be a remarkably accurate choice".

About her years on Voyager, Mulgrew said: "I'm proud of it. It was difficult; it was hard work. I'm proud of the work because I think I made some little difference in women in science. I grew to really love Star Trek: Voyager'', and out of a cast of 9, I've made 3 great friends, I managed to raise 2 children. I think, "It's good. I used myself well." Speaking about the best and worst part about playing a Star Trek captain, she said: "The best thing was simply the privilege and the challenge of being able to take a shot at the first female captain, transcending stereotypes that I was very familiar with. I was able to do that in front of millions of viewers. That was a remarkable experience - and it continues to resonate. The downside of that is also that it continues to resonate, and threatens to eclipse all else in one's long career if one does not up the ante and stay at it, in a way that may not ordinarily be necessary. I have to work at changing and constantly reinventing myself in a way that probably would not have happened had Star Trek not come along. I knew that going in, and I think that all of the perks attached to this journey have been really inexpressively great. So the negatives are small."''

Post-Star Trek
After Voyager came to the end of the full seven seasons, Mulgrew went back to theatre and starred in a one-woman play called Tea at Five, a monologue reminiscence based on Katharine Hepburn's memoir Me: Stories of My Life. Tea at Five was a critical success and Mulgrew received two awards, one from Carbonell (Best actress) and the other from Broadway.com (Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance). In 2006, Mulgrew performed in The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios located in London, England. In the spring of 2007, she appeared in the NBC television series The Black Donnellys as Helen Donnelly which lasted for 1 season. She also performed the lead role in an off Broadway production called Our Leading Lady by Charles Busch in which she picked up a nomination from the Drama League due to her performance.

In 2007, Mulgrew played Clytemnestra in New York for Charles L. Mee's Iphigenia 2.0. She won the Obie Award for outstanding performance. In June 2008, Mulgrew appeared in Equus on Broadway, playing Hesther Saloman, a public official who is empathetic toward the play's central character. The play opened on September 5, 2008 for a strictly limited 22-week engagement through February 8, 2009.

Also in 2008, Mulgrew filmed the 30 minute courtroom drama "The Response" which is based on actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay tribunals, it was researched and fully vetted in conjunction with the University Of Maryland School of Law and was shot in 3 days and all the crew and cast agreed to defer their salaries so it could be made. Mulgrew plays Colonel Sims. According to The Response website they are currently looking at ways to distribute the film.

In 2009, Mulgrew returned to television in the NBC medical series, Mercy playing the recurring role of "Jeannie Flanagan" (the mother of the show's lead, Veronica). Due for release in 2010, is The Best and the Brightest, a comedy based in the world of New York City's elite private kindergartens. Mulgrew will play "The Player's wife" and in development is The Incredible Story of Joyce McKinney and the Manacled Mormon.

In a message to her fans on her official website she said, "I am looking for a play and hope that it will come to me before I become irritated. But I realize, even in this wish, that I have been a little spoiled as an actress and that in the waiting there is a kind of lovely discipline."

This fall, Kate Mulgrew will star as Cleopatra in William Shakepeare's Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage. Performances begin October 7.

Personal life
Mulgrew has two sons, Ian Thomas and Alexander "Alec" James, from her first marriage to Robert H. Egan as well as two stepdaughters, Marie and Eleanor, from her marriage to Tim Hagan. In 1999, Mulgrew married politician Tim Hagan, a former Ohio gubernatorial candidate and a current commissioner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Mulgrew's mother Joan introduced them and he proposed to Mulgrew on the set of Star Trek: Voyager.

Mulgrew is also a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Association. Mulgrew's mother, Joan Mulgrew, died on July 27, 2006, after a long battle with the disease. According to a Women's Health TV show report, in 2002, Kate Mulgrew had raised over $2 million for the association.

As well as being a member of the National Advisory Committee she is also an opponent of abortion as well as capital punishment. She received an award from Feminists for Life, a pro-life feminist group. She is quoted as saying "Execution as punishment is barbaric and unnecessary", "Life is sacred to me on all levels" and "Abortion does not compute with my philosophy." More recently Mulgrew has become the voice of MetroHealth in Cleveland, Ohio.