Catherine Hicks
Catherine Hicks | |
|---|---|
| Born | Catherine Mary Hicks |
| Occupation | Actress/Singer |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse | Kevin Yagher (1990-present) 1 child |
Catherine Mary Hicks (born August 6, 1951) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven.
Biography
Personal life
Hicks was born in New York City, the daughter of Jackie and Walter Hicks, an electronics salesman.[1] She has Irish and English ancestry.[2] Her family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona during her childhood.[3] She was a cheerleader at Gerard Catholic High School in Phoenix, Arizona and a member of the National Honor Society (NHS). She graduated in 1969. After attending Saint Mary's College (Indiana), across the street from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied English Literature and Theology, Hicks won an acting fellowship to Cornell University. Hicks, whose parents were practicing Christians, is a devout Roman Catholic.[4][5] She met her future husband, special effects make up artist Kevin Yagher, on the set of the movie Child's Play. Catherine and Kevin were married on May 19, 1990. They currently live in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. The two have a daughter named Catie, who was born in January 1992. Her brother-in-law is actor, Jeff Yagher, and her sister-in-law is actress, Megan Gallagher (Jeff's wife). Each made a guest appearance on 7th Heaven.
Career
1970s
After graduating from Cornell University with a Masters of Fine Arts degree, Hicks headed to New York in August 1976 where she immediately got work in television commercials. Two weeks after arriving in New York, she landed her first major TV role as the newly recovered, sweet, and much stronger Dr. Faith Coleridge #3 on ABC's critically acclaimed soap opera, Ryan's Hope. A year and half later, she left her role on Ryan's Hope when she was cast as the vivacious Sally Haines in Bernard Slade's 1978 Broadway play, Tribute and worked alongside Jack Lemmon. That same year, she also starred in a TV movie and pilot called Sparrow, as Sparrow's pretty neighbor and romantic interest, Valerie, credited under the name Cathy Hicks.
1980s
When Tribute ended, Hicks moved to California and co-starred on the 1979-1980 CBS sitcom, The Bad News Bears, as the thoroughly competent school principal and psychologist, Dr. Emily Rappant. She had roles in a few TV movies, playing a paid escort in 1979's Love for Rent, and a free-spirit summer camp instructor in 1980's To Race the Wind.
In 1980, Catherine beat out hundreds of actresses for the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in ABC's $3.5 million dollar production, Marilyn: The Untold Story, based on the Norman Mailer best seller. She earned an Emmy nomination for Best Actress for her sensitive and sincere portrayal of the lonely, troubled blonde sex goddess.
In 1981, Hicks was cast as striving to succeed, in her personal and professional life, entertainment lawyer, Ann Wells, in CBS's remake of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls. She made her motion picture debut in the 1982 comedy, Better Late Than Never, as Sable, the attractive young gold-digger who catches the eye of wealthy older gentlemen, David Niven and Art Carney. That same year, she starred in the movie thriller, Death Valley. She played Peter Billingsley's mother, a divorcée, as a killer stalks son, mom, and mom's boyfriend (Paul Le Mat) while on a road trip through Death Valley.
She took the lead role as Amanda Tucker in the 12-episode detective series Tucker's Witch opposite Tim Matheson as Rick Tucker. Hicks and Matheson were a charming young married couple running a detective agency. The show had a twist with Amanda developing her inherited psychic powers that helped them with their cases or sometimes not. The program aired on CBS from October 6, 1982, sporadically into August, 1983. Also in 1983, she co-starred with John Schneider in CBS's romantic comedy movie, Happy Endings. Catherine played Lisa, a singer trying to get over a broken heart and finding love with her next door neighbor.
In Sidney Lumet's 1984 film, Garbo Talks, Catherine was quirky, kind-hearted, aspiring-actress Jane Mortimer, the woman that enchants co-worker, Ron Silver's Gilbert. Hicks also played Bill Murray's materialistic, socialite girlfriend, Isabel, in the 1984 remake of The Razor's Edge. For her work in 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Catherine received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the lovely, intelligent, skeptical, yet deeply devoted cetacean biologist, Dr. Gillian Taylor, who assists the Star Trek crew in their quest for two humpback whales. That same year, in Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married, she played the beautiful and feisty Carol Heath, one of Peggy Sue's best friends.
In 1987's Like Father Like Son, Hicks played the determined and idealistic Dr. Amy Larkin, a colleague of Dudley Moore's character. Also in 1987, she appeared in the HBO film, a mystery, called Laguna Heat, as the tormented and grief-stricken victim's daughter, Jane Algernon, with whom Harry Hamlin's despairing detective, Tom Shephard, finds comfort and passion.
