Charlotte Ross

A petite blonde actress who proved her skills with television roles that played against her angelic girl-next-door good looks, Charlotte Ross first gained fame and a following as troubled bad girl Eve Donovan, a character she essayed on NBC's popular daytime drama "Days of Our Lives" from 1987-1991. Discovered while performing in a school musical in the eighth grade, the Illinois native soon signed with an agent and began doing commercial work. She trained on stage at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater, and made her film debut with a brief turn in 1986's "Touch and Go." The following year Ross began her run on "Days of Our Lives" as Eve, a doe-eyed, cherubic-looking teenage prostitute who descended on Salem in search of her biological parents. Even after she finds father Shane (Charles Shaughnessy), a wealthy James Bond-like international agent with a stable home life, the crafty Eve managed to find plenty of trouble for herself, and was involved in many a romantic entanglement. A subplot surrounding a nightclub offered the trained opera singer the chance to display her vocal range and a host of zany misadventures with Eve as the gleeful scoundrel kept audiences interested. Ross left the series in 1991 to pursue other work, but for years to come she would still be most recognized for her memorable turn as the unlikely looking villain.

Ross took on starring roles in TV-movies including NBC's "She Says She's Innocent" (1992) and guest stints on sitcoms, with parts in NBC's "Empty Nest" and Fox's "Married... With Children" and "Drexell's Class" in 1992. Later that year she returned to regular status, playing Hope on Fox's musical drama "The Heights." Here she could display her singing talents as well as her developing acting chops, and while the show was quickly cancelled, the hit song "How Do You Talk to An Angel?" did earn the band of actor/musicians a gold record. Ross next returned to the big screen with a remarkable but little-seen cameo as a woman on a heroin high in the thriller "Love and a .45" (1993), and she was also featured in the Canadian independent "Savage Land" and the US-French co-production "Foreign Student" (both 1994). 1994 also saw her give series television another shot, with a starring role on the CBS comedy "The Five Mrs. Buchanans." Here she departed from her frequent bad girl roles, playing the guileless Bree, the latest married-in addition to the Buchanan family. The series, following a group of four women tormented by their overbearing mother-in-law (Eileen Heckart) didn't last beyond its initial season despite the presence of a strong cast and many genuinely funny moments.

After guest starring in several well known series, Ross was cast as the female lead, replacing actress Kim Delaney, on NYPD Blue (in 2001). Despite Ross' physicality (being 5'4 and blond - traits for which she felt would be a visual hinderance) she excelled in the role of Detective Connie McDowell adding to her credits perhaps the best role of her career. Prior to landing her leading role, Ross was cast in the short-lived projects "Pauly" (Fox, 1997) "Trinity" (NBC, 1998), and remained a frequent presence on the small screen. She starred in the NBC TV-movies "A Kiss So Deadly" and "Fall into Darkness" in 1996, the former strangely pairing her romantically with her "Days of Our Lives" father Shaughnessy. She followed up with a turn as a hippie political activist in the period miniseries "A Will of Their Own" in 1998. 1999 saw her "Kidnapped in Paradise" as star of the USA Network TV-movie thriller, and she next acted in the quirky romantic comedy "Looking For Lola," which premiered on Showtime in lieu of theatrical release.

Showtime also hosted Ross' successful return to series work, a co-starring turn in the comedy/drama "Beggars and Choosers." She was cast as Lori Volpone, a Machiavellian VP of development for a struggling television network. The actress' manipulative, self-promoting character harkened back to her soap past. Older and wiser, with as many disappointments as victories under her belt, Ross used her own experience and increased acting skill to inform her performance, with lean and calculating sophisticate Lori playing like the unrefined, somewhat reckless Eve some years down the line.