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Jill Hennessy
Hennessy at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Jillian Noel Hennessy (1968-11-25) November 25, 1968 (age 56) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Paolo Mastropietro ​(m. 2000)​
Children	2

Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for her roles on the American television series Law & Order, on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and Crossing Jordan, on which she played the lead character, Jordan Cavanaugh, for six seasons. She has also acted in films such as RoboCop 3 and Most Wanted, and the independent films Chutney Popcorn and The Acting Class, the latter of which she also wrote and co-directed.

Early life

Hennessy was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Her father, John Hennessy, was a meat salesman and sales/marketing executive, a job that required considerable travel and resulted in frequent moves for the family. Her mother, Maxine, a secretary, left the family in 1982, leaving her daughter to be partially raised by her paternal grandmother, Eleanor, in Kitchener, Ontario. She has a younger brother, John Paul "J.P." Hennessy, Jr., an older sister, Faith and an identical twin sister, Jacqueline, who is a magazine writer and TV show host in Canada. Hennessy has Irish, French, Swedish and Italian ancestry on her father's side, and mostly Ukrainian Roma, as well as Austrian, ancestry on her mother's. She attended Stanley Park Senior Public School and graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute, both in Kitchener, Ontario, and used to busk in the Toronto subway.

Career

Hennessy and her sister, Jacqueline, made their acting debut playing twin call girls in 1988's Dead Ringers. She was short listed for the role of Dana Scully on The X-Files according to Gillian Anderson, the actress who was eventually chosen for the role.

She appeared on Broadway in the musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in 1990.

In 1993, she appeared as Dr. Marie Lazarus in RoboCop 3.

Hennesey's big network breakthrough came in 1993, when Dick Wolf signed Hennessy as assistant district attorney Claire Kincaid in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. She played the role for three seasons, leaving the show in 1996.

In 1999, she appeared as Lisa in Chutney Popcorn. In 2000, Hennessy wrote, produced, and jointly directed (with Elizabeth Holder) an independent film mockumentary titled The Acting Class, which looked at the trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional acting class. The film co-starred her sister, Jacqueline, and included cameo appearances from a number of Hennessy's former Law & Order co-stars. She also appeared in the film Nuremberg, as Elsie Douglas.

In 2001, she portrayed Jackie Kennedy in the film Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot. That same year she appeared in a small role as Commander Mulcahy in the Steven Seagal action film Exit Wounds. She received praise from critic Owen Gleiberman who said "With the right role, Hennessy might just be a movie star." In 2003, she made a cameo appearance in the film Abby Singer. From 2001 to 2007, she starred on the TV show Crossing Jordan as title character Jordan Cavanaugh. She also played the wife of Tim Allen's character in the 2007 film Wild Hogs. On June 9, 2007, she received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

During sessions in Austin, Texas, Hennessy recorded the album Ghost in My Head, which was released in June 2009. She performed as a guest of the Indigo Girls on a November 2009 episode of Mountain Stage, and was the focus of another episode of the show later the same month. She performed at Lilith Fair in 2010.

Hennessy starred in the independent crime thriller Small Town Murder Songs in 2010. She also appeared as a veterinarian in the HBO series Luck, and promoted Zaxby's "Zalads" in a pair of television commercials in 2012.

In 2015, Hennessy appeared in several episodes of Madam Secretary, and in October of that year, her second album, I Do, was released.

In 2018, she appeared on the Michael Weatherly series Bull as the mother of the deceased hacker character Cable McCrory. Also in 2018, she began the role of Senator Huntington on the series Yellowstone.

Personal life

Hennessy is multilingual, and fluently speaks English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. She plays the guitar and sings, and enjoys riding motorcycles with her husband, who she married in 2000. They had a second marriage ceremony in January 2001, which took place at New York City Hall with Mayor Rudy Giuliani officiating. Their first son was born in 2003, and a second was born in 2007.

In popular culture

The Minneapolis-based band Mollycuddle wrote the song "The Ballad of Jill Hennessy" in honor of the actress. Hennessy was reportedly very pleased and offered to perform with the band on rhythm guitar.

Filmography

References

1. "Jill Hennessy Biography - Yahoo! Movies".
2. "Jill Hennessy chat". The Baltimore Sun. April 27, 2000. Archived from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
3. Michelle Tauber (December 3, 2001). "Jill of All Trades". People. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
4. ^ "FNM Exclusive: Actress and Musician Jill Hennessy 'Used to Play Guitar in the Street For Money'". Fox News. February 21, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
5. Shwiff, Kathy (October 13, 2013). "Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny Revisit the Origins of 'The X-Files'". Wall Street Journal.
6. Owen Gleiberman. "Exit Wounds". Entertainment Weekly.
7. "Jill Hennessy.com".
8. "Indigo Girls On Mountain Stage". NPR. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
9. "Jill Hennessy On Mountain Stage". NPR. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
10. Gil Kaufman (December 10, 2009). "Lilith Fair To Feature Mary J. Blige, Colbie Caillat, Jill Scott, More". MTV. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
11. Petski, Denise (July 20, 2015). "Jill Hennessy Joins CBS' 'Madam Secretary'". Deadline.
12. Goldberg, Lesley (July 20, 2015). "Jill Hennessy Boards CBS' 'Madam Secretary'". The Hollywood Reporter.
13. "Bull season 3 spoilers: Jill Hennessy signs on for significant role". July 25, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
14. James, Faye (October 8, 2009). "Jill Hennessy - Biography". hellomagazine.com. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
15. The Ballad of Jill Hennessy Archived June 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine audio
16. Pop of Futures Past Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Jon Dolan, Minneapolis/St. Paul CityPages, February 3, 1999

External links

• Official website
• Jill Hennessy on YouTube
• Jill Hennessy at IMDb
• Jill Hennessy at the Internet Broadway Database

• 1968 births
• Actresses from Edmonton
• Canadian buskers
• Canadian film actresses
• 20th-century Canadian actresses
• Canadian people of Austrian descent
• Canadian people of Irish descent
• Canadian people of Italian descent
• Canadian people of Swedish descent
• Canadian people of Ukrainian descent
• Canadian women singer-songwriters
• Canadian television actresses
• Canadian women film directors
• Film directors from Edmonton
• Identical twin actresses
• Living people
• Musicians from Edmonton
• Canadian twins
• 21st-century Canadian women singers
• 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters
• Canadian expatriate actresses in the United States
• Singers from Alberta