In 1988, she played Ella Frazier in a Yugoslavian comedy Tajna manastirske rakije (also released under the titles Cognac and Secret Ingredient). Hicks was a wealthy American entrepreneur's very appealing, serious-minded businesswoman, slightly neurotic, daughter, who is sent to visit a Yugoslavian monastery to find the secret recipe for the ultimate Brandy-Cognac made there, and she winds up falling for an undercover detective (Rick Rossovich) posing as one of the monks. Catherine co-starred with Christopher Plummer, as his estranged daughter, Tina Boyer, in the Showtime movie channel's 1988 movie, Souviner, as the father and daughter take a difficult journey looking into the father's previous wartime activities. She played struggling, hard-working single mom, Karen Barclay, trying to protect her son from the evil Chucky doll, in the 1988 horror film, Child's Play. Her performance won her a 1989 Best Actress Saturn Award.
The next year, she starred opposite Tony Danza in the motion picture comedy She's Out of Control, as his girlfirend, fashion designer Janet Pearson, who helps give his teen-age daughter, played by Ami Dolenz, a makeover. Also in 1989, she was in the USA cable network movie, Spy, playing Angela Berk. When ex-husband (Bruce Greenwood), a CIA agent, re-enters Angela's life, they find themselves entangled in a tale of espionage.
1990s
She starred in the 1990 USA cable network's movie, Running Against Time, playing a TV reporter named Laura Whittaker, a woman torn between wanting to help her lover, played by Robert Hays, and at the same time, fed up with his living in the past and his plan to travel back in time to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. She co-starred in the 1991 FOX-TV comedy-fantasy movie, Hi Honey - I'm Dead, as the sweet, yet hardheaded, long-suffering wife of a handsome jerk of husband (Kevin Conroy) who is reincarnated into a scruffy, nebbish nice guy (Curtis Armstrong) and as the mother of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. She had a brief role as Mary Parker in Mike Figgis' 1991 film, Liebestraum.
In 1994, Catherine was cast as Jeannie Barker, the wry-yet-spunky wronged wife in Aaron Spelling's brief prime time NBC soap opera, Winnetka Road. She also made a 1994 guest appearance on the Dick Van Dyke murder mystery TV series, Diagnosis Murder, playing a mom who committed a crime protecting her teen-aged daughter from abuse in an episode called, "Guardian Angel".
In 1995, she was in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Redwood Curtain, playing John Lithgow's wife, and Lea Salonga's icy and distant adoptive mother, Julia Riordan. She also starred as John Dillinger's (Martin Sheen) wife, Abigail, in the direct to video fictitious movie, Dillinger and Capone. Abigail and her son are held captive by Al Capone (F. Murray Abraham). And a role as Neil Patrick Harris' mentally ill alcoholic mother in the disturbing 1995 independent film, Animal Room.
For the first half of the 1990s, Hicks found work in TV movies, but it wasn't until 1996 when she was cast as Annie Camden on The WB's family drama 7th Heaven (opposite fellow Star Trek alum Stephen Collins) that she gained what is arguably her most famous role. 7th Heaven was picked up by The CW Television Network for an 11th season, making it the longest-running family drama on television. The show aired its final episode in May 2007.
In 1997, Catherine played flight attendant, Maggie, one of prisoner Ray Liotta's victims in the motion picture thriller, Turbulence. The same year, Catherine was seductive next door neighbor, Ms. Lewis, in Michael Davis' coming-of-age film, Eight Days a Week.
2000s
In 2000, she was in the CBS made-for-TV movie, For All Time, playing Mark Harmon's ambitious wife, Kristen.
Hicks also starred in the Lifetime channel's movie Poison Ivy: The Secret Society in 2008, her first appearance on television post 7th Heaven. Hicks played the dean of a university who is married to a professor and is the mother of a student. The movie gained moderate ratings and reviews.
In 2009, Hicks played therapist, Dr. Rosen, in the WB's online edgy thriller drama web series, Pushed. Also in the 2009 Lifetime Movie Network film, Stranger with My Face, she played the grieving recently widowed Shelley Stratton, taking care of her two daughters while an old secret threatens one of her daughters. She plays Mom in the 2009 independent short film, a family drama, You're a Wolf, co-starring with Michael Gross and Jesse Bradford. Hicks is featured in My Name Is Jerry, an independent film shot mostly in Muncie, Indiana. She co-stars with Doug Jones. Catherine won the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role from the 2009 International Filmmakers Festival for her portrayal as the tough, yet lonely and vulnerable, Dana in the film.
2010s
In 2010, Catherine received wonderful reviews for her role as Hildegarde, in playwright Christopher Durang's provocative satire, Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them. This Blank Theatre Company production was seen at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood. Catherine supplied the voice of Snowdorable for a 2010 animated Christmas cartoon, Elf Sparkle and the Special Red Dress. Catherine played Professor Myra Allitt in the 2010 film, The Genesis Code, a movie that explores the relationship between faith and science.
Other
At the University of Notre Dame, the Catherine Hicks Award is given to a graduating senior for outstanding work in theatre.
In 2010, Catherine made appearances in several public service announcements for CARU - the Children's Advertising Review Unit. The commercials reflected contemporary concerns about the privacy and safety of children on the Internet.