HAUNTING VOICES FROM BEYOND: MARG HELGENBERGER FAMILIAR WITH IDEA OF COMMUNICATING WITH THE DEAD
By Jerry Buck
The Free Lance-Star/TV Star
June 22, 1991
Marg Helgenberger, late of the canceled âChina Beach,â says the theme of communication with the dead in Lifetimeâs âDeath Dreamsâ is hauntingly familiar to her.
In the supernatural thriller, which debuts on the cable channel Tuesday, Miss Helgenberger plays a mother whose daughter speaks from the grave to reveal that her apparent accidental death was in fact murder.
The movie, based on a William Katz novel, also stars Christopher Reeve as Miss Helgenbergerâs husband, Taylor Fry as the daughter and Fionnula Flanagan as an eccentric psychiatrist.
âDeath Dreamsâ offers a sweeter, gentler view of Miss Helgenberger. Her Emmy-winning character K.C. on âChina Beachâ was a hustler in every sense of the word.
âThis woman has a continuing relationship with her daughter that reminds me of when my father died,â Miss Helgenberger said. âMy mother felt a relationship with him. This has never happened to me, but itâs happened to my family and to my friends.â
âA week before I got the script, a friend told me her mother had had an out-of-body experience following an accident. Immediately after my father died, my mother woke me in the middle of the night and asked, âWhereâs Hughie?â She asks him for advice.â
âDeath Dreamsâ is an engaging yarn in which the supernatural aspects are presented in a straightforward style that makes them seem believable. Miss Helgenberger is quite convincing as a mother and wife torn between believing her daughterâs spirit and her spiritless husband.
Reeve continues to distance himself from his âSupermanâ role, revealing a dark side as a man who seeks absolute control over everyone around him.
âDeath Dreamsâ arrives at a time when movies about ghosts and afterlife are in vogue. âGhostâ made a spectacular $500 million worldwide last year. Other pictures include âThe Rapture,â âSwitch,â âThe Butcherâs Wifeâ and nearly a dozen others due this year.
Miss Helgenberger did âDeath Dreamsâ immediately after finishing work on âChina Beach.â
âI liked the script and I liked the work of the director, Martin Donovan,â she said. âHeâs directed âApartment Zero,â which was an unconventional thriller. I talked to him, and unlike a lot of people in Hollywood, he was so enthusiastic and positive about his work. He had so many ideas. I knew I was in good hands.â
âIâm a new mother and this is a story of mother-daughter bonding. I felt I could play the role better now because I am a mother,â said Miss Helgenberger. She and her husband, actor-director Alan Rosenberg, have a 7-month-old song, Hugh Howard Rosenberg.
Miss Helgenberger grew up in North Bend, Neb., where she âgoofed aroundâ in school plays looking for attention. She took up acting seriously at Northwestern University. There she was seen by a casting agent for ABC, which resulted in a role on âRyanâs Hope.â
She met her husband while appearing on the soap opera, which is taped in New York.
âHe was on the show for a month,â she said. âWe became friends, and four years later, when I moved to Los Angeles, we started going out.â
Miss Helgenberger also starred in another series, âShell Gameâ with James Read and Margot Kidder, which ran for only six episodes in 1987.
She has a movie coming out in a few months, âCrooked Hearts,â which was filmed last year. Included in the cast are Peter Coyote, Cindy Pickett and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
âI play a waitress who has an affair with Peter Coyote,â she said. âIt takes place over about 10 years.â
This summer, she appears in an episode of HBOâs âTales From the Crypt.â And âChina Beachâ is back for seven more shows before ending its run on ABC.