Birth Name: Mary Margaret Helgenberger
Birth Date: 16th November, 1958
Age: 50
Birth Place: Fremont, Nebraska

Beginning Life

Marg is the daughter of Hugh Helgenberger (a meat inspector) and Kay (a nurse) and was raised in Catholic tradition. Her elder sister is named Ann and Curt is the name of her younger brother. Her first ever job was of a "boner", at the meat packing plant where her father worked. This she did during summers and in Christmas breaks. At the North Bend Central High School, she played the French horn in the marching band. She wanted to e a nurse like her mother and attended the Kearney State College, now known as the University of Nebraska, Kearney. She later on, received a B.S. degree in Speech and Drama from School of Speech, Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois (now known as the School of Communication).

Career & Works

Marg worked as a local news weather girl in her hometown Nebraska. In university, she got the chance to enact the role of Blance Dubois, in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and she was fixated with acting. She was spotted for the show “Ryan’s Hope” in the summer of 1981, during the NU campus production of “Taming of the Shrew.” In 1989, she began her movie career with the film, After Midnight.

Films in which she features are: Wonder Woman (2009), Columbus Day (2008), Mr. Brooks (2007), In Good Company (2004), Erin Brockovich (2000), Species (1995), Species II (1998), The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), Fire Down Below (1997), My Fellow Americans (1996), Species (1995), Bad Boys (1995), Always (1989), Frame by Frame (1996), The Cowboy Way (1994), Crooked Hearts (1991)

TV Shows, she has been associated with, include: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-present), Lethal Vows (1999), Happy Face Murders (1999), Giving Up the Ghost (1998), ER (1994), The Tommyknockers (1993), "Shell Game" (1987), China Beach (1988), Ryan's Hope (1975), The Early Show (2002; 2003; 2005; 2006; 2007), The View (2003; 2006), "Matlock", Live with Regis and Kelly (2005; 2006; 2007), The Ellen DeGeneres Show (December 2005), The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005; 2007), On the Air with Howard Stern (2005), The Tony Danza Show (2005),"What A Pair" Concert (May 2006), The Late Show with David Letterman (September 2006), "What A Pair" Concert (June 2007), Spenser: For Hire, Thirtysomething, Blind Vengeance, Lifetime’s Death Dreams, Not on the Frontline (narrator), When Love Kills: The Seduction and In Sickness and in Health.

She has also done voice acting as Hera, a Greek Goddess on DC Universe straight-to-video feature.
In the comic strip, made by Mark Heat, "Spot the Frog" she is the shown as the unreciprocated love of the bespectacled amphibian Buddy.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

In the award winning show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Marg enacts the role of Catherine Willows, CSI Level 3 Night Shift Supervisor. She got this position after Gil Grissom resigned and hence the post got vacant. She has a daughter Lindsey, for whom, she tries to squeeze out time, to be with her. Catherine’s husband and father were killed on the show, and she worked as an exotic dancer to support herself through college. The character is loosely based on Yolanda McCleary, a real life CSI agent.

To understand and prepare for this role, Helgenberger went to the Clark County Coroner’s Office in Las Vegas and checked out how things were done in actuality and how autopsies were done. She even had the opportunity to work with her hubby, Alan Rosenberg who guest starred in couple of episodes in the series.

Personal life

Marg met Alan Rosenberg in 1984 while filming for Ryan’s Hope. In 1986, they began dating and by 1989 they were married. Their son, Hugh Howard Rosenberg was born on 21st October, 1990. On 1st December, 2008, the couple declared that they were separating, even though family would be their priority.
Helgenberger's mother battled against breast cancer for about twenty seven years, as a result of which Rosenberg and Helgenberger are quite active in the fight against breast cancer. Every year in Omaha, Nebraska, they host a benefit called Marg and Alan's Celebrity Weekend since 1997.
She joined the list of personalities that sported the famous milk mustache because she was chosen as an endorser of the Got Milk? in April 2008. She once turned down an offer to pose for the Playboy Magazine in 2003. For an annual charity event aimed to raise money for breast cancer research, Marg sang a duet with Jorja Fox, Stand by Me for What a Pair 4!!

Her colleague at CSI, Gary Dourdan has nicknamed Helgenberger as "Margalicious”. Helgenberger's production company is named "Don't Call Me Marge!”. It is her attempt of a witty dig at people’s mispronunciation of her name.

Honors & Achievements

In 2001, Marg was nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress in a Drama, in regard to her work in Erin Brockovich. She was nominated for the Satellite Awards, 2002, for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Series, Drama, in recognition of her work in CSI.

She was nominated at the Emmys twice for China Beach in the category Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, in 1990 and in 1992. She won an Emmy in 1990. Then in 2001 and 2003 she was nominated once again, this time for CSI, under the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She along with the entire star cast of CSI won, the Screen Actors Guild Award for The cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2005.

In 1991, she was nominated for the Golden Globe award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, for her work in China Beach. In the same year she bagged another nomination as well, for the same show, but the category was Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and she was nominated again in this category, the following year as well. In 2002 and 2003, she was nominated for her work in CSI, for the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series.

The entire star cast of CSI, has been nominated for The cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in the People’s Choice Awards in the years, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, winning this award in 2005. In 2005, Marg got an individual award as well, for CSI and that of Favorite Female TV Star.

Marg also won the Viewers For Quality Television Awards three times in a row for her performance in China Beach in the category Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Drama Series in 1989, 1990 and 1991. She was also nominated for TV Guide Award for Actress of the Year in a New Series in 2001 for her work in CSI.

In her home town, North Bend, Nebraska the street on which her childhood home was located has now been named as "Helgenberger Avenue." In 2002, People Magazine named her amongst "50 Most Beautiful People" and in the same year, Esquire Magazine named her in their list of “5 More Women We Love.” VH1’a list of 40 Hottest Women over 40, has her rank numbered 16. Also in 2004 she ranked 15th on the 25 Most Attractive (Famous) Women in America list.

On the Glamour Girls Hot 100 she was on the list for about ten weeks and even one week on the top ten, thus being the 4th oldest woman to be on the top ten.

Her character on CSI, Catherine Willows, along with the character Gill Grisson was enlisted in "Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters" on number 82. The character was also termed as number six out of The Star's Top Ten Hottest TV Characters in 2006. Marg was also named by E! online's Answer B!tch Q&A page as one of the most pleasant celebrities in 2007 and in the same year TV Guide Magazine named her the one of the sexiest TV stars of 2007. Her name also figured in "The EW 100 Stars We Love Right Now" list by Entertainment Weekly in 2007.