Former JAG Actress is Still Busy Acting, Helping Others

She played on one of the most popular military dramas in the history of television, which aired for ten seasons. Catherine Bell, who played Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie on JAG, as a beautiful military lawyer, who went by the book and was as tough as she was charming, as she often had to battle terrorists and criminals outside the courtroom, is a little in real life like she was on the show. She really does speak fluent Farsi, as she did on the show. She says on her website, catherinebellonline.com, that she really is a tomboy, who loves cars, motorcycles, and extreme sports, and she has even been a race car driver in a Pro Celebrity Race. The one thing the show did not show, was her dedication to helping others, even though it showed her desire to do what was right. She has been actively involved in supporting criminal rehabilitation, stopping illiteracy, helping children's hospitals, fighting breast cancer, and being an advocate for animal rights.

Catherine Bell played on the show full time for nine of the show's ten seasons as the JAG lawyer. She also appeared in the season one finale as Lieutenant Diane Shonke, who was murdered. She has been in a variety of other television shows and movies before and after JAG, although her role in that show was her best known. After JAG, the British born actress has starred in Military Wives, as Denise Sherwood, a woman who endures domestic violence from her teenage son. The show is a Lifetime television network show about four army wives and their families, and an army husband, whose wife is in the army. She has been busy helping others through charitable causes throughout her career.

While she was still on JAG, she hosted an event, with Montel Williams, in 1999 for Ark Trust, which helped raise $258,000 to raise awareness of animal rights.

She has spent a lot of her time at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital and working for the Buoniconti Fund, which was established to find a cure for paralysis. Bell says the Buoniconti Fund, the American Paralysis Foundation, and others seeking a cure are close, because researchers have actually regenerated cells in laboratory mice and allowed them to walk again. The Buoniconti Fund was named for Marc Buoniconti, who was paralyzed in a college football game. She has participated in fundraisers and auctions for the hospital.

Catherine Bell, who is herself a thyroid cancer (the cancer is deadly but often very treatable, according to experts) survivor, has been a part of the show, Army Wives, which has been an advocate for breast cancer research. In 1999, her JAG co-star, David James Elliot, gave her the Associates for Breast and Prostate Cancer Research Spirit of Hollywood Award. She was the first television star to be so honored. Elliot said she was well deserving of the honor.

Besides the time she gives to charity golf tournaments, the hospital, the Buoniconti Fund, and others, Catherine Bell is an advocate for a variety of charities on her official website. She lists Criminon, which provides drug detoxification, education and various programs to help criminals become productive members of society when they are released; Earth Organization, which fights for clean water, against poaching and for other causes; and Youth For Human Rights, which advocates for tolerance, peace, and human rights in the classroom and elsewhere. She also lists the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, the Association for Better Living and Education International, Narconon International, which provides drug education, rehabilitation, and information; and other organizations.

Catherine Bell and actor Adam Beason have been married since 1994 and have a daughter, Gemma, who is 7, and a son, Ronan, who was born August, 21, 2010.

Citations:

Catherine Bell, no author listed, catherinebellonline.com
Catherine Bell Biography, no author listed, amazingcatherine.com
Army Wives Join Battle Against Breast Cancer by Tim Saunders, looktothestars.org
Catherine Bell, no author listed, enwikipedia.org