Catherine Hicks - Artikel - Guideposts Magazine February 2002 - Englisch
The star of TV's hit series 7th Heaven tells how her own life story played out in ways she least expected
Ready for Prime Time
BY CATHERINE HICKS
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
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Seven years ago I was at a crossroads. My acting career had stalled, and I faced some tough financial decisions. I was 43 years old, and it looked like everything I'd worked so hard to build was falling apart. Perhaps you're thinking I asked God for help. But I couldn't even put into words what I needed from God. No, just like at two earlier critical points in my life, it was instead he who spoke to me. The first of these crises came while I was in college at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. For the first time I was far away from my parents. We'd lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, just the three of us, ever since I could remember. A big part of what drew me to Notre Dame was the chance to be a cheerleader for a legendary football team. I'd fallen in love with cheerleading in high school - the electric thrill of being up in front of a crowd and the sense of belonging I felt at the games. Every day after class I spent hours practicing dance and gymnastics. I went to all the games, got to know a lot of the players and cheerleaders. Please God, I'd pray at Mass, let me make the squad. I gave it my all at tryouts that spring and waited for the list of names of those who'd made the cut to be posted. On the morning the names went up, I jumped out of bed, ran up to the gymnasium door and scanned the list for my name. I didn't see it. I looked again. I didn't make it. I turned out I'd missed getting on the team by only one vote. I was crushed all the same. All my ideas about who I was, where I fit in, how my life would be, had been shattered. Now what? I tried to throw myself into my classwork, but I couldn't shake myself out of my disappointment. My grades dipped, and I pulled back from my friends. "You've got to come to the frat party with me tonight, Cathy," a dormmate insisted one night. I finally gave in and went, but it was almost like I was watching myself from afar, talking and laughing but feeling nothing. I made an excuse and walked out into the chilly night. Shivering as a brisk wind slapped the trees, I ducked into the chapel to warm up. It was empty, and the lights were dim and comforting. I breathed in the musky smell of candlewax and flowers. All those times I had prayed for God to help me make the cheerleading team...now I didn't know what to ask for anymore. There was just a deep inexpressible need for something. Into that need, as raw as an open wound, came a soothing calm. Trust me, God seemed to say, and all at once I felt that, as hopeless as things seemed at the time, life would somehow be good again. I headed back to my dorm. On the way I noticed a long line of people going into the campus theater. The marquee read Oliver! I'd never really gone to a play before, and it seemed like a nice warm place to relax a while. I bought a ticket and went inside. Before I knew it I was swept up in the show, and able to get my mind off my own misery. What would it be like to be up there in the lights making people laugh and cry? I wondered. The next semester I signed up for an acting course. And then another. I loved them, from the corny little relaxation exercises to the emotional intensity of scene study. It didn't matter to me if I was one of 12 squid tentacles in a futuristic college producion, just as long as I was onstage doing what I now knew I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I knew the odds were against making it as an actress, but that night in the chapel had given me a faith I relied on time and again - when I applied for an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in theater arts and won a scholarship to Cornell; when I moved to New York City, leaving my one suitcase with a pretzel vendor while I got headshots made; when I stuck it out there after my one-and-a-half-year contract on the soap opera Ryan's Hope ended and I eventually landed a part on Broadway playing opposite Jack Lemmon in Tribute; and when I moved to Hollywood to work in film and television, winning the role of Marilyn Monroe in the miniseries Marilyn: The Untold Story, for which I earned an Emmy nomination. I'd just finished the roles in the hit movies Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) when my dad suddenly passed away of a heart attack. I pressed on with work, taking my mom to Yugoslavia with me, where I was filming another movie. Yugoslavia was lovely before the war, and I felt we were in another, simpler world. In no time I'd fallen in love - with my costar. What I wasn't prepare for was the pain when we broke up a short time later. At 36, I'd had my share of relationships that didn't work out, but this was different. |
I thought of how dad sometimes told me I should settle down. I'd always been too busy with my career to worry about it much, but now I found myself wanting a family. More than anything.
