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Michelle Forbes

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8.9 Great
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Michelle Forbes Picture

Biography

Recent Role:
Mitch Larsen on The Killing
Gender:
Female
Born:
1-8-1965
Birthplace:
Austin, Texas, USA
Birth Name:
Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo
With strength of spirit that is reflected in her determined features, Michelle Forbes always knew that she would be a successful performer. At the age of 16, after receiving her formal acting training from the Performing Arts High School in Houston, Texas, she left home to head for New York to start her career. Once she had arrived in the Big Apple, she signed with the William Morris Agency and joined the Screen Actors Guild. In 1987 at the age of 22, she landed her first role on the popular soap opera "Guiding Light" where she played the complicated dual role of troubled twins Sonni and… More Solida. Her performance was so well received by critics and fans alike that she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy and a Soap Opera Digest Award for her effort. She remained on the cast for two years and then moved on to work on several off-Broadway plays, but it was in 1991 that Michelle would achieve a measure of mainstream fame and recognition.


The producers of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had cast Michelle in a small role of an episode called "Half a Life". She played the daughter of a man who was rejecting his culture's long held belief that adults who reach the age of 60 should end their lives so that they would not be a burden to their families. Michelle delivered a magnificent performance in arguing a point in favour of this practice because it had been what her character had been brought up to believe in. The reaction to her appearance on the show was so overwhelmingly positive that the producers and the writers created a recurring role specifically for her. She played Ensign Ro Laren, a Starfleet officer from the fringe world of Bajor. What made her character different was that she was not a "team player". Year earlier, she had been on a mission during which she disagreed with the orders of her superiors and disobeyed them. In doing so, she inadvertently caused the deaths of several of her crewmates. She was court-martialled and sentenced to the stockade. Years later, she was recruited for a special mission to help investigate terrorist activities involving her people. Her cooperation with this mission would have secured an early release from prison.


After playing Ensign Ro in several episodes over the course of the next three seasons, she was offered one of the lead roles in a new Star Trek series called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She was flattered, but she declined because she did not want to be tied to the long term commitment of a television series and she wanted to play a variety of roles rather than the same one week after week. She continued to do television appearances, such as Seinfeld and The Outer Limits, but her eye had turned toward films.


She had played roles in some smaller films, but her fist major film after leaving Star Trek the Next Generation was Kalifornia where she co-starred with David Duchovny, Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt. Michelle and David played a couple driving across the country doing research on serial killers for a book they were writing when they came across Brad and Juliette. Brad's character, Early Grace, was in fact a serial killer himself. Other movie roles followed, such as Swimming with Sharks, and Escape from L.A., but she was not getting the kind of roles or recognition that she was looking for. When she was approached by the producers of the NBC crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street in 1996 to play the role of Dr. Julianna Cox, she jumped at the opportunity, having been a huge fan of the show. After two seasons as a cast regular, her character was written out of the show. No one involved in making the decision would say why this was done, but many fans of the show site it as one of the reasons why the show was cancelled the following year. She did, however, reprise her role for Homicide: The Movie which had brought back all of the cast regulars from throughout the show's seven year run for a final farewell.


In the years that followed, Michelle had made numerous movie and television appearances, most notably on the hit Fox action/drama series 24 as presidential aide Lynne Kresge and more recently as the iron-willed Admiral Helena Cain on the Sci-Fi channel's Battlestar Galactica. While working on 24, Dennis Haysbert, who played President Palmer on the series, was thrilled to be able to work with her since he had always considered himself a "trekkie" and always thought of her as being an important part of that mythos.


Despite her desire to more work in films, Michelle has always found greater success and recognition in television. She had roles in the television shows Wonderland, The District, Alias and Prison Break. She had made an appearance in the closing episodes of the fourth season of the smash hit Lost as Karen Decker, but it is not known if she will be making regular appearances at this time.


In her personal life, she had been married to actor Ross Kettle, but the relationship ended in divorce. In recent years, she had a serious relationship with Homicide: Life on the Street co-star, Reed Diamond, but they eventually went their separate ways.

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  •  
    6.5 Fair
    She does "Bad" so well... hide show

    ...and is she a busy girl in 2009 or what? Not only is she stirring things up, for now on a weekly basis, on True Blood but she is also due to start turning her hand to character destruction in a Canadian series called "Durham County" with Hugh Dillon (Flashpoint) and Helene Joy (Murdoch Mysteries).

    ...this must be the era of having several series on the go at one time...

    At any rate, I never could really get into Durham County but with her and Hugh Dillon in cahoots...that's about to change. I'm sure Michelle will take bad to the extreme in both True Blood and Durham County, but will she come out on the right side as she did with "Ensign Ro" on TNG?

    I guess the fact that her characters are so easy to either hate or at least mistrust, makes her a go-to performer. Looking forward to seeing all the havoc she can wreak this season...

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    sandbur Added Jun 28, 2009 All my reviews
  •  
    9 Superb
    She gives all her characters a certain personal depth, something that makes her acting unique. hide show

    I remember first noticing her in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", I was little and I wanted when I grew up to look just like her, she was so beautiful despite the wrinkly nose and everything. Then, a couple of years ago, when I was all grown up, I saw "Homicide: Life on the Street" which instantly became one of my favorite shows ever, and guess who was on it?? Her character became and dare I say still is my favorite female character in a TV show. She is very tough, which makes her a great role-model. I, after that, started noticing her in more and more TV shows, too bad they are only episodic appearances. I loved seeing her in BSG, and her contribution to "In Treatment" is priceless. She has the sense to choose great characters, strong, independent women with dark pasts and demons to fight. She gives all her characters a certain personal depth, something that makes her acting unique. I can`t wait to see how her character in True Blood turns out! Hope I get the chance...

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    ann_e Added Jan 30, 2009 All my reviews
  •  
    8.5 Great
    Just caught Michelle Forbes as a defense attorney in The Inside episode ‘Thief of Hearts’ - so good! hide show

    Just caught Michelle Forbes as a defense attorney in The Inside episode ‘Thief of Hearts.’ She played the lead suspect’s defensive attorney and I was really struck by her presence in the episode. While only a guest star she really captured every scene she was in, enough so that I was compelled to look up who she was and what else she was in.

    In some strange way she mind of reminds me of Sela Ward (both in style and appearance) but with a harder edge. Kind of like what I think Sela Ward would be like in a bar fight!

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    WaywardSean Added Jul 10, 2005 All my reviews
 

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