Exclusive: Kate Mulgrew Remembers Helen Gallagher
The soap community mourned the loss of one of its stars when Helen Gallagher passed away on Nov. 24 at the age of 98. The actress had an impressive career on stage, winning two Tony Awards, but is best known to daytime viewers for playing matriarch Maeve Ryan on Ryan’s Hope from 1975-1989.
Kate Mulgrew was another of the ABC soap’s original cast members, playing Maeve’s daughter, Mary Ryan, from the show’s premiere in 1975 until 1978. Although the role was recast with a few other actresses, Mulgrew proved so popular with fans that she reprised the role on a recurring basis in 1983, 1986, and 1989 for the soap’s end.
“Helen Gallagher was witty, gritty, and wise as well as remarkably talented,” Mulgrew told Soaps In Depth of her TV mother, “but there is no woman on Earth who could have been kinder or more generous to a young rookie straight out of Iowa. She was a theatrical mother unparalleled. I loved her. May she rest in peace.”
Mulgrew got her big break starring opposite Gallagher on Ryan’s Hope and it launched her into an impressive career spanning stage and screen. The actress starred as the title character in the Columbo spinoff Mrs. Columbo and later became the first female captain in a Star Trek series when she starred as Kathryn Janeway for all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager.
After appearing in Equus on Broadway, Mulgrew continued working in film and television, starring as Galina “Red” Reznikov on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She has also done a lot of voice work for various productions, and her most recent role is voicing her character of Admiral Janeway on the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy.
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