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Welcome To Touched By An Angel!
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Roma Downey (Monica)
In Touched By An Angel, Roma Downey stars as Monica, the soft-hearted novice angel dispatched to Earth to help people facing crossroads in their lives. Serving under the watchful eye of her heavenly supervisor, 'Tess' (Della Reese), 'Monica' becomes involved in the lives of those who need to hear that God loves them. Downey has been recognized for her work in the top-rated drama by her peers, winning Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominations; equally important proof of the series' impact to the actress, however, are the thousands of letters she receives from viewers.
"It's been so gratifying," Downey explains. "I think we are helping to fill a void with Touched By An Angel by sending a positive message. It's letting people know that they are not alone." She attributes part of the series' success to how the angels themselves are defined. "We don't come into the situation and wave a fairy wand and make everything magically okay," she says, adding that her character in particular has a tendency to make mistakes. "That's what makes Monica a joy to play. I think I'd die of boredom if she were one-dimensional. It's nice that we have sort of an inherent conflict with Monica and her personality, if you will. She is well-intended but impetuous. She sometimes doesn't see the whole picture."
Born and raised in Derry City, Northern Ireland, at the encouragement of her father, Downey pursued her love for painting and attended Brighton Art College where she earned a Bachelor's Degree. Inspired by a quote from the great painter Vincent Van Gogh, "It is no longer enough to be the painter, I want to be the paint, " she decided to enroll in the London Drama Studio. While there she starred in many of the classics -- Shakespeare, Shaw and Checkov -- and won the Most Promising Student of theYear award upon graduation.
As a member of Dublin's famous Abbey Players, Downey toured the U.S. in a production of "The Playboy of the Western World," receiving a nomination for the Helen Hayes Best Actress Award in 1991. She also appeared Off-Broadway in such productions as "Love's Labour's Lost," "Tamara" and "Arms and The Man." When one of her performances was seen by legendary actor Rex Harrison, he cast her opposite him in the acclaimed Broadway production of "The Circle."
Following her work on the stage, Downey beat out 400 other actresses to star as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the top-rated; Emmy-winning network mini-series A Woman Named Jackie. After landing the role, Downey had only three weeks to "lose her accent" through diligent work with a dialect coach while she read voraciously to educate herself on one of the world's most famous American women. Since then, she has also starred in the network telefilms A Child is Missing and more recently Borrowed Hearts, which she also executive produced. In addition, she has guest-starred in the series Diagnosis Murder. Her feature credits include The Last Word and Devlin.
Downey both produced and starred in the telefilm Monday After the Miracle, about the legendary later years of humanitarian Helen Keller and her teacher; Annie Sullivan. Recently Roma put the finishing touches on her new spoken word album Healing Angel in which she performs uplifting meditations on life, adapted from ancient Celtic texts and set to lush musical soundscapes by composer Phil Coulter. Look for it in stores now.
Downey lives in Los Angeles. and Utah, where the series is filmed, with her daughter, Reilly Marie. Her birthday is May 6th.
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John Dye (Andrew)
Eyebrows were certainly raised when the unusual character of Andrew, the Angel of Death, was introduced during the second season of the hit drama Touched By An Angel - including those of actor John Dye, who won the coveted role.
When first approached, "I thought, 'The Angel of Death? Excuse me?’ But I liked how uplifting and different the series was," he recalls.. Recognizing the assignment as "a big responsibility,” he was pleased with the public response to the kindly, compassionate angel. "People write me saying, 'You changed my life,"' he admits. The character has changed as well through the subsequent seasons, becoming more of a case worker. "With all the audience response, Andrew expanded accordingly," notes Dye. "Now, when I appear, it doesn't necessarily mean someone is going to die. They may or may not. It adds to the drama of the show."
In turn, portraying one of television's most unusual characters has changed the actor professionally and personally. "From an actor's point of view, I've never played anyone this difficult," he explains. "Most drama is, in some way, about heat and passion. Andrew is basically a perfect creature - he's an angel - so I have to find strength in different ways. You rely on who you are. Since you don't have the ability to seduce and manipulate and take over by power, you take over by compassion, and by recognizing gentleness." Dye adds that "I'm also one of the world's most impatient men. The fact that Andrew is very still has probably served to make me a better guy, a little more thoughtful."
