Kim Delaney 'loves Roxborough'
By: Mike Benigno 01/12/2005


The Emmy-awarded actress discusses her childhood memories of Our Town

She's Roxborough's finest.
Kim Delaney has acted in some of the most popular modern television
shows, and she's been in dozens of movies. But the path the actress
chose to walk on proved to have more twists than she said she ever
thought it would have.
Last week, Delaney spoke to The Review about where her acting career
has taken her.
The middle child and only girl surrounded by two younger brothers and
two older brothers, Delaney is the daughter of Jack and Joan Delaney,
and she grew up on a Roxborough street near Henry Ave. Her father
recently retired from his position as president of the United Auto
Workers union, and Delaney said her mother helped raise their five
children and held a city position for a time.
No member of her family had any experience in the acting field, and
while she was growing up she said she never had a tremendous desire
to be an actress.
Delaney attended Immaculate Heart of Mary School, and went on to
attend John W. Hallahan Girls' Catholic High School, where she was a
cheerleader and had an interest in modeling, but she said she was
never involved in any drama clubs or theater groups, or other school
activities.
"I was kind of quiet in high school," she said. "I didn't do much,
but I had a big family and hung out with them a lot."
"When I graduated, I really didn't know what to do," she said. "I
started modeling first in Philly, then and New York and would take
the train back and forth with a monthly ticket," she said. "I just
kind of did it," she said. "It was just like I came out of high
school and kept working."
In New York, she stayed at friends' apartments while taking modeling
jobs, until she found a place of her own about a year after
graduation.
"I was with Elite Agency, and one woman in a different department was
a talent agent. She wanted to get girls she thought could walk and
talk at the same time, and through her I started taking acting
classes. After that, I wanted to stay in acting, not modeling," she
said.
Her third audition was for Jenny Gardner on "All My Children," an ABC
soap opera filmed in New York, a role she went on to hold for three
years.
The role brought her to the daytime spotlight and led to a November
1982 cover story in Philadelphia Magazine, an accomplishment she
holds as one of her first major milestones.
In 1983, still in her early 20s, she received an Emmy Award
nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Daytime
Drama Series for her work.
"It was a great first job, and everyone wanted me to stay. The people
were great, the character was great, and I got a lot of attention,"
Delaney said. "Still to this day people come up to me and say 'You're
Jenny!'"
After leaving "All My Children," Delaney landed a movie role and was
soon on the road filming. She spent time in Los Angeles during the
production of several movies, but she said she never planned on
moving to California.
"I never actually said I was moving to L.A.," she said. "It just kind
of happened." Delaney said she was able to sublet apartments in New
York and Los Angeles at first.
"My parents were supportive. They didn't like me this far away, and
they still don't. But the come out here and I go out there a lot."
Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, Delaney starred in over 22 movies
and a number of television series roles before landing a four episode
stint on the hit primetime show "NYPD Blue," playing the part of a
recovering-alcoholic detective, Diane Russell. Her part was extended
into a regular character on the show sharing the screen with actor
Jimmy Smits, and Delaney said things snowballed from there.
She stayed with the show for a total of seven seasons, and in 1997
she was nominated for and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding
Supporting Actress in a Drama for her work.
Delaney remembers Emmy night as a surreal experience. "I was actually
in the front row, and I remembered I got up when they called my name -
it was a delayed reaction. Jimmy [Smits] was sitting next to me and
I just walked up without even hugging or kissing him. All my family
was at home and I called them the second I got backstage."
Since then, she's taken more movie and television roles, including
the short-lived 2001 mini-series "Philly," which brought her back to
her hometown for a while. "It was great," Delaney said. "There was so
much support, and people still love it and ask about it. It was a
great show, but it just didn't happen."
In 2003, she worked on the NBC mini-series "10.5," which she plans to
do a sequel to in the future. "I don't have a favorite kind of
character to play, but I just really enjoy the experience of acting.
When it's good it's great, when it's bad it's not so great."
Her biggest accomplishment: "My son," she said. Jack, 14, was born
from Delaney's second marriage, to actor Joe Cortese. "I like doing
TV because it keeps me in town. During the school year I get home
most of the time for dinner."
Delaney said her son hasn't considered acting just yet; for now she
said he's interested in the same things other 14-year-olds are
interested in. "Right now he's into sports, basketball, and football.
He doesn't really talk about this business that much, he doesn't even
pay attention," she said. "His friends might, but I'm a mom to him."
She recalls the Manayunk of yesterday - "little shops and
restaurants, but not the way things are now."
But she said her heart lies with Roxborough. "I love Roxborough," she
said. "When I go back now, everything's a little bit changed but
certain things are the same. There will always be cars sliding down
snowy hills in the wintertime."
"Whenever newspapers ask me where I'm from, I try to always tell them
Roxborough," Delaney said.
She said she recalls The Review, and said that her brothers had
newspaper routes at a time, but she could not recall whether he was a
Review carrier.
The last time she was in Roxborough was in the fall for her brother
Patrick's wedding shower, and back in Philadelphia last month for the
wedding. While her parents have since moved to Ventnor, N.J., Patrick
lives in a home on the same block that the Delaney children grew up
on.
"I didn't really pay attention to this industry growing up, but I've
been very fortunate and have been working for a long time and have
been lucky with the choices I've made," she said.
Kim is scheduled to appear in five upcoming episodes of the
series "The O.C.," which is in its second season on FOX Thursday
nights. "I play Rebecca Bloom, kind of the love of Sandy's [Peter
Gallagher's character] life." She said her episodes, which were
filmed in December, are scheduled to air at the end of January and
into February.
When asked whether she thought her character would be expanded into a
larger role, Delaney said she had no idea. "You never know," she said.
"I would live back East in a second," she said. "I love Philly, but I
can't move anywhere yet. My son's in school," she laughed. "Maybe
when he's in college."