In Step with Marg Helgenberger

Emmy-winner Marg Helgenberger segues from Erin Brockovich to portraying the mother of JonBenet Ramsey to CBS’s hit show CSI.

By James Brady
Parade – April 22, 2001

In her starring role as an investigator in the hit CBS Thursday-night series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Marg Helgenberger spends an inordinate amount of time working over corpses on autopsy tables in the Las Vegas morgue while looking impressively cool. Isn’t she squeamish?
Marg (she pronounces her name with a hard “g”) said, “I’m relatively squeamish in civilian life. I’ve been very fortunate not to have to deal with such things in my immediate family. When we’re filming autopsy scenes, I actually feel sad. Behind each of these deaths there’s usually a back story of unhappiness and loss. We use a guidebook the Las Vegas police put together that’s incredibly graphic. Looking at the pictures can make me turn white. If I’m going over it, studying the script at home, my husband will ask, ‘Are you all right?’”
Marg lives in Santa Monica, but on the day we spoke, she was set to fly to Vegas for 12 days of shooting while “rolling blackouts” were hitting power-plagued California. Had they cut power at her house? “Not yet,” said Marg, “but when I came home last night, my son said, ‘Mom, Santa Monica may go out at 9.’”
Most of CSI is shot in L.A. “We don’t go to Vegas very often,” said Marg. “This stay is unusual and gives me a chance to lose more money than usual.”
Marg had just wrapped the CBS miniseries Perfect Murder, Perfect Town—in which she played the mother of the murdered child beauty pageant winner JonBenet Ramsey—when her agent told her about CSI. Recalled Marg: “She said, ‘If you’re going to do one pilot this season make it this one.’ I liked that the role was sexy and tough, and it was an ensemble show I would not have to carry. Also, I’d worked with Jerry [Bruckheimer, the executive producer] before. And because I’d worked for CBS, and they were always interested in me, I didn’t have to audition. Only trouble was, I’d dyed my hair dark brown to play Patsy Ramsey and had to strip it.”
Marg grew up in North Bend, Neb., and studied acting at Northwestern. Her breakthrough came in 1984, when ABC cast her in the soap Ryan’s Hope. Marg won an Emmy 10 years ago for her role as “K.C.” on China Beach. Her big movie last year was Erin Brockovich, in which she played the cancer victim whose case gets the pollution investigation started. And, yes, she was rooting for longtime pal Julia Roberts at the Oscars.
So, when she goes home, is it a big deal—”local girl makes good”? “Nah,” said Marg. “Nebraskans don’t impress easily.”

Personal:
Born Nov. 16, 1958, in Fremont, Neb. Married to Alan Rosenberg since 1989 one son, Hughie, 10.

Films:
Include Always, 1989; After Midnight, 1989; Crooked Hearts, 1991; The Cowboy Way, 1994; Bad Boys, 1995; Species, 1995; My Fellow Americans, 1996; The Last Time I Committed Suicide, 1997; Fire Down Below, 1997; Species II, 1998; Erin Brockovich, 2000.

Television:
Includes Ryan’s Hope, 1984-86; Shell Game, 1987; China Beach, 1988-91; Blind Vengeance, 1990; Death Dreams, 1991; In Sickness and in Health, 1992; The Tommyknockers, 1993; When Love Kills: The Seduction of John Hearn, 1993; Fallen Angels, 1993; Distant Cousins, 1994; Partners, 1994; ER, 1996; Gold Coast, 1997; Murder Live!, 1997; Thanks of a Grateful Nation, 1998; Happy Face Murders, 1999; Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, 2000; CSI, 2000-.

Brady’s Bits:
Marg told me that William Petersen, her co-star on CSI, is “very easy to live with.” But then, Marg has worked with many leading men—from Jack Lemmon to Keanu Reeves, not to mention her four-episode fling with George Clooney on ER. The JonBenet Ramsey miniseries, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, co-starring Ronny Cox as John Ramsey, was a tough one, said Marg. “It was a very difficult and emotional job.” The best-selling book on which it was based “was more about the investigation than about the crime—a very fair treatment,” she added. “And the parents were very approving of the book. The cast was asked if we wanted to go to Atlanta to meet Ramseys. They apparently wanted to meet us.” And did she go? “No,” said Marg, “A few days later, and mysteriously, they told us we were not going. I think their lawyer must have advised them against it.”     ♦