Jill Hennessy Biography

Actress. Born November 25, 1968, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to John and Maxine, Hennessy is one of three children, including younger brother John Paul and twin sister Jacqueline (Jacq for short). During her childhood, Jill's family moved some nine times in 12 years all over Canada. When John and Maxine Hennessy split in 1982, the children lived with their father. Jill's grandmother, Eleanor, spent much time with the young Hennessys, driving the 15-year-old Jill to modeling school in Toronto. Hennessy went into modeling for the money, though acting was always her true love.

At the age of 18, Hennessy went to Toronto to act. However, she wasn't propelled into the spotlight immediately. Instead, she played a slew of vampires and prostitutes in TV series such as The Hitchhiker and Friday the 13th, and the 1988 thriller Dead Ringers, with Jeremy Irons, in which she and her twin sister Jacq played twin hookers. Jacq graduated from the University of Waterloo and went on to graduate school for French literature at the University of Manitoba. Jill stuck with acting.

In 1993 she landed the part of Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid on the hit show Law & Order. She would keep the role for three years but then leave when her contract was up, deciding to pursue other roles. During her years on the set of Law & Order, Hennessy played a small role in I Shot Andy Warhol. She also spent nights with a guitar in hand on stage with Andy Godsberg and Wally Nichols in the alternative folk band the New Originals.

Hennessy has also appeared as an architect in the comedy A Smile Like Yours in 1997 and with Keenen Ivory Wayans in Most Wanted as an eyewitness to a political assassination.

In 2001, Hennessy returned to television as Doctor Jordan Cavanaugh in the dramatic series Crossing Jordan. Hennessy played a Boston medical examiner with a tarnished past in this prime-time whodunnit.

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