I returned to Arizona with Mom, both of us still hurting from losing men we'd loved. One evening I went to Mass with my mother seeking some solace. Right before receiving Communion, I closed my eyes and again sensed an inarticulate prayer, one that came from a place even deeper than my pain. Once again too I knew that God was telling me to trust. By the time I had returned to my pew the pain was gone. And just like when I'd thought all was lost back in college, something wonderful was in store for me. I got called to do a role in the movie Child's Play. On the set I kept hearing about the "genius" makeup artist Kevin Yagher, who'd designed some of the puppets I had to work with. During filming he shyly approached me a couple of times and complimented my work. At the wrap party we talked for hours. Behind the movie's Chicago skyline backdrop, he kissed me good night softly, and in that moment I knew my prayer had been answered. We got engaged, and I decided to buy a house for Mom on the island of Coronado, near San Diego, where we had spent many happy summers with Dad while I was growing up. I picked out a Cape Cod-style blue house with white trim and had it furnished. It was so much more than a house to both of us - it was a sancutary where I could visit her more often than when she lived in Arizona. I was proud to use my succes to do something special for Mom. It seemed like everything had finally worked out once and for all. Kevin and I got married in 1990 and our daughter, Catie, was born two years later. Meanwhile the acting industry had become very youth-driven and I wasn't getting much work. I didn't mind so much at first because I got to spend lots of time with my new family and visit Mom in Coronado, helping her plant her garden or swimming in the ocean together. But then the house payments started taking their toll. I called my agent daily, auditioned for parts that I would have scoffed at just a few years earlier. Finally I landed a part on a TV show, but it was soon canceled. I dug into my retirement plan. Since Mom had developed health problems, the house was even more important - I could drive down from L.A. in an emergency. I had to hold onto that house. I networked when I could, did some guest spots on TV series. I even called the sponsores of a local Star Trek convention to see if I could get some money for appearing, but hey only wanted stars from the newer series and movies. After 20 years, my acting career seemed over. In 1994 my husband and my business manager both confronted me. "Catherine," my manager said, "you're going to spend every last penny you have if you hold onto that house. You must sell it." I turned to my husband. "I know how you feel about this, honey," he said, "but there's just no other way." I gazed out the window at the steel-and-glass Los Angeles skyline. Is it all for nothing, Lord? I wondered. All the obstacles I had overcome, all the leaps of faith I'd taken to build a live I loved, and here I was once again stuck at a dead end and silently crying out for God's help. And there he was again, reminding me to trust him. I didn't have to cling to the house, only him. He would do the rest. Mom and I agreed she'd move back to Arizona while a real estate agent found us a buyer. I'd make the paymentes for as long as I could and then let it go. By Easter 1995 the house had still not been sold and my savings were nearly gone. I went out to visit Mom. We were having coffee in the kitchen late one afternoon when my agent called. "Catherine, Aaron Spelling just called! He offered you a role in a new family-oriented series about a minister and his wife raising five kids." The show was 7th Heaven. When I read the script I knew God had worked things out once again. I would be portraying the mother in the kind of close familiy I'd grown up in. And my own mother wouldn't have to give up the house we both loved. Today Catie and I often watch 7th Heaven with Mom when we visit her there in Coronado. So there've been happy endings all along. There will be crises again too. There always are. But maybe it's in the tough times that we really get to know God, when we let go of our ideas of what life should be and discover the better plan God has in mind, better than we could ever have imagined for ourselves. |
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Diese Bilder waren im Artikel zu sehen (klick auf die Fotos, um sie in der Originalgröße zu sehen):
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 AT WORK AND AT HOME: When Catherine isn't with her real-life-family, she's hard-working mom, Annie Camden, to her TV clan. |
 MOTHER'S HELPER: Catherine and her mom, here in 1963, have always supported each other. _ |
 ROLE MODEL: "I was proud to use my success to help my Mom." _ _ |
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Dieser kleine Artikel ist auf den letzten Seiten im Guideposts Magazine zu finden:
Actess Catherine Hicks (Ready for Prime Time, Page 18) is now in her seventh season playing Annie Camden on the WB's Emmy-winning series 7th Heaven, but her favorite role is the one God has played in her life time and again. Such as when she landed the part of Marilyn Monroe in the TV movie, Marilyn: The Untold Story. "I always felt she had been so unfairly judged and wanted to do her justice. Though I'm far from voluptuous, I won the role. I call that a miracle!" She won an Emmy for that performance and went on to star in many movies, ranging from The Razor's Edge with Bill Murray to Garbo Talks, directed by Sidney Lumet. Captivated by Yugoslavia while filming there, she prayed that her future husband would have some Yugoslavian blood. "A few month after Kevin and I started dating, I found out his grandmother was from Yugoslavia." Kevin has passed on that heritage to their daughter, Catie, and Catherine hopes to pass on her faith. It's this faith that has kept her praying for world peace in the face of terrorist attacks. "When we're lost or scared we can turn to God," she says, "He will listen."
Bei diesem Artikel war dieses Foto zu sehen:
HICKS: She's in 7th Heaven
with her daughter Catie
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