Captain Janeway/Kate Mulgrew

 

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Janeway (Born May 20 in Bloomington, Indiana, Earth) is by no means the only female captain in Starfleet, but she is the first women captain to be the lead character in a Trek series & is generally acknowledged that she is among the best, male or female.  She is intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive to the feelings of others, tough when she has to be & not afraid to take chances, she has a history of doing the completely unexpected which bailed her out of more than once scrape. Kathryn grew up on the plains surrounding her grandfather’s farm in Indiana, her mother was a Starfleet mathematician & her father an astrophysicist who become a Vice Admiral.   She credited the family tale of her ancestor, Shannon O’Donnell, for inspiring her to join Starfleet. The family tale claimed that O’Donnell had been involved as the driving force in ensuring the construction of the Millennium Gate, despite strong local opposition. O’Donnell was also an early female astronaut, being the first of a line of Janeway explorers.  Janeway was on track for a career in science in Starfleet, her first posting was aboard the USS Al-Batani, under the command of Captain Owen Paris (Tom Paris father) but her natural leadership abilities manifested themselves quickly & was rapidly promoted to ever more responsible positions, and because of her hands on experience in various science posts, she brings a greater familiarity with technology & science to her captaincy than any other captain before her.  Voyager was her first command & was in the midst of a relationship when Voyager took its unscheduled leap to the other side of the galaxy.  Although she keeps up a postive front about finding a way home she realizes she may never and that her lover, will move on and find someone else.  These thoughts are kept at bay during the day but surface at night when it’s hard to sleep.  She has the challenge of merging the Maquis crew into her Starfleet crew & while  Janeway is respected and loved by them it takes a little longer for the Maquis to feel the same way.   Their captain Chakotay is now the First Officer and while he had heard about her diplomatic & tactical exploits & realizes that if they were to be stranded at the ends of the galaxy with any Captain, they’re lucky it was this one, the others, especially Seska & B’Elanna won’t be won over so easily.

Kate Mulgrew

Kate Mulgrew who portrays Kathryn Janeway was born April 29th, 1955 in Dubuque, Iowa, to Thomas James “T.J.” Mulgrew II, a contractor, and Joan Virginia Kiernan Mulgrew, an artist and painter.  At the age of 17, Mulgrew was accepted into 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.  Her first major role was portraying Mary Ryan in ABC’s hit soap Ryan’s Hope betweeen 1975 & 1977.  She starred in the big motion picture A Stranger Is Watching along with Rip Thorn & James Naughton & starred in 7 other films between 1980 & 1995.  Between 1974 & 1993 she starred in 21 TV shows such as, Mrs. Columbo, Heartbeat, Cheers & Murphy Brown (It’s in this series that Mulgrew picked up “The Tracey Humanitarian” award).  Her first love was the threate and between 1974 & 1993 she had roles in 19 productions such as, The Philadelphia Story, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof & Own Town.  In 94 came her biggest role to date, Star Trek Voyager.  While playing the role of Captain Kathryn Janeway, Mulgrew picked up two Saturn awards for, “Best Actress”

When Voyager came to an end in 2001 after 7 successful series (& after an cameo appearance in Star Trek Nemesis) she stayed away from TV until 2006 when she guest starred in Law & Order, one year later she was cast as Helen Donnelly in The Blank Donnellys & as I write this she is playing the part of Jeannie Flanagan, in NBC’s Wednesday Night medical drama, Mercy.  Her character is a working class alcoholic mother whose daughter, Veronica is the main character, Kate’s husband in the series will be diagnosed with alzheimer’s.  While by choice her TV work has been few & far between she has opted to spend most of her time in the threate.  After Voyager she played the role of, Katharine Hepburn for two years in, Tea At Five.  She had numerous roles in productions between then & now, some of these included, The Exonerated, Our Leading Lady, Iphigenia & Equus.  It is with these that she has gained the most success in terms of awards, Broadway.com & Carbonell awarded her, “Best Actress” & ” Favorite Solo Performance” for Tea At Five.  She picked up a Obie for “Outstanding Performance” in Iphigenia as well as a “Distinguished Performance Nomination” for, Our Leading Lady.  In 2005 Kate played the small role of Dr. Mary Smith in the indepedent film, Perception.  2009 saw Mulgew played the role of Colonel Simms in, The Response which is a 30 minute courtroom drama based on the actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals, on Kate’s official website she announced that it has been short listed for a Oscar nomination.  Due for release this year is, The Best and the Brightest which is a comedy based in the world of New York City’s elite private kindergartens & in development is another movie titled, The Incredible Story of Joyce McKinney and the Manacled Mormon. 

Since 2000 Mulgrew has lent her voice to 5 computer games.  Those being Voyager: Elite Force (2000), Run Like Hell (2002), Lords of Everquest (2003), Star Trek: Legacy (2006) & Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

Outside of work Kate is a very active member of the Alzheimer’s Association National Advisory Council, sadly her mother had the illness and died in 2006 & Kate has worked non-stop in helping to find a cure and has according to a, “Women’s Health” report in 2002  raised over 2 million US Dollars.  In October 2009, Kate shared the poignant story of her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s at the Minnesota Medical Foundation Annual Dinner, you can listen to this heart warming & heart breaking speech by clicking here.  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 in 2000.  Alongside Rosie O’Donnell & Geraldo Rivera, Kate helped raise nearly $2 million for Incarnation Children’s Center in New York, and was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for Sojourn, a women’s shelter in Southern California.  While working on Voyager, UPN was employing Mulgrew as an ambassador of sorts, sending her to various cities to do promotional work and encouraging her appearances with scientific and artistic organizations that look to Janeway and to herself as a role model, particularly for women.  In 1999, Mulgrew married politician Tim Hagan when Kate’s mother Joan introduced them, he proposed to her on the set of Voyager.  More recently she became the voice of Cleveland’s Health System.  Kate has one step-daughter from her marriage to Tim, one daughter & from her former marriage two sons, one of which Alec is a famous artist, you can view his work on his website by clicking here. 

After 35 years in the business there is no doubting Mulgrew’s acting ability & the mark she left on all of us in her numerous roles over the years but none so more than her portrayal as Captain Kathryn Janeway.

To check out messages from Kate, pictures, info & all the upto news please visit her fantastic official website, Totally Kate