Happy Hennessy Birthday!

Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy
from: http://photos.lucywho.com/jill-hennessy-photo-gallery-c13659924.html

These Canadian identical twins, Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy, were born on November 25, 1968, in Edmonton, Alberta.  They have both done acting, but that’s about as much as their professional careers have in common.

Jacqueline Hennessy is a Canadian journalist, television host, and, as I said, occasional actress. She has a doctorate in French Literature.  Hennessy hosts the current affairs program Medical Intelligence for Rogers Cable in Toronto, Ontario. (currently, Terri Michael is replacing Jacqueline Hennessy as the host while she is away on maternity leave).  She also serves as associate editor of Chatelaine magazine. Hennessy has won several awards for her work, including the Canadian Nurses Association Award of Merit (recognizing health care reporting) and the Canadian Journalism Federation Greg Clark Award.

Prior to becoming a journalist, Jaqueline dabbled in acting alongside her sister. In 1988, the two appeared as twin call girls in the David Cronenberg film, Dead Ringers. They also co-starred in a film written and co-directed by Jill entitled The Acting Class.  In 2008, Jacqueline was hired to narrate W Network’s and HGTV’s Love it or List it.

Jill Hennesy, however, appeared in several movies such as RoboCop 3, but she finally received recognition for her roles of first district attorney Claire Kincaid in the NBC crime drama Law & Order, and then as Jordan Cavanaugh on the TV show Crossing Jordan.   On June 9, 2007, she received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

For those who enjoy trivia, you will love this: One of Jacqueline’s most visible performances was uncredited. In 1995, Jill Hennessy, while filming Law & Order, made a couple of crossover appearances as Kincaid on another series, Homicide: Life on the Street. During the filming of one of these crossovers, the production schedules of both shows overlapped. As a result, Jacqueline was recruited to play Kincaid in some courtroom scenes filmed for the L&O episode “Corpus Delicti”, which aired in January 1996 — The two are so identical, viewers didn’t notice the switch!

As talented as Jill is as an actor, she is also a musician.  Jill plays the guitar and sings.  She has recorded an album, Ghost in My Head, released in June 2009. She also performed as a guest of the Indigo Girls on a November 2009 show of Mountain Stage.

In 2012, Jill played Agnes Leacock in the movie Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.  For this role, she was nominated by the Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.

So to Jill and Jacqueline, I wish you happy birthday!