A native of Mississippi, Dye made his acting debut - and found his professional calling - in high school, appearing in local productions of "The Sound of Music" and South Pacific." While he began studying law at Mississippi State University, he later transferred to the University of Memphis and changed his major to drama. Along with lead roles in school productions of "Enter Laughing" and "Private Lives," he landed his first feature film credit while a student, in the Judd Nelson comedy Makin' the Grade. Moving to Los Angeles, he appeared in such films as Perfect Weapon, The Best of the Best, Mother, Mother, Big Man on Campus, Sioux City, Campus Man with Kim Delany and Modern Girls. Dye's television credits include regular roles in the network primetime series Hotel Malibu, Tour of Duty and Jack's Place. He also made guest-starring appearances on Murder, She Wrote, Billionaire Boys Club, The War Room, The Young and The Restless and the Touched By An Angel spin-off Promised Land.
Dye currently divides his time between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City Utah, where the series is filmed. He is a founding member of the Wilton Project, a Los Angeles-based theater company. His birthday is January 31st.
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Della Reese (Tess)
Della Reese is part of that exclusive society of actors who have created memorable, timeless television characters: in Reese's case, it is Touched By An Angel's Tess, the gruff but good-hearted supervisor angel who steers both her trainees and their human "assignments" back on the right path.
A well-known, ordained minister with an active congregation in Los Angeles, Reese's real-life perspective on the series often parallels that of the character she portrays. "The humans we touch have to churn their own butter," she states. "Tess, Monica (Roma Downey) and Andrew (John Dye) don't come to fix people in trouble. They come to teach them how to fix themselves. They provide assistance for people at a crossroads. If people see the hope, see that life is not all about oppression, depression and suppression, and have their eyes opened, they can become their own miracle."
For her work as Tess, Reese has received both Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Also, for the past three years, she has been the recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Drama Series.
An actor, singer, talk show host and author, the multi-talented Reese first started singing in church in her hometown of Detroit when she was six years old. By the age of 13, she was touring with gospel great Mahalia Jackson; then, at 18, she formed the Meditation Singers and became the first performer to bring gospel music to the casinos of Las Vegas. Reese expanded her musical repertoire as a vocalist with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and began recording albums, with such hits as "Don't You Know" and "And That Reminds Me" in the 1950s. She appeared extensively as a guest on the top television variety series, logging more than 20 appearances in one year on The Ed Sullivan Show on the CBS Television Network. Reese was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Female Soloist in Gospel Music in 1987.
Tapping into her other skills, she was host of a television talk show in 1969-1970, then began guest-starring in such series as Sanford and Son, The A-Team, Crazy Like a Fox and Picket Fences. She starred in the CBS Network series Charlie & Co. and The Royal Family. Reese's current projects include a new album based on her 27-city tour with her revue, "Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues," as well as song on the Touched By An Angel Soundtrack. Her best-selling autobiography, "Angels Along the Way," is published by G.P. Putnam's Sons. Reese also starred in the telefilms Emma's Wish, with Joanna Kerns, and The Secret Path, with Ossie Davis.
Reese lives in Los Angeles with her husband, producer Franklin Thomas Lett. Her birthday is July 6th. |
Valerie Bertinelli (Gloria)
Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli is best known for her role as Barbara Cooper in the long-running CBS series "One Day At A Time.".Since the series ended in 1984, Bertinelli's list of television credits has grown extensively. She returned to series television in "Sydney" for CBS and "Caf頁mericain." Her television movies have included "Murder Of Innocence," "In A Child's Name," and "Personally Yours," for CBS, as well as "Silent Witness," "Shattered Vows," and "Two Mothers for Zachary." Bertinelli also starred in the mini-series "Night Sins," for CBS, and "I'll Take Manhattan."
Click Here To Go To The Touched By An Angel Website |
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