Sissy chats with acting veteran Caitlin O'Heaney this Friday night LIVE on The Sissy Show!

NEW YORK - Aug. 28, 2014 - PRLog -- Caitlin O'Heaney is an American TV, film and stage actress and a proud member of Actor’s Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

O'Heaney has worked extensively in live theater, but is best known for playing Sarah Stickney White, the female lead on the ABC action-adventure series Tales of the Gold Monkey in the early 1980s. She also played the first Snow White Charming in the ABC sitcom The Charmings in 1987.

O'Heaney was born in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin of Irish, Polish, Prussian and German descent.  Her great-great-great-grandfather is Jacob Best, founder of what became the Pabst Brewing Company. To this day the logo of a Hop Leaf imprinted with the letter B can be found on each can and bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.  Frederick Pabst, his wife Dorothea Best and their sons were enthusiastic supporters of the Theatre.  Caitlin was surprised and pleased to discover that her family’s Pabst Grand Center; a Hotel, Restaurant  and Theatre located in 1913 in New York City at what is now Columbus Circle rented The Elk’s Room for $15 to a group of 100 or more disgruntled Actors for the purpose of forming a Union.  It was at this meeting on May 26, 1913 that Actor’s Equity was formed!

Caitlin won a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City when she was 17. Then known as Kathleen Heaney, she was a member of the Juilliard Drama Division's Group 3 (1970–1974) where she studied under Academy Award-winning actor John Houseman. Her performances at Juilliard included several classic roles, such as Masha in The Seagull; Doreen in Tartuffe; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Mary Boyle in Juno and the Paycock; Maryanne in Measure for Measure; and Esmeralda in Camino Real.

O'Heaney made her off-Broadway debut as Loretta in The Hot House at the Chelsea Theatre, then remained at Chelsea to play Finkel in Yentl and to understudy Tovah Feldshuh in the title role. She moved to Broadway to understudy the role of Elizabeth in A Matter of Gravity, starring Katharine Hepburn and co-starring her Juilliard friend and colleague Christopher Reeve.

Caitlin relocated to Seattle to appear as Celia in As You Like It, Gwendolyn in Travesties, and Eylie in Ladyhouse Blues at ACT/Seattle, then returned to New York to play the double roles of Belle and Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at Playwrights Horizon. When A Christmas Carol closed, O'Heaney moved to Los Angeles, and five weeks later was cast as Anna Marie Hollyhock in the 1978 ABC comedy series Apple Pie, produced by Norman Lear, directed by Peter Bonerz, and starring Rue McClanahan, Dabney Coleman, Jack Gilford, Mike Binder and Richard Libertini. This remains a highlight of her career. She says with regard to the experience, "It was pure magic and incredible fun working everyday with these wonderful people!"

Caitlin remained in Los Angeles to play fourteen-year-old Bianca in White Marriage at the Odyssey Theatre and won a Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress, plus The Los Angeles Times voted her portrayal “ the most memorable performance of 1979!”  She returned to the East Coast to star as Ersilla Drei in Pirandello's Naked directed by Arthur Storch at Syracuse Stage for which she received yet another rave review, this one from Syracuse New Times, “ Then we have Caitlin O’Heaney, the doomed, fluttering moth herself.  Lovely, graceful. manipulative,in simple costume, she moves with apparent ease through a complex range of passions until the final, lingering moment when all the falsehoods, deceptions and ratiocinations finally tumble down in the presence of death and bald truth.  In her final moments, O’Heaney personifies what the production has become—melodrama raised to the level of high art.”   Performances in Ape Watch at the Mark Taper Forum Lab and in The Brides at the Lenox Art Centre soon followed.

O'Heaney appeared in the television movie The Seeding of Sarah Burns in 1979 and as waitress Lurleen Hamett in ABC's One Life to Live. She played the female lead, Amy, in the horror feature He Knows You're Alone (1980), directed by Armand Mastroanni which was Tom Hanks' first feature film. In 1982, she was cast in the lead female role of Sarah Stickney White in ABC's Tales of the Gold Monkey, also starring Stephen Collins, Roddy McDowall and Jeff MacKay. After meeting Caitlin Woody Allen wrote the role of 1930's Hollywood actress Dolores Farrar for her in his 1982 film Zelig, and later, in 1985 Allen would write another role for her in The Purple Rose of Cairo , however being the creative genius that he is Woody Allen was constantly re-writing and editing even during filming and thus both roles ended up on the cutting room floor!.

She played Miss Farmer in the 1987 film Three O'Clock High, produced by Steven Spielberg.

Although she was active in television throughout the period, O'Heaney did not appear in any feature films for nearly two decades, then returned in 2002 as Mrs. Woodbridge in The Emperor's Club starring  Kevin Kline, Caitlin’s colleague and friend at Juilliard. She also played Aunt Fran in the 2005 film Brooklyn Lobster, and appeared in the 2007 independent feature Asylum Seekers. In June 2013 Caitlin wrapped the feature film Late Phases, a thriller directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano,  in which she played the role of Emma.  It is currently making its way around various Film Festivals with an anticipated release in October 2014.  Recently she wrapped the TV Visual Presentation of a  Christian Satire entitled “Revival”  portraying the role of Magdalena Miriam aka Minister Maggie. This was produced by Mark Rosenthal and written and directed by  Tyler Campellone and Harold Rosenthal.

Caitlin considers herself an Enviromental and Animal Rights Activist.  She is passionately committed to the Vegan Lifestyle and believes that adhering to this is the path to World Peace and Global Climate Health.  Her commitment to these led her to leave Hollywood and New York in November 1990 to sail for 4 months in The North Sea as an assistant cook and deckhand with GreenPeace, USA.   She still supports and works with GreenPeace.  On September 21, 2014 Caitlin will participate in the Peoples Climate March in New York City both as an activist and as an organizer for GreenPeace.

O'Heaney is involved with the Blue Horse Repertory Company and works with independent playwrights at Manhattan Theatre Source and the National Arts Club, both in New York City.

And now Ms O'Heaney will share her career with Sissy and her audience this coming Friday night LIVE at 7:30pm EST on MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Network) Channel 56 TWC Manhattan and on our website www.thesissygamacheshow.com