40 Fun Facts About Jill Hennessy

How was Jill Hennessy's character Claire Kincaid written out of Law & Order at the end of its sixth season?

Killed in a car crash by a drunk driver: that was Claire Kincaid's exit after Jill Hennessy chose not to renew her three-year contract.

Jill Hennessy made her film debut in the 1988 thriller Dead Ringers alongside which real-life relative?

Her twin sister shared the scene, the two playing call girls in a film that is itself about a pair of identical doctors.

Jill Hennessy was reportedly on the shortlist to play the female FBI agent in which 1990s paranormal series?

The X-Files role of Dana Scully went to Gillian Anderson, who has said Jill Hennessy was on the shortlist for the part.

Before finding fame as an actress, Jill Hennessy used to busk in the subway of which Canadian city?

Toronto commuters heard her long before television audiences did, and she later released two albums as a singer-songwriter.

Jill Hennessy appeared on Broadway in 1990 in a musical about which bespectacled rock and roll pioneer?

Buddy Holly was the subject, and Hennessy played several parts in the show, among them the singer's wife Maria Elena.

Which actor played Jack McCoy, the prosecutor Jill Hennessy's Claire Kincaid assisted on Law & Order from 1994?

Sam Waterston joined a year after Hennessy, and McCoy's reputation for affairs with his assistants extends to Kincaid herself.

Jill Hennessy played engineer Dr. Marie Lazarus in the 1993 third film of which science-fiction franchise?

RoboCop 3 cast her as the scientist who quits the OCP corporation and reprograms the cyborg hero to fight for the resistance.

In the 2007 road comedy Wild Hogs, Jill Hennessy plays the wife of which actor's character?

Tim Allen plays her husband Doug Madsen, a dentist who sets off for California with three equally restless friends.

Which future WandaVision star played grief counselor Lily Lebowski opposite Jill Hennessy on Crossing Jordan?

Kathryn Hahn so impressed the show's creator when they met at a festival that he wrote the character of Lily specifically for her.

Which future Oscar winner began his television career as Dr. Trey Sanders on Jill Hennessy's Crossing Jordan?

Mahershala Ali, then billed under his full first name Mahershalalhashbaz, was a regular in the first season, fifteen years before Moonlight.

Which Stand by Me actor played Woody Hoyt, the detective love interest of Jill Hennessy's Jordan Cavanaugh?

Jerry O'Connell stayed until the show was cancelled in 2007, and in the final episode Jordan at last tells Woody she loves him.

Which producer, creator of the Law & Order franchise, signed Jill Hennessy to play Claire Kincaid in 1993?

Dick Wolf cast her to replace the departing Richard Brooks, and the part became Hennessy's big network breakthrough.

Jill Hennessy's two signature series, Law & Order and Crossing Jordan, both aired on which American network?

NBC carried both: three seasons of Hennessy as a prosecutor, then six more as the lead of her own crime drama.

Crossing Jordan, starring Jill Hennessy as a crime-solving medical examiner, is set in which American city?

Boston is home to Jordan Cavanaugh, a forensic pathologist for the Massachusetts medical examiner who cannot leave a violent crime unsolved.

Jill Hennessy's Jordan Cavanaugh crossed over into Las Vegas, a casino drama led by which Godfather actor?

James Caan played casino boss Ed Deline, his first starring role in a television series, and Hennessy guest-starred as Jordan in crossover episodes.

On Crossing Jordan, the murder of which loved one drives Jill Hennessy's character to chase violent crimes?

Her mother's death hangs over the whole series, and a psychiatric patient named Herman Redding claims to know the truth about it.

Crossing Jordan went on hiatus for most of the 2003–04 season to accommodate which event in Jill Hennessy's life?

Her pregnancy paused production, and the show did not return until March 2004, with a shortened season of 13 episodes.

Crossing Jordan creator Tim Kring later made which drama about ordinary people with superpowers?

Heroes arrived in 2006, while Crossing Jordan was still on air, and earned Kring an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series.

Which cousin of George Clooney played Dr. Garret Macy, the boss of Jill Hennessy's Crossing Jordan character?

Miguel Ferrer, son of singer Rosemary Clooney and actor José Ferrer, ran the office as Macy from 2001 until the series ended in 2007.

Jill Hennessy's first film, the 1988 thriller Dead Ringers, was directed by which Canadian master of body horror?

David Cronenberg co-wrote and directed the film, which went on to win ten Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture.

Jill Hennessy appears in The Paper, a 1994 newsroom comedy-drama starring which Batman actor as a tabloid editor?

Michael Keaton leads the film as Henry Hackett, a weary metro editor at the New York Sun; Hennessy plays Deanne White.

Jill Hennessy co-starred in a 1996 film about Valerie Solanas, the writer who shot which pop artist in 1968?

Andy Warhol survived the attack at his Factory studio; in the film Lili Taylor plays Solanas and Hennessy plays Laura.

Which comedian wrote and starred in Most Wanted, the 1997 action thriller co-starring Jill Hennessy as a doctor?

Keenen Ivory Wayans plays a Marine framed for an assassination, and Hennessy's Dr. Victoria Constantini holds the video evidence of what really happened.

Jill Hennessy played a precinct commander in Exit Wounds, a 2001 action film starring which martial-arts actor?

Steven Seagal starred opposite the rapper DMX, and one critic wrote that Hennessy's small part showed she might just be a movie star.

Which real-life brothers played the sons of Jill Hennessy's character in the 2008 Long Island drama Lymelife?

Rory and Kieran Culkin play Scott and Jimmy Bartlett in a film its writers, also brothers, drew from their own 1970s childhood.

Jill Hennessy appears briefly as a doomed NSA agent in which 2024 comic-book film?

Madame Web casts her as an agent seduced and killed by the villain Ezekiel Sims, in a film whose lead is Dakota Johnson.

In the miniseries Nuremberg, Jill Hennessy plays assistant to prosecutor Robert H. Jackson, played by which actor?

Alec Baldwin starred as the American chief prosecutor in TNT's two-part drama, with Hennessy as Elsie Douglas, the secretary who travels to Germany with him.

Which First Lady did Jill Hennessy portray in a 2001 miniseries about three wives of a famous political family?

Jackie Kennedy was her part in The Women of Camelot, opposite Lauren Holly as Ethel and Leslie Stefanson as Joan.

Which star of The White Shadow played Max Cavanaugh, father of Jill Hennessy's Crossing Jordan character?

Ken Howard played the former cop turned bar owner, and in 2009 he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Jill Hennessy, the star of Crossing Jordan, was born in 1968 in which Alberta city?

Edmonton was only the first stop: her father's sales job required considerable travel, and the family moved frequently.

Jill Hennessy was partly raised by her grandmother and finished high school in which Ontario city?

Kitchener is where her grandmother Eleanor helped bring her up, and where she graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute.

Which former Bond girl joined Law & Order as Jamie Ross after Jill Hennessy left the series in 1996?

Carey Lowell, who played Pam Bouvier in Licence to Kill, took over as Jack McCoy's assistant for the next two seasons.

Jill Hennessy played veterinarian Jo Carter on Luck, an HBO drama set in the world of which sport?

Horse racing proved dangerous to film: HBO cancelled the series in 2012 over animal safety concerns after deaths during production.

Jill Hennessy had a recurring role as Jane Fellows on Madam Secretary, a CBS drama led by which actress?

Téa Leoni played Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, and Hennessy's Jane Fellows was the intelligence boss of McCord's husband Henry.

Which Footloose star played the FBI agent husband of Jill Hennessy's Jenny Rohr on Showtime's City on a Hill?

Kevin Bacon played agent Rohr for all three seasons of the crime drama, which grew out of a story by Ben Affleck.

Jill Hennessy played Senator Huntington in the first season of which drama about a Montana ranching family?

Yellowstone began life as a film script, which creator Taylor Sheridan pitched as The Godfather in Montana.

Jill Hennessy performed in 2010 at which touring music festival founded by singer Sarah McLachlan?

Lilith Fair, named after the legend of Adam's defiant first wife, was staging a revival that year after more than a decade away.

Jill Hennessy starred in a 2012 CBC film of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, by which Canadian humorist?

Stephen Leacock drew his fictional town of Mariposa from Orillia, Ontario, and Hennessy starred in the film with Gordon Pinsent.

Jill Hennessy played an unorthodox nun in Jo, a 2013 crime series shot in Paris with which French star?

Jean Reno took his first lead television role as detective Jo Saint-Clair, with Hennessy's Sister Karyn as his confidant.

Jill Hennessy recorded her 2009 debut album, Ghost in My Head, during sessions in which Texas city?

Austin sessions produced the record, which came out in June 2009; a second album, I Do, followed in 